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Brighton Marathon 2015
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Managed to get out for a stead 8 miles this evening to keep ticking over.... Received an email today saying my hotel has overbooked me and have put me in one down the road (another mile away from the start). Not ideal but slightly better hotel and currently trying to get booking.com/ hotel to agree to some expenses for cabs to be paid as compensation.
Hope you're all tapering well and staying injury free
This week I'll be fitting a few short (5 miles) runs around a busy work schedule and also try and get in a 10k at the weekend but need to fit that round a stag do.
I'm staying near Brighton station the night before the marathon and will get the train one stop to Preston Park on the Sunday then walk to the elite start. I did this last year and seems the best option in order to keep walking to a minimum.
I am a big believer in starting out a little slower and finishing faster, has this run altered your Target time at all?
Sounds like a sensible pre race plan you have I am down to 3 worries : toilets pre race, drinking during race and the weather!!
Going to give everyone I know watching half filled lucazade bottles so hopefully I can grab a couple as cups are not working for me unless I stop.
The weather scared me yesterday big time!! If the wind is that strong on race day it will effect finishing times so was all over the 14 day forecasts last night. Fingers crossed it looks pretty good at the moment as far as I saw.
Thanks people, enjoyed seeing Jerusalem and Jordan, but the marathon was hell. it was about 3500ft elevation climb. After 13 miles I thought sod this, and walked up the steeper hills as it was not much slower than the people trying to run up them. I don't think I saw a flat section for the first 15 miles. I never knew Jerusalem was in the Judean mountains when I signed up for it!!!! Its a bit sole destroying when you can't actually run for the whole 26 miles. luckily it cooled down after the tela viv marathon the week before when it got cancelled half way through as it got too hot (circa 29 deg C), but still hot obviously.
lolabar - sorry to hear of your injury - that's shit! nice of you to pass your number on to someone.
manatbar - rest up and it will probably be ok - nothing to loose now with 2 weeks to go - may even be beneficial to do no running for 2 weeks and fully rest up,
Lombster. Speedy as usual. My aim post brighton is to improve my half marathon time currently 1.29
Wenterrapin. Qudos. Often the best policy to walk up steep hills. The little time you lose is made up for in energy saved.
First taper week done 46 miles with s coupl of swift ones (for me) trouble free.
Aiming for low 30's this week before the mileage plummets to single figures in the last week. Gotta stop eating cake!!!!!
Cheers Mark - no problem with cake - its all carb loading
Has anyone got a spare place going?
Thanks John
Thanks MarkD - i think someone may well have grabbed that already, though have PM'd Lolabar11 just in case.
J Swizzle/Mark D, thanks. It doesn't change my target time but has made me more positive that the sub-3 may be on if everything goes to plan on the day. I'll certainly have to be strict about sticking to 6:52 pace for the first half.
Worries certainly include:
- weather (wind moreso than the temp/rain)
- pre-start toilet (hoping there is an abundance of loos at the elite start this year)
- fuelling en route (both drink and food as I've never got it right)
- last 10km!
That's not the full list but I'm certainly more prepared for pre-race fuelling, getting to the start, resting up the night before...
10 miles with a bit of speed is a good run in my book.
The last 5k are really good (well, as good as they can be!). One long stretch down the seafront. Nice and wide and flat. Lots of support... and any breeze is more likely to help than hinder.
When you're in those mentally tough 18-22 miles, try to look forward to the 23 mile marker (or is it soon after?)... when you can virtually see the finish in the distance. I found it really energising.
Good info Nose Nowt, was just wondering why 18-22 was tough (apart from distance you have run)? on course profile it ooks slightly down gradient 18-20 then slightly up 23-25 is this not the reality when running the course?
Great running Jo!! Some of my club mates who ran the Spitfire 20 were a little battered by it and are thankful to have 4 more weeks to recover from it.
J Swizzle watching the Brighton Marathon programme on youtube from last year and what I've seen on google maps and heard from other reviews its all out to the powerstation very bleak scenary, very little support but as Nose Nowt mentions I reckon keep focused till mile 25.
thanks for the info, this is good to know.
Lombster pacing of my first half will be key to my race to, doing a couple more MP runs pre race to really zero in on MP.
Down to race weight now but have father in laws 70th and my sons 3rd birthday to navigate pre race to maintain weight and avoid cake.
Reading all of this makes me really excited just about going to SEE my friend run this ! I wouldn't wish misfortune on anyone, but would dearly like to get a chance to do the run with her as it would be a marathon first for both of us. If there is anyone out there who can't make it for some reason, I'd be happy to help not have your place wasted !
Cheers John
J Swizzle... I think others have answered really well. It's psychological. To be honest, I'm not sure whether the power station miles are quite so desolate as their reputation suggests. Between mile 18 and 23 miles, you get a fair number of people hitting the wall in any marathon. And those who are still going well at that point have that mental battle of being knackered, but still a long way from home. In Brighton, those miles happen to fall around the powerstation area, so people associate their mental and physical pain with those surroundings. Then it all gets talked about on forums like this!
There's no getting away from the fact that the features that are well described by Lombster do come into play. I can't remember the exact details now, but I lost a couple of minutes in those miles and slipped behind slightly behind schedule and almost gave up on that idea. But then I hit that point where I could see the mile 23 marker with just the distance of a 5K park run in front of me, there was a gentle breeze at my back, the sight of the pier in the distance, the widening course, the crowds (not sure all that magically appears all at once, but it's how I remember it!). I was energised and managed to claw back enough reach my goal. Just. You're probably right about the course profile... I remember one little piece of tough up hill.. where it felt a bit steep for about 50 yards but whatever gradients were there were more than compensated for by all good things around me.
My post was really encouraging people to not use all that powerstation stuff as an excuse. Just get on with it. If you're in difficulty, try to focus on getting to mile 23 with your goal still within reach (no mental giving up!) and then use those good things to help you through the last 3.2 miles. Well... hope it works out for everyone like that anyway.
As a footnote the spectators are amazing. We have been lucky enough to have decent enough weather each year so the crowds have been plenty.
All those going for a specific time. I have done 5 of these and each time the course has measured close to 26.4. That's potentially another 1.5 minutes. I've gone through 2 garmin and a tom tom in that time. Just a warning.
Hi All - some great training & racing going on from everyone.
I've been a bit quiet on the forums but very much looking forward to 12th April now.
Training was hampered by a chest infection (plus anti-biotics) but i'm plodding back now having done a slow parkrun Saturday, 11 miles in the wind & rain Sunday and 4 miles this morning.
My personal thing was I had planned to try and use slight down from 18-20 from course map info to push on as thought last 5k slightly up would be harder to make up time.
As I normally respond well to the faintest bit of encouragement may hold back and try to work the last Parkrun as if I stole something!
On distance Mark I was hoping starting from faster start would help with running lines. After listening to a course measurer on Marathon talk I am very confident the routes are super accurate!! Apparently they add on 1m per Km of race distance to allow for measuring error. This year I have really tried to work the best race tangents and feel that has really worked for me (again after listening to MT interview).
Sub 3.15
I still managed to run 26.6 miles at London last year after following the blue line.... even worse 27.2 miles at Edinburgh.... Must have been pissed