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Good luck to the Birmingham 3 this weekend - 8:30 start - ugh!
Had I known it was an 8.30 start I might have thought otherwise about entering!! Taxi booked for 7am! Ah right, i'm with you.
Muddy, my 13 at mp was at the Robin Hood on the same day.
Trying to identify the sub 3 pacer for sunday having heard that the sub 3 at York on Sunday fell apart and was walking by mile 22. Just want to check his/her credentials out as i've invested a lot of time in this.
Afternoon.
Mr V - that's bit a bit of a pain Mr V but as others have said sounds like the right thing to do, no point soldiering on and doing more damage.
Skinny - good luck with the 3 runs this week. Hopefully with a patient build up you can get to London in good shape. And yes, plan is to just enjoy running and build up a bit of a base ahead of Edinburgh marathon training next spring.
Lit - that sounds like a pretty decent HM time in what I think were pretty grotty conditions?
DT - fingers crossed you stay germ free this week. My mate ran the York marathon on Sunday in 3:02.xx (target time 3:05-3:10!) and overtook the 3 hour pacer just after he pulled up, apparently there were quite a few disgruntled people around.
Muddy/Richard - good luck for the half on Sunday.
Doing some more jogging about this week ahead of the first XC of the season on Saturday afternoon although I'm going to the beer festival on Friday evening so it might not be my finest xc performance ever.
My mate, Andy ran it in 3.00.34 and said in his race report that the 3 hour pacer, despite starting about 20 rows back from him in the pen, cruised past him at 2 miles and by half way (1.29.5x for Andy) the pacer was a good 90 seconds ahead. He and the group he was running with concluded he was planning to bank time but at a suicidal pace for those on the cusp of sub 3. They didn't consider he might fall apart.
Good luck in the xc on the weekend. I don't think it will be classic xc weather.
Apart from inconsistent pacing, I think if you get to 20 on target then I expect most people will start to do their own thing from there so probably not too disastrous.
good luck to the weekend’s racers. I’m hoping to spectate in Birmingham so might see some of you.
Good decision, Mr V. Hope the injury clears up soon.
I just cannot envisage running a marathon, let alone 43 miles, so huge congratulations, lou.
I ran to Battersea Park and back on Sunday (not starting from Wigan!). This took me almost two hours and that's more time than I would ever want to spend racing. It also explains why I didn't notice lit waving. But hi, lit, anyway.
Also hi, Skinny. Good to hear from you. I'd begun to fear that no news was bad news so am pleased you are making progress on your comeback. I'd definitely try to join a thread outing to Lancaster. Let's do it! (But I'm in Cornwall on Lancaster Half/Abbey Dash weekend).
Hi Pete - I think Calder Vale may be a fair target for my comeback race but I can't imagine venturing anywhere for a race much before then.
i'm in London this weekend to see my nephew in a show but think I will leave the run till I get back.
Table updates are a bit more of a chore than they used to be as I am blocked from this site at work now so I actually have to invest some of my own unpaid time! What is the world coming to?
Is the course different this year? It finishes at Aston university or close by. I went to university there so it will be good to see the old place.
Im in the orange zone Muddy. So hopefully will see you all there.
I did Perkins half marathon in Peterborough last weekend. 1:39 on the watch, ran at HMpace plus 15 seconds a mile. But weather looks hot for Sunday so may struggle to get 1:35
well done Lou on the 43 miles. They are fun once you get over half way!
Good luck DT for Sunday.
Skinny, well done on the mileage. You need to advise your employers of your other responsibilities! If only The Dan were still here...
Well done on the prize, Lit.
Good luck sunday, Muddy and Rich. It certainly looks set to be warm for a 1pm start! I am personally furious with this weather system, though with the 8.30 start I should miss it.
Rich, the course is different in various places, including the big hill at mile 11 not being there.
