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Leicester City Marathon
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holly
where were you?
3:20:06 for me which is a PB and gives me a Boston qualifying time. So close to getting under 3.20 - I'm never happy.
I was going great guns up to 15/16 miles though I was easily on for a 3:15 GFA. went through 13 miles in 1:35 but the last 13 was 1:45 .Seems like a similar thing happened to a lot that I spoke to. Those hills, whilst non were killers, just seemed to sap. By 16miles my pace really droped when I was expecting it to quicken with the flatter route. Not sure if I went off too fast or if it was just the nature of the course. Never mind
That was tough!!! The hills were a bit of a nasty surprise, definitely felt quite undulating... but agree with everyone that it was very well organised and really fantastic marshalls.
Lovely to meet Mick and Phil, and huge thanks Mick for your words of wisdom on calming myself at the beginning, it did really help. Running a marathon is such a mental battle that you were right, you simply must have confidence in yourself at the beginning or you have no chance.
I got round in 4.11 which is the slowest of the 3 I've done now but I'm not complaining at all, I'm really happy with that, especially as I suffered so much in the last few miles. Happy and proud (and exhausted and sleepy!) that I got round. Wahoo!!
Well done everyone who ran, sounds like there were some really good times. No clock at the end was a bit strange I thought - felt v sorry for Susan whose silly Garmin broke so early on and after her pacers (myself and Martin) fell back it meant she had no idea for quite some time if she got her sub-4! I knew you would though, WELL DONE again, you were on top form today!
Plodding Hippo - nice to meet you too, although I realise I didn't actually introduce myself (doh!) - I was chatting to you whilst sitting on the stairs inside before the beginning for a bit.
Congratulations to the lot of you, and double congratulations to anyone who ran a PB.
Most of all I hope that you enjoyed yourself.
I'm quite twitchily annoyed that I chose to target next weekend, as there was certainly no wind today, and the temp was near perfect as far as I could tell.
Slow Jacks, didn't realise you hung around RW forums
Was good to meet you both too. Well ran today and I hope your hamstrings are feeling better.
It wasn't your fault you got the better deal!
To be honest it didn't matter at all about the prize, I was more perturbed thinking that the times given at the presentation were chip times and that I hadn't sneaked in under 3:20. I'm happy now that the results confirm otherwise.
The apartment we're renting is in the centre of Llanberis. Is the party in Llanberis? - I've not checked the website lately. Probably a silly question, but have you checked for BB availability closer to Llanberis - the peeps over on Snowdonia thread may have some info. I'm not sure how far away Caernarfon is from Llanberis, but I don't think it's that close. Let me know what you're doing - I'll pop onto the Snowdonia thread. You can mail me if you like.
Well done MicknPhil - I really don't know how you do it. Was nice to see you both
Birmingham Owl - We must have brushed shoulders a few times today - I finished just ahead of you. Well done btw.
I am not a numbers person
been here too ling now
well done all
I managed 3.09.20, a new PB by over 10 minutes.
As others have said the organisation was excellent and the marshalls were brilliant too. A big thumbs up to Bob and everyone involved. All in all, a very good day out. A killer last mile though. Only gripe - poor medal (no engraving or nothing on it).
Flat? No, undulating.....YES....but what goes up must come done as Mick 'n' Phil says.
Had LP alongside between miles 9 and 10, sorry for not saying "Hi". I may have the odd chat with Forumites but didn't know who was who. I was in black shorts and vest with orange running shoes (still with my red laces from FLM).
Only got a gel at the 16 mile(ish) point. Didn't see any more being handed out. Was there more?
Well done to everyone who ran.
Mick 'n' Phil - Respect to you guys.
Well done all!
I managed a pb (as it was my first marathon) of 3 hours 32 mins so I'm rather pleased!! Birmingham Owl - you weren't in a yellow skull&crossbones vest were you?
The course wasn't flat (although by Sheffield standards, it wasn't hilly) - and I enjoyed the change of pace etc required...But the COBBLES. What, are they trying to be London or something? They hurt and I was on target for 3.30 until the last couple of miles...Ow.
Great race though - I had a fab time, and really didn't think I'd be saying that for my first marathon
And the t-shirt is, like, almost wearable...blimey.
how is everyone this morning?
Am feeling a lot better than after my previous marathons aches and pains wise. It is really jsut my right hip which hurts so I am slow walking, I can even go up and down stairs normally (but a bit slow) so am quite pleased.
Now, am I better off today sitting in my chair most of the time or should I keep getting up and walking around even though it is a bit painful?
Hi to all leicester marathon runners, but especially Nick (Westwood i think from results) who helped me through the last mile, i definately wanted to give up (that last hill was the final straw) but he just wouldn't let me, and even offered to carry my bag! Hope i didn't slow you down much!
This was my second marathon (first was Windermere) and i picked this because it was supposed to be flat (definately not flat!!!!) but what i love about marathons is the support and encouragement from all the other runners which you don't really get in shorter races were most people are looking after number one.
Marshalls, supporters and organisation was excellant , sorry i didn't smile more but i was knackered. I'll forgive the hills because of this!
After both marathons have said never again, but then you start to think "what if i do this or try that maybe i can do it quicker!" Have set myself probably very unrealistic target time 3hr30!! ye right! But have worked out need to do another 4 with same increase in time to crack this. Think i've gone MAD!
Well done to all.
Long report... (yawn - sorry!)
Did my best to get lost in Leicester before the start - how was I to know there were two universities?
Queue for the car park was horrid - but I managed to find a short cut
Got changed and ready for the start, but then made beeline for the toilet instead... rushed out of the loo a minute late for the start... but then heard them announce that the start was 5 minutes delayed - so went back into the loo again.
