Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Chester Marathon
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Also a heads up incase anyone hasn't ran Chester before the queues into the racecourse by car can be pretty big so if recommend parking in one of the many car parks in the city centre and then walking over. The Grosvenor multi storey is really handy and worth payingfor in my opinion!
Cal - 3436 - targetting 4:15.
Galdrags-3473- 4:25
Mr M2 3693 Hoping for sub 4:10
Ian-1714 hope for 3:15
csmlfc- anything less than 3:09
For myself...happy with 4:07:25. looked like I was on for nearer 4:05, but the last few km had other ideas! Will post a few more details later on. (Results service and data are best I've come across!) Still a few more to report in...Hope there will be good news.
Ian, well done again.
I had a brilliant race - first time I've ever managed to keep an even pace (I did slow a bit on that bastard hill near the end, but still kept it under 10). New PB is 4:10:42 which is better than I predicted (previous best was 4:18:21 in Manchester). I'm very happy.
i came in at 4h19 which was about the best case scenario today. 5 mins slower than Manchester but i’ll take that!
whats next?!
Sounds like everyone should be happy with their results so a good day all round.
Smithy Lane was a beast of a hill to end with.
Another great day in Chester faultless organisation and the family all enjoyed it too. Got to be one of the best marathons going.
Well done all seems most achieved their target!
Seren - agree with the rubbish comment. people just didn't seem aware of the etiquette? Lots of first timers and no explicit instructions on where to drop stuff in the race booklet to blame?
Like the analysis on the results page showing your position in the field at the 10, 20, 30 and 40k markers? Quite gratifying to know that I passed 300 people in between 10k and the end!
How did everyone find running with the metric marathoners? They seemed to be mainly walking by the time I reached them which was a pain. not so much that they were in the way but just that it's demotivating to be surrounded by walkers? Did the speedier amongst you fare better?
Edit disregard that seen it's on the downloadable results. Very satisfying!
Gladrags, I wasn't too far ahead of you so I encountered a lot of the slow metrics but I just did my best to encourage them as I went past. I rather enjoyed passing people, to be honest! I interacted with people a lot more during this race as usually I get tired and shut down towards the end of marathons, so I think it actually gave me a boost. I too gained quite a lot of places during the race - there is no doubt that this is the best I've ever paced a marathon. That sub-4 is just a little bit closer than it was last week.
Cal it sounds like you had an amazing run? Sub 4 next time?
I managed to pace myself better than ever before too - only slowed by 2 minutes in the second half. Everything conspired against Chester being my sub 4 attempt but am taking heart from it and aiming to have a proper go at it in Manchester next year.
Interesting the mixed feelings on the metric runners? It just seemed to me that as a pack the marathoners were running quite nicely until they joined - it then switched almost instantly to being a walkers' race and it was v hard to keep the average pace up. Maybe it just depended where you were in the marathon pack as to what impact it had? presumably for some people it was ideal as it provided a little boost of pacemaking just when needed?
Gladrags, I wasn't at Chester but I'm just popping in as I know Ian and Cal from another thread. Chester is on my list
It's not the same as what you're saying but just adding another perspective into the mix too, as I did Malta marathon this year in Feb. The marathon runners started off, and then (I think) 90-mins later the Half marathon started and the two routes joined with approximately 10-miles to go. I joined a lot of fairly quickly Half runners, may of who overtook me, but after a mile I settled with a group of Half runners who were running at the same pace as me. It drove me on and helped me to get a marathon PB - the fact I had people around me who were comparably fresh was definitely one of the contributing factors. On the other hand, there's a local race to me (Dartmoor Vale) which is two laps for the marathon, and one for the Half, and the races start at the same time with the Half being a lot more popular in terms of entrants. Basically, the Half runners turn left to go to the finish, and the marathon runners turn right and have to go around again - I've done it twice, and both times I'm suddenly found myself totally on my own which can be very disheartening. Writing that makes me wonder why I've entered it again this year, but the start is 10-mins from my house, so it'd be rude not to do it
Well done everyone on here - Chester is definitely on my list, but I can't do it next year, so maybe the year after. We'll see
A bit bunched for a mile or so, then it was possible to run your own race. Timing mats every 10k gave great data. Drink stations were exactly as stated, and excellently 'manned'. Marshals were at all the helpful places, and so it continued, right down to the clearly-marked finish-funnel where the metric and full marathon runners divided. Then, exactly as stated, medal, drink, goody bag, shirt, and on to baggage pick-up. Quite a queue for the massage, and decided not to wait. Result service and Photography all up and available promptly.
The merging of metric and full marathons for the last few miles didn't bother me; there was plenty of space, and it was good to keep picking-off runners.
Pleased with my 10k splits; almost holding it together through to the end, and improving my gender and o'all positions at every stage. Managed 5th place out of the 19 in the 70+ group, and 1655 out of 2821 o'all. 10k splits: 57:24, 57:31, 57:42 and 60:12. My age-grading came out at just over 72% so that was very gratifying.
Needless to say, this marathon scores 10 out of 10 from my perspective. Happy.
Looked at your 10k splits...what can I say? Have rarely managed them as good as that!
Yes. 75 next year, and I'd love to still be running. I know that there are some very strong athletes out there, and currently I'm only 25th on the Run Britain rankings. First in my category was a David Winch, with 3:35. Just amazing. Recover well. Happy running.