I've been looking forward to this race for a very long time. It's been decades since Leeds has had a road marathon and it really is something that the city has been missing. The Run For All Team, along with the MND Association, Rob Burrow, Kevin Sinfield and many more people behind the scenes have worked incredibly hard to bring this marathon to Leeds.
Northern Pacing Volunteers were asked to provide pacers for the race and so I put my hat in the ring and agreed to pace. It was never going to be an easy marathon to pace. Most road marathons are relatively flat... Sometimes a slow or fast mile here and there, but the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon was something else entirely! Undulating right from the start with a 3 mile hill at mile 17... it was always going to be hard. But the things that are worth doing are rarely easy, so we had many discussions, route recces, and sleepless nights trying to figure out where we could bank enough seconds to be able to slow the pace enough on the hills in the hope that we could keep runners with us and help them get round.
The day was so much hotter than we thought it would be... Just a week beforehand the forecast had been for rain and thunderstorms all day! It just goes to show that you can always trust the great British weather to keep you on your toes! A misty morning gave way to bright sunshine. The start was delayed due to issues with bag drop (runners were still queuing at bag drop at 9am as the race was due to start). The race got underway at 9:15am although it took a further 30 minutes or so to get all of the runners across the start line. There were a few issues with the half marathon clashing with the marathon (simple timing issues which I hope can be sorted for next year). But absolutely nothing could take away from the way that Leeds showed up to support this marathon.
The streets were lined and the noise was incredible. The atmosphere rivalled the London Marathon and it blew all of us runners away to see how many people had come to support us on our marathon journey.
A high percentage of runners were completing their first ever marathon which added to the excitement. And of course the fact that Kevin Sinfield was pushing his mate, Rob Burrow, around the course was something that touched all of our hearts. An incredible amount of money was raised for extremely worthy causes, and I'm sure I can speak for all of the runners on the day when I say that this is a day we will never forget.
I hope the atmosphere comes across in this video as this really was a very special race. Oh... and the icing on the cake was that my official time was 5:00:00 which I don't think I could do again if I tried! Not bad to be bang on pace to the second, on reflection I am really pretty pleased with that! Congratulations to every finisher, those that couldn't finish are in my thoughts and huge thank you to everyone that made this marathon what it was. Every cheer, every motivational sign, every jelly baby or orange slice handed out, every volunteer marshal or water station volunteer, every hose pipe shower on route... thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. You have done Leeds proud and we are ever so grateful.
Happy running,
Nicola :)