Miles 1->5 Started right at the back... slowly made my way forwards... helped by the mass of half marathoners and the downhill first mile. My legs felt really knackered - paying the price for a sprint BPTT finish on Saturday?
Miles 6->10 The hills were continual... The downhills especially hurt my left ankle (some leftover niggles from 2 weeks ago). Managed to get a few conversations in... was just starting to chat to a nice young DiabetesUK lady when I got a shout from behind - something about Hollywood, the pirates and sexual practices.... then ensued some typical "I've done two long runs but thought it might be fun" pirate banter - Bassy is definitely good pirate fodder... strangley the DiabetesUK lady never spoke to me again...
Miles 11->20 Mentally picked up the pace and pushed through the hills... never overtaken always overtaking. Had my first ever gel (something new for race day) at 17 miles and came oh so close to throwing it straight back up. Ran past the National Space Center - well cool
Still overtaking... lots of people suffering... The legs still felt tired - but actually not much worse than they had at the start.
Miles 21->23 Worked out that 200 minutes was not going to happen. Push on to see what can happen. Still overtaking...Really horrid hill just before 22 miles. For the first time today I noticed I was really out of breath. Save it for the last 5km. Save it for the last 5km. Repeat.
Miles 24->26.2 5km was now too far to think about - take it one mile at a time and one runner at a time. The undulations continued. The overtaking continued. The course organisers thought they'd throw in a good stretch of cobbles... then the high street... then mile 26 was a long gradual uphill drag... Still overtaking... Then downhill to the finish - yippee... legs faster... run... sprint... turn left... bu88er - it's 50m uphill to the finish... pose for the camera... stop the watch... and relax...
Garmin splits were:
7.44,7.40,7.43,8.12,7.45,7.26,7.59,7.57,7.41,7.54,8.06,7.37,7.17,
8.24,8.00,7.37,7.52,8.07,7.56,7.49,7.38,8.03,7.36,7.44,7.53,8.07,1.37
Garmin also says total ascent/descent around 500m and shows it rolling the whole way (but I'm sure there was a good long flat stretch along those towpaths?)
All the fast and slow miles corresponded to hills so I'm not unhappy with the evenness - splits overall were 2 minutes positive - not really sure why... PB - 3:25:35 (ish).
Hi all, yes I did a pb by 52 seconds-3'08'45. Lovely but Hippo beat her pb by rather more than that.
Had a few problems as well getting to the car park but I managed to park alright and get to the start in good time. Everything went well, but I did find it a bit tricky to keep a steardy rythym with all teh twists and turns. And I ran into a surprise alsation in the park as it crossed in front of me. Pushed the poor thing out of the way, good job it wasn't a poodle or it would have gone flying.
Next stop Snowdonia.
UH
Ah, now i see how you got your PB....... you were chased for 26.2 miles by a rather hungry alsation !
See you at Snowdonia, will you be 'racing' there, or just 'chilling out' as its your 1ooth
well done Hippo, sub 5 for you soon i hope !
BunnyPhobia - that sounds more like my dress sense.... hope I didn't do anything too unspeakable
jeez huge respect to anyone who got a pb yesterday.- it was a pig of a course.- For me, it wasn't the hills really it was all the sudden changes of direction.
My heart did go out to Mick at the bottom of some of them though.- the thought of running up was enough.- but pushing!=
Thanks for the support from those of you who overtook my struggling glow of red in the closing miles.- I didn't have my head in the right place at the time to benefit- but it was appreciated.
Dunno what went wrong really.- it just hurt and I couldn't make my head believe that it wouldn't actually hurt any more to go at the pace I'd planned to.= {sigh} my breathing could cope, but I just couldn't make myself try any harder.- Still.- I'm pretty sore today, so I guess i did work.
Congrats to everyone.- Next stop IM nice ( well actually, it's FLM, but right now I'm not exactly thrilled about that as a plan).
(Official time 3:23:?? - goal time 3:03.- Worst case scenario plan 3:15 )-:
Sean .....Thankyou
this was just 4 weeks after RH, now it's a 6 week wait for Luton, with just HM's until then
that's good as i'll need those 6 weeks to recover
But my hunger for the enjoyment of our sport is still there !
i'm just a wee bit slower now... it's been 5 1/2 years pushing Phillip, he's very heavy, and i'm older
so, we plod on and do best we can
i have NO regretts
LP, my stats are even worse than yours.
official time 4.38,
goal time a couple of months ago when trianing good 4.15
goal time on morning of race 4.22 (10/mile)
worse case scenario 4.30
I too had trouble with dogs, most annoying, why cant owners keep them on leads, the owner prob know that the dogs are jsut being friendly and wont hurt us but we dont know that.
Ultra Minnie, I think we over took each other a number of times from Cropston reservoir onwards. I had on a red and black Sparkhill Harriers vest. You pulled away a little on part of the canal stretch and I followed behind you all the way in - At least I assume that was you from the time.
I never understood what the fuss was about when they ran over cobbles at london. Now I know. It hurts like hell
On a practical note, this is the best tshirt I've had in ages (not saying much mind)
I like the medal too. Just a shame there is nothing on it.
Mick are you doing Stroud Half next Sunday?
Thanks Lp
i can tell you all ...
the MIGHTY BIG question is...
Would we do it all over again... Answer, of course we would, without ANY hesitation at all
Nice to meet you again M&P, hope you had a good one.
Lp, it was fun following that red mop for the first 7 miles.
It just got further in the distance then out of site. I think your 3.23 time seems quite good as you looked to be really struggling at 22 miles - shows a lot of determination.
M&P, how does the Luton couse compare to this? When the pain wears off I might squeeze one in before the end of the year. I feel I did something wrong in my running yesterday but I'm not quite sure what it was.