There have been a lot of angry posts on the marathon facebook pace. The first problem was that there is no 5hr pacer. As of Wednesday there was no 3 hour pacer either, which I pointed out. They then confirmed there would be free massages after the event but the slots you could book were 11.30, 12.30 and 1.30. Now with the 4 hour plus runners starting at 9.30 you can see the issue. They then advised no lucazade on course just gu gels. Then they released the t'shirt which was designed by a local art student. Apparently that's shit. Then they announced that a local station would be broadcasting the event live from 11-1pm. Of course (despite the fact that elites will have finished by then) everyone moaned about the fact it would concentrate on the elite and fast runners not the 'real people that make the marathon, doing all the hardwork and raising the money'.
That final comment almost pushed me over the edge. This may appear controversial but why do some slower runners feel that every event is all about them. I wonder if this is part of the all inclusivity that parkrun promotes and largely makes the slower runners the real focus.
Anyway, I need to stop reading it....carb loading is otherwise ticking along and the numbers being hit and ive averaged nearly 8.5 hours sleep a night this week!
19.2 hilly km for me today. Had to squeeze my lsr in early because I'm off to Nottingham for the weekend: the mighty, mighty Tontos are playing at Oxjam Beeston. If anyone's in the area, we are on in the White Lion at 11pm. Hope I manage to stay awake until the end of our set! https://oxjambeeston.org/venue/white-lion-bar-kitchen/
Good luck with the maranoia DT and good luck with gig Pete.
I'll keep an eye out for you Lou. By the way I had some news that the warks worcs joint counties cross country will be up at the woods near me again in early January.
Congratulations on the team prize Lit.
Glad the 8 miler went well Skinny.
met up with muddy afterwards who was then doing the half. He showed me the results of top 15, which laregely demonstrated a similar fade to me. Came 108th out of probably 8000 plus and last 4 miles were very quiet.
Very disappointed but I'll get over it.
I had a visit to the medical tent at 4.5miles. I have had a cold for the past two days and was suffering. Around 15-20 minutes of inspections and I was ready to try again, at a more sensible pace. Finished in 2:01, which is my slowest half marathon time ever.
Saw Muddy at around 10 miles. He looked comfortable and that would have been after an hours running.
Sounds like a troubled run Richard. Glad you made it round. I had a poor race but good training run I suppose. I felt listless and couldn't find anything like top gear and went round at mara effort. It was tough still, especially into the wind until the turnaround at 8 miles.
The tail end of the marathon race was a bit hard to negotiate on the return to the city centre. People walking 3 or 4 abreast and obviously in a bit of a state. It won't have been very pleasant for them having the half folks come steaming through.
All in all it was a logistical nightmare trying to spectate at the mara then get to baggage, warm up and make it to the start of the half. through the throngs. A mad day really.
Unlucky DT - really felt this was going to be your Sub 3 - if you are looking for a silver lying perhaps it is that you seem to have coped really well with the training this time.
Looks like a bad day for all then. I didn't envy the half runners with the sun coming out for it.
Rich- That must have been quite scary. Glad it was nothing serious. I was spectating the marathon at the bottom of the hideous hill at 25.5 miles watching people utterly shattered faces turn to complete desperation as they round the corner to see it. During this, an ambulance came through the field lights flashing etc, which I thought must have been quite serious to do that.
Skinny, yes I bounced through the training. Usually by the time London comes round I am battered from the schedule and ready to not run for a while. This time I was really enjoying my routine and didn't particularly feel ready for it to end.
Ultimately I only entered this marathon as a means of maintaining my endurance and as a stepping stone to London 2018 so with that purpose in mind, I have achieved my goal and a bit more I would think.
On a positive runbritain rated it as 2.4 for difficulty (London was 1.0 this year and 1.1 last year) and gave me -0.1 for performance (London gave me 0.1) which is my first minus performance in a marathon.
I don't feel anywhere near as battered today as I did after London so hopefully a quick recovery is pending.
