Isle of Wight Marathon
20th May 2000

What a contrast to the London Marathon this was! Only 350 competitors entered, as opposed to 35,000 in the London Marathon.

Running along busy roadside gutters didn't help, as well as there being hardly any flat sections to the marathon at all. I knew it wasn't going to be my day when Timo, another ex-UEAer gave me the low down on the race and said it was judged to be one of the three most difficult marathons in the UK!

In this case my ignorance was not bliss in fact it hurt liked hell and wasn't fun in any sense (as you can see from the before and after pictures!) - apart from providing a source of amusement to Timo, Dave and Elaine!

Claim to fame: I was in third place after the second circle around Ryde fishing lake... after that it went all downhill (unlike the course)! My finishing time was 3hrs 43mins, and £100 was raised for the Children's Society.

Lessons learnt: having a banana milkshake five minutes prior a marathon is not recommended; and always check out the terrain before you register!



Guy Bashford