Jo’s Christmas Pudding Marathon Run In Portsmouth
Jo Earlam took part in the 8th Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon on Sunday the 23rd of December making this her 10th this year and the 66th marathon in total.
A chilly and windy day greeted the competitors on the start line at the South Parade Pier, Portsmouth. The route takes the runners east along the seafront to Langston Harbour and then north along the edge of the estuary and onto the Farlington Marshes. It continues onto Hayling Island following the Hayling Billy Leisure Trail all the way to the Station Theatre. Then the runners turn around and retrace their footsteps back to Portsmouth. This is a flat multi terrain competition with some fantastic views across Langstone Harbour.
There were a few runners dressed in Rudolf or Santa costumes and a lot of Elves. Jo decided to run as the only Christmas Pudding. The outfit turned out to be problematic! The first malfunction with the costume required a pit stop after only 2.5 miles! Jo fixed the problem but lost a lot of time in the process! Then just before the turn-around point on a wind swept Hayling Island she lost the rear half! Ouch, pain-full thing to have happen and would perhaps have been a very draughty run back! Her time for this race was still a very respectable 5h37m35s.