Manchester was my first Marathon and what an experience it was. There was a really good build up to the race with plenty of communications and good social media chatter.

Weather on the day was perfect, overcast and low teens. It had rained the day before so I was getting worried that marathon day could be a bit wet. Don’t mind a little bit of rain but didn’t fancy 26.2 miles wet!

On race day I managed to get a taxi as close as I could to the start. Roads are closed off early and parking is tricky. There are trams that take you to Old Trafford which may well be easier than driving.

It was nice to have race village at old Trafford cricket ground (big cricket fan) and bag drop was quick and efficient, I believe it got busy close to the start, but I guess that is to be expected of a race of this size. It would have been nice if OT had opened the toilets in the ground before the race but their was enough portaloos in the village.

The other toilets near the start were in one of the later pens. I wasn’t a fan of this as if you were a later starter you would have to run through queues of people (there were still people queuing for toilets as the race started) In my opinion they could have moved these back closer to old Trafford football ground where there was more space.

Pre-race there was a racecheck meetup, was nice to see a couple of familiar faces and meet a few new people. I believe Manchester marathon is pretty popular for UKRunchat and racecheck members and I was looking forward to the tweetup after the race!

I won’t go into the race mile by mile but the course was fairly flat with a bit of an uphill section in Altrincham. The crowd were amazing and cheered me around the whole way, it was only around mile 20 where the crowds thinned for a little while. Luckily, I had bumped into someone I knew so I was chatting then so didn’t really notice!

The last 10k was new territory for me, having never gone past 20 miles before. With gritted teeth I pushed on to the end without stopping and I have to thank the Manchester crowd for pushing me on right to the end. The finishing straight is long and you can see the finish line from a long way away. Whilst it felt tough getting there, the feeling was amazing. Knowing I was about to complete my first marathon was unbelievable.

Once finished I picked up my medal and t-shirt and staggered my way into the race village. A few free samples and quickly picked up my bag without having to wait. There was also free alcohol free beer (not a huge fan) on offer at the end.

It was an amazing day and a great achievement. I cant wait to do it again next year!