In manchester the previous year. Although I was probably capable of sub 3 I went into it with a completely different attitude of what will be, will be.
I saw you go passed on Pershore Rd - probably about the 18 mile mark - but you'd gone passed before I realised. I noticed the field was very thin - you were more or less running on your own.
The whole set up with the staggered start and the lapped course meant it took a bit of thought to figure out who would be coming through next. Quite an odd race to watch as a spectator - probably not helped that I was looking our for a few runners in wearing civies.
Bad luck to Rich & Muddy too. Nice day out in Birmingham though, yes?
Muddy - I'd notice the county champs was at warley woods again. It's a good venue.
I was surprised how spread the field was even in the early miles. It wasn't something I was expecting in a race that sold 10,000 places. Only the top 60 went sub 3. By the last 3 miles it was bizarre as up until then i had people around me who i was lapping from my start but dont really know that until i pass them. At 23 miles the road split so i went left to city and others went back to loop. It was like i was completing some small village race. There was a guy about 200m ahead and one or two people i was aware of behind. Despite suffering, i caught the guy ahead.
It was a problem that was the complete opposite to London's overcrowding. I was in a nice little group first half but that fragmented and there weren't then enough people with same purpose to join with. I've done well in London in the closing stages the last 2 years and I think that's because I was feeding off the momentum of so many around me dropping and so was cutting through the field. Even had I run a really strong last 3 miles I might have gained 2 more places than I did.
There were a lot of things that worked well though. The staggered start meant the whole pre race toilets, bag drop etc was quiet and I was into the second loop before the second start got there so faced no congestion.
Sounds like a tough day out for the Birmingham 3.
DT - as we've said before everything needs to come together for a marathon to go well, and fuelling is on eof the most important so you did well to produce you second best marathon time whilst running on fumes. Also the course sounds fairly hardcore, my club mate ran 2:43 compared to a 2:38 at Paris earlier this year and he'd prepared as meticulously for both.
Muddy - Shame you weren't feeling it, at least you managed to get a decent MP session out of it.
Richard - glad you're ok.
Still in base building mode, not doing any sessions but doing a lot of hilly routes to try and build a bit of leg strength.
In other news, I heard from Bob the other day, he's back up to 30-35 miles per week and has managed a couple of light sessions. His Achilles still isn't 100% but in his words 'can't be that bad', hoping to catch up with him at a parkrun sometime in the next couple of months.
Tommy, yes the guys I know who came in around 2.40 were all a good 5 minutes down on what they ran Manchester/London in. So I came off slightly better as was only 2.15 off my London time. If I can do that on a tough course and a bad day, I should be good to improve on it come London next year.
I noticed on garmin comment that Bob seemed to be posting what looked like a decent few weeks of training.
Managed a few runs this week so far. Legs feel good but I'll keep it low for at least 2 weeks to let all the micro traumas repair.
Managed to keep up brisk walking right to the end of pregnancy and even the odd jog so hopefully the return won't be too painful...
On Saturday morning, after a long tiring week at work and a head cold, I failed completely to wake up in time to register for the Brass Monkey 2018. I was pretty annoyed with myself as I had been intending to give it a good go again
I have been having some painful calf, hip and ankle issues post Birmingham, which when combined with work stuff meant it was really easy to sack running off last week. So it was with relatively fresh legs that on Saturday lunchtime in 30 mph wind, on a very undulating course I ran a 5k race, around 10k/threshold effort. Although I was first baldy in 17.50, it was one of those races in which there were no prizes for baldies. I found it really invigorating so I did another 4 miles after I'd had a post race sausage bap.
A shortened long run on Sunday of 10 miles gave me 31 miles for the week, a slightly recuperated calf and less grief from the hips. Same again next week I think. I may have to give up the idea of racing the Abbey Dash with all the travel expense and the drop in fitness. There is a local 10k I could pitch up to if I felt lively.