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About 6 months ago I asked for some marathon training advice, and got some good pointers. I had run a marathon before but that was 20 years ago when I was young and fit and 2 stone lighter, so to all intents and purposes this was like a first marathon. In the interim I hadn’t done any running at all really, but started a bit of jogging when we got our dog about 18months ago.
So I started training, it’s been hard work, I’ve had a dose of plantar’, I’ve struggled with really tight Achilles the whole time, had some hip pain and found out I had previously broken my pelvis without knowing it. I had to take most of a month out whilst we were on holiday (I managed a few treadmill runs but that’s all) and about 8 weeks ago pulled my hamstring. But in the last weeks things were coming together, I was feeling 'floaty' on my last few tempo runs and a recent half-marathon had indicated I was on schedule for my 3:15 target.
On Friday I got a sore throat, and by Saturday morning it was full blown man flu, head ache, sweats, runny nose and gravel throat. I stayed in bed all day, drank my own body weight in fruit juice, ate chicken soup and took enough Sudofed to start up a meth lab. When the alarm went off on Sunday morning I was feeling a bit less rubbish, so ate my porridge and headed off to downtown Eindhoven. The weather was awful; it was chucking it down with a strong gusty wind.
I got to the start line cowering under my bin bag and waited for the gun. I’d already made the decision that due to being ill I was going to run slower than planned so set off in a Sudafed and Lemsip induced haze with the 3:30 group. It was all pretty uneventful really, I kept around the 3:30 group except for a few ill-timed attempts to break away just as we hit the headwind sections and then on the 32k mark where I felt OK to push on and finished pretty strongly in 3:27, even raising a comedy sprint with a work colleague for what must have been about 1000th place. I’m a bit disappointed not making my goal time, but all things considered it was OK.
This morning I feel like I’ve been run over by a bus though and I’m hoping that I will be able to walk down the stairs forwards by Wednesday.
Rotterdam up next in the spring and aiming for a big improvement.
Oh and for the ‘gait nerds’ midfoot striker, Brooks ST5 shoes, one tiny blister.
Thats a cracking time fella (ignoring all the issues) well done.
On the downside youll prob feel worse tomorrow! 😀
Did Chester last weekend and running Snowdonia a week on saturday.
What did you do at Chester? I was at the 24 mile water station handing out drinks and Gels just at the base of the short climb.
2.58.34 Delighted with that. Felt great and sat with the 3hr pacer to about 20 miles when they eased back as the hills started.
That hill at 24-25 was my only low point, i panicked and pushed on for last mile or so.
My first sub 3. 🙂
Well done
Well done +1
I'm deeply jealous of your time. Even with perfect training I still haven't been able to crack 4 hours.
Well done.
Well done, sub 3 is the target for next year 🙂
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Mogrim, my long term goal is to try and go sub 3, I see that as one of the milestone marks. I'm hoping to get a proper winter in, run a few cross country races and get a pasting in those! Then make a full on effort for Rotterdam. I'm going to gradually up my running over winter and drop a couple of bike rides, hopefully stay clear of injuries and see how things go.
Nosemineb: good work on the <3hrs, you should be proud.