Thanks Bruce for posting the up-date for me.
The White Nights marathon is one that I would recommend to anyone who wants an amazing experience in a small marathon. There were less than 2000 participants (including less than 200 women) and we were all treated very well.
Cost (excluding the cost of getting there) — 25 euro - this included the entry, a tee-shirt, a medal, bottles of water ever 4-5k; on-course food (dried and fresh fruit and salty bread)from 10k onwards, a pasta pre-race meal, and a presentation ceremony the evening after the run.
The course was very flat (after all St Petersburgh is built on a swamp), it wound its way around many of the major historical and scenic points of interest as well as into leafy suburbs. We crossed several bridges across the river Neva and across a number of the other, smaller rivers. Even when i was running on my own I had no concerns about going off-track because all I had to do was follow the blue line (as per the Olympic Games tradition).
Unusual features - before the marathon for runners they started two other marathons - one for roller bladers, and another for people on land-skis.
The weather was the toughest part for me - I had not anticipated the extremely high humidity (95%) associated with 22
o temperature which felt like about 30
The highlights 1. the start and finish of the race was in the fore-court of the Hermitage and the finishing chute was lined with 40 national flags representing the countries that participants came from. It brought more than one tear to my eye to be standing in Russia, in St. Petersburg, and knowing that the Australian flag was flying in the Hermitage fore-court for me.
2. Before the race many people from different countries came up and asked to have their photo taken with me (probably thanks to the Aussie singlet courtesy of Digger).
3. The number of volunteers, police and others, all ensuring that we were well looked after in every way possible.
The low-lights - none - except some disappointment in my time and the fact that I didn't set my garmin properly
My running experience started of very comfortably and easily, however before I even got to 10k I had pain in my ITBs (probably due to the very hard surfaces in that part of the
course) and by 12k I knew it was going to be a less than happy result. By about 15k the humidity/heat was causing me some distress and the thought of previous bad experiences with high blood pressure, associated with the knowledge that I was a long way from home (in the sense of needing medical care), lead to me deciding to walk for a couple of ks and just enjoy the scenery. Once I got running again I felt OK, especially as the section we were in was through parkland with plenty of shade. As I progressed into the mid 20ks the temperature dropped a bit which meant that the humidity turned to rain which was, for me, much more comfortable. For the next 15k we then had the unusual experience of having a steam-bath for the legs (from the evaporation off the hot road) at the same time as a cooling shower on the head and upper-body. The steam-bath took away any residual pain in my legs, and the rain and scenery helped clear my head. All of which meant that I actually enjoyed the last 10ks.
My time - I was hoping to complete the run in 5 hours, or maybe a little bit less. In the end I was happy to finish in 5.26.18
Immediately after - as I passed though the finishing chute one of the organisers greeted me with 'We hope you will come back again' - and even at that point I agreed with him!
Edited by Pink Lady, 11 July 2011 - 01:55 PM.
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