First marathon of the year and 5th consecutive Brighton Marathon for me.  A race that although has had a large number of growing pains recently, it is still written in the Avery calendar every year.

Due to the questionable (in my eyes at least) corral allocation policy, Mrs A and I decided to go down to Brighton on the Friday to ensure that I would get a number in the red pen.  Registration was ridiculously easy, and after showing my email and ID, I went to the front of the queue to pick up my red backgrounded number - easy peasy!  We spent the rest of the Friday doing the “race” parts of the weekend: checking out the expo, speaking with some of the excellent pacers like my hill running friend Darren Hendley, and generally just enjoying the atmosphere that was slowly building on the South Coast.  The expo was ok, and everyone was friendly, but it just doesn’t feel the same since they moved it from the Brighton Exhibition Centre to on the beach.  Am I old fashioned, bit nostalgic or actually 100% right? I’ll let you decide.  I also made a point of signing up for the 2019 edition of the 2nd largest marathon in the UK at a price of £55, as I knew only the day after the race finished it would shoot up to £65.  Answers to why they raise the price on a back of a postcard please....

The Avery fan club of Michael Snr, Michael Jnr 1 & 2 and Mrs A (Dad, Harris, Lennon, Mrs A) all went down to Brighton on the Saturday to enjoy the family part of the weekend, and although we went to the aquarium, arcades and relaxing all cool, the seaside city was just pouring with an atmosphere of the huge marathon the next day.  I also bumped into my friend Danny O’Reilly, who was also pacing the 3:15:00 runners, and arranged a meet point with him in the morning.

Sunday morning arrived and Preston Park was HEAVING!  I first took part in this event in 2014, and it was nowhere near as busy as four years ago, so any “veterans” can see how quick this race has grown in stature.  The bag drop queue was ridiculously long, however after bundling my way through the commotion, I noticed this was only for the blue and yellow runners, but not the red.  I slalomed to the front of my empty line and dropped my bag off and made my way to the start line.

I met Danny at the start line and a small group of runners who were asking him about splits, miles, kms, balloons and other questions to do with pacing (I think) and after a few minutes we were away!

Danny was maintaining the miles perfectly, and holding his pace brilliantly.  The group we had formed since the early few miles was a pleasure to run with and we were racking up the miles.  Before we knew it, we were up and around the town centre and up towards the 9 mile mark.

We looked ahead and saw one of the new additions to the course: instead of looping round at the 9 mile mark, chucking a right at the roundabout and heading back towards the pier, we did a left and ran up a steep and long hill. Thanks race organisers!

After the climb and when we got into the mid-teen miles, our numbers were dwindling and it was left to Danny, our new friend James and I.  James and my legs were feeling a tad heavy, but due to some fantastic encouragement from Danny, we kept soldiering on and battled through the oncoming cramp.

We made our way around the evil Shoreham Power Station, which after five years never gets any easier, and it was at this point I thought I would lose my 3:15:00 friend.  I kept going for as long as I could but around the 23 mile mark Danny was starting to pull away from us.  I decided to let him go rather than try to overdo it, but just tried to make sure I could see him in my eyeline.

James and I continued for the last three miles and were encouraging each other to keep going.  If the other started slowing, we would speed up and get the crowd cheering for the one behind.  Around the 25 mile mark, James told me to keep going and I went off alone to finish the race.  The atmosphere was absolutely ELECTRIC and the Brighton crowd are amazing.  I saw the Avery Fan Club just by the pier which spurred me on massively and I finished the race star jumping, high fiving, jumping up to kick my heels and trying to get as many cheers as I could.

I crossed the finish line in a new PB of 3:16:42 and was ecstatic!  Danny was there waiting and gave me a big high five and only a minute or so later was James, who had taken a whooping 10 minutes off his PB.  We were the last three of our bigger group at the start of the day left and it was great we all finished within a minute or two of each other.

We collected our medal, which had the new British Airways tower on it this year, and got our bags.  The goody bag wasn’t as good as previous years, as the finisher t-shirts had been replaced by “Competitor” starts at the Expo, and there was only a handful of bits including a razor.  The non-alcoholic beer was a nice touch and went down an absolute treat.  We made our way back into the Expo where I met the Fan Club and got big hugs and congratulations from all.

Conclusion: this year’s marathon was certainly better than last and was great running with pacers for a second year in a row.  The goody bag could’ve been better and that added hill wasn’t nice, but I really enjoyed this year’s race and can’t wait until 2019.