August 21st 2010
Just back from taking a small group of customers and their amputee challenged athletes to the Reykjavik Marathon. A choice of full marathon, half or a 10k was on offer, I opted for the half with colleague and Wilmslow Running Club hopeful Claire, double amputee Rich Whitehead, current Paralympic Marathon and Half Marathon World Record holder, and keen club runner single amputee Andrew Palmer.
Reykjavik doesn't stop at the weekend, less so when it is also the annual Festival of Culture, which somehow manages to fit yet more action, noise and 'culture' into any given 24hr period from Thursday through to Sunday than normal. This and shared downtown apartments didn't make for ideal preparation to the early Saturday morning start.
A simply stunning still blue skied morning had Rich Whitehead finishing 5th with a training run pace 'steady' 1.19.17, as he put it. For the first 7 miles I was busy taking photo's, before settling down to business. A sprint finish and I just pipped Andrew who was complaining with an Achilles problem…his prosthetics were fine! I was satisfied with 1.34, 86th out of 1258 half marathon finishers. It was all firsts and pb's for the remainder of our group in the 10k and full marathon, most not having run these distances before. An adventure for everyone.
A beautiful course, flat and on a kind day, good for a pb. But planning on good weather in Iceland is a risk. It was horizontal rain that same afternoon. An enthisiastic crowd and breathtaking scenary lined the route. Just don't expect to come home rested, irrespective of whether you run the race or not.
http://www.marathon.is/reykjavik-marathon
Richard Hirons
Was there any head butt chuff involved?