The Limassol Marathon, Cyprus, 14.04.2024

Best weekend! My first time to Cyprus, and I loved it. The marathon was on my birthday, Sunday, so we travelled out on Friday and arrived in the afternoon to the hotel (Crowne Plaza, Limassol). 

Straight away, we had a dip in the outdoor pool (chilly!) then headed over to registration (which was out of town) to collect our running numbers. 

From here, we walked back, stopping along the way at the Marina for some amazing food!

Saturday was given over to exploring. With the marathon registration, you got free bus travel over the weekend, which was great, and we travelled on the #30 bus up to the Amathous ruins, which are around 3500 years old. We spent the morning walking around and marvelling at the magic of the ruins in the sunshine. 

 

 

After a spot of lunch (with some motivational drinks) and a nice walk....

 

...the rest of the afternoon was dedicated to trying to acclimatise to the heat in the sauna and steam room, as I had noticed from walking around, that the temperature appeared to be around 20oC higher than it was at home.

On Sunday, the marathon started at 07:30, so it was an early start (up at 04:30, but really it felt like 02:30 with the time difference). 

Walked the couple of miles along to the start in the Molos Park, and saw the sunrise on the way. 

Then bumped into Karl at the start which was a nice surprise!

There were around 800 people doing the marathon, but over the weekend there was other events going on too; 5km, 10km, children's races and a half marathon, so there were around 17000 participants altogether, which made for a great atmosphere.

The marathon route itself was a coastal route, the first 10km or so going west towards the docks, reaching a tree lined road which was nice and shady and filled with the fragrance of the flowers and trees. Then it turned round, all the way back past the start and all along to a little way past the Amathous ruins (that we'd visited the day before), before turning back westwards for about 7 miles to the finish. Apart from a mile or so on the tree lined road, there was no shade at all and it was HOT, HOT, HOT! I wilted quite badly towards the end, and my pace graph is hilarious and can be pasted straight into a text book as a perfect example of exactly how not to pace a marathon. But I manged to hold on to finish in 3:56, which was my 40th sub-4 marathon finish on my 40th birthday. This is completely irrelevant and not even a "thing", but it did cheer me up a bit about turning 40. 

 

 

Afterwards, we relaxed with sorbets to cool off, then more nice food and drinks to celebrate.

 

 

 

Later on, Andrew also proposed, so that cheered up even more, and it was altogether a memorable birthday and weekend altogether, and I love Cyprus forever!