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But it was a great race and definitely a good alternative for London. I will promote this race on the different Swedish running forums and social media groups I am in. With the new route for 2020 that takes in the city centre as well this race has the potential to be one of the better marathons in Europe. This was my 17th marathon, of which I have made 16 abroad, and I hold Manchester as one of the best.
This training period hasn't gone too well for me, persistent knee issues which have lost me a few weeks of training. I'm also about 5kg overweight, which is just down to lack of willpower on my part. Ran the Barcelona marathon three weeks ago, but this was on a warm day and I had my arse handed to me at 20 miles. I was quite proud of just the fact that I didn't pull over and stop and managed to keep running. 3:14 wasn't a fantastic time but happy in the circumstances.
So I was very happy to see the weather forecast on Sunday, first race in about two years where the weather suited a Scotsman. Couldn't find my running buddy at the start - we were in pen A / B, and got separated as we made our way through the crowds in the other pens and the toilet queues. This was my only criticism of the whole day, the difficulty in just getting to the start pens. Set off a little too fast (but not too much), and had the 3 hour pacer in sight for the first 10 miles or so. I kept questioning myself as to the wisdom of this, but apart from the injured knee, I felt pretty good and decided to keep going. A few co-codamol sorted the knee out (temporarily) and things were good. Consistent pacing meant I hit half-way in 1:31 exactly. Heading for a mythical (for me) 3 hours or thereabouts and a PB. Still felt ok right until about 18 miles where I started to feel tired. The knee pain was creeping back in and the spring in the step had gone. The last 7 miles or so were a bit of a race to get to the finish before the wheels fell off, culminating in severe leg cramps right at the 26 mile marker. I had to pretty much hop dragging the gammy leg for the last 385 yards, so the finish line photos could be interesting. The 3 hours was long gone by this point, but I finished in 3:06, which is one minute off a PB.
Lots of positives, not least a 4 minute buffer for London GFA and a 14 minute buffer for Boston qualification. The route was ok, nothing special, but the support from the crowd was amazing, and I would definitely do it again. The obvious conclusion would be that I set off too fast and paid the price for this at the end, but the fact that I was on 3 hour pace or thereabouts for most of the race and took 8 minutes off my Barca time is great. If I can lose a bit of weight over the next three weeks and get the training benefit from this run then a PB could be on in London on the 28th, depending on weather.
On the whole, a good race and a great weekend.
> Nice to see some good results on here, congratulations to everybody! For me everything went to plan. I managed to go sub 3:30 and get a new PB of 3:28.58, which is 13 seconds better than my old one. Not much, but it still counts.
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> But it was a great race and definitely a good alternative for London. I will promote this race on the different Swedish running forums and social media groups I am in. With the new route for 2020 that takes in the city centre as well this race has the potential to be one of the better marathons in Europe. This was my 17th marathon, of which I have made 16 abroad, and I hold Manchester as one of the best.
Congrats on the PB. Not sure from this message (I haven't looked back to your other posts) whether you're female or male. But if female I think I ran alongside you for a few minutes on Sunday and then you kicked on. We were just behind what I think may have been a Swedeish male runner (or maybe that was you!).
Thanks. I´m male and I ran in a yellow shirt with Sweden printed on the front and a Swedish flag nailed on the back. Got a lot of support from the crowd because of that.
Rodeoflip: Seems that you did a good race. I´m impressed that you are able to do Barcelona, Manchester and London with such good results in less than two months.
anyone else signed up for next year?! I did because I want to keep my options open and it looks as if the other entries may be by ballot later in the year?
awesome to read everyone's stories on here - very inspirational.
I'm taking comfort from the fact that my splits through 20 miles were consistent and that my slow down in the last 10k was less than the average runner (nice graphic on the results?)
DOMs hasn't kicked in at all - the 5 minutes after finishing were by far the worst part of the recovery. So am hopeful that I can achieve at least a similar time in London
I'm sure they quoted 20000 runners but there were only 13652 finishers, that's a lot of dropouts pre race or non finishers!
StevieWh, I noticed that too.
Seems like all the big races overplay the numbers involved, maybe to appear more attractive to potential sponsors?
Ref the numbers, they probably include the relay people in that so however may relay teamsx4,also think it's about 15% dropout rate for London so may be slightly higher for Manchester,so the 20k entrants doesn't seem too far away.
Not signed up for next year and probably wont,not had a great race there yet so maybe the course isn't for me.
My official results place me as the 640th person, but the 705th man. So, either minus-45 women finished ahead of me, or else 45 of the men who beat me were not people (I favour the latter explanation). Seriously though, I'm not one who condemns mistakes, but I'd like it to be corrected, and maybe even acknowledged.
Stockholm: 63 men behind you had faster chip times.
I've entered for next year... but already having misgivings about the city centre addition... narrow and up hill from near the river to cross Deansgate and up Lloyd Street. The bit in front of MOSI (Lower Byrom Street) has speed bumps across the width of the road and traffic calming measures - hmmm... it'll be a tight squeeze, I think.
New route looks interesting, kind of takes away from the "fastest, flattest" moniker if the city section includes hills and cobbled sections but going into the centre will give it a more major city vibe I think. Doubt I'll be back next year as targeting Boston now; though plans may change and it was an enjoyable one.
I too, have been unsuccessful at finding any finish line footage earlier than 3.11. Annoying. My kids, who had parties on, didn't come support, but wanted to see me cross the finish line.
Nicko, I don't believe the new route will add much in terms of elevation - maybe several feet. I also don't think that there are any cobbled sections there. (I'll go check it out when I can.) It will still be a fast course, while adding a lot more interest, at least to the first few miles.