Darren asked me to write this weeks ago and I was very keen to do a race report for this one, in its first year and not too far away from us in Hull – (I think it took me 2.5 hours from Burton Constable) I would highly recommend it.

I entered this one a bit last minute, an excellent bit of organisation from me meant I was all set to do the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) on that weekend, but realised, with a few days to go that it was in October, not September! So with the wife in London, I went to my most visited site (the 100 marathon club marathon list http://www.100marathonclub.org.uk/new/events/uk_marathon_list.shtml) and found a marathon that wasn’t fully booked.

£38 to enter wasn’t the cheapest but it looked nice, so off I went. After an easy drive down for a 10 o clock start, the tight Yorkshireman in me was upset at having to pay £6 for the pleasure of parking there for 4 hours! But anyway, on arrival it was obviously quite a low key event, just one tent there and a big start / finish balloon, I collected my number and sat in the car listening to Ellie Goulding in the Live Lounge – not a fan! So instead I went to take some pictures of lovely Rutland Water.

We started slightly late at 5 past 10, there was a half marathon starting at the same time and following much of the same route. So there was maybe 300 runners in total.

The scenery all the way round was brilliant, we went over a dam and followed the lake past the church in the first picture, before turning round and going back past the start and on to the peninsular for miles 15 to 19. It was pretty much all gravelly trails under foot but dry and well maintained with a short section of main road (A606) between miles 12 and 13 and 21 and 22. It wasn’t as flat I’d expected to say we were running around a lake! It was undulating with a couple of short steep hills – I have put my strava graph on for you to see!

Surprisingly, despite trying to rest before Yorkshire marathon two weeks later I found myself leading from start to finish and won with a time of 3 hours 10 minutes with the second place man 15 minutes behind. First lady finished in 3 hours 32 minutes. So half (if not all) of the mighty harriers would have won this one! I collected my prize (a photo with the race organiser!) and ate my weight in novelty butterfly gingerbread biscuits!

This was a lovely picturesque, friendly and well run marathon I’d wholeheartedly recommend giving it a go next year – I’ll be there to defend my crown J