Halstead marathon

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  • Thanks- argh I'm super stressed! Rather than being off my feet I've spent the last 3 hours very much standing up, making dinner, clearing up, making the bed etc while OH sits around like a lemon- not best pleased- think I might go to bed early to try to calm down And rest...

  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭

    Nothing like being organised - hubby and I have just been looking at AA route finder to work out how to get to Halstead, and thinking about drinks and where he'll see me.  Think we have it down now as 4, 12, possibly 18 and then 23 miles (mainly Levit's Corner but they may venture somewhere else as well).  Not sure I'll arrive early enough to do the drinks thing so think hubby will hand me a replacement LS at 12 miles; two 500ml bottles should be enough to get me through plus water at the water stations.  I usually have a couple of good swigs of LS every second mile from the start just to keep topped up.  It isn't going to be hot so dehydration shouldn't be an issue.  Am definitely not dehydrated at the moment - in fact I can't stop going to the loo!!  Maybe a bit too much water consumed today!

    Right, signing off now to go and organise my gear for tomorrow.  Sleep well everyone and look forward to hopefully meeting some of you tomorrow.

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Hi all, calm down Angela. No point in stressing over a man. We're not worth out and we're all the same!!! Lol

    I will defo be there. Minks - I'm still going to go for 3:17 ish. Nothing ventured and all that! If I need to change midrace so be it.

    have had a mad day with mrs DS2 away. Haven't stopped and probably a good thing. Weather looks reasonable tomorrow and wind predicted to be a bit lighter now. See you tomorrow. Will prob get there just before 9am

  • calmed... Night night everyone!

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Excellent Angela!

    My wife would tell you it has taken her 25 years to train me! Believe me, it takes a lot of patience on each side!

    Sleep well

  • Night everyone 

    GOOD LUCK FOR THE MORNING!!

    hopefully see you all image

  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭

    Great, DS2 - see you there; will probably get there around 9ish as well.  Looking forward to it (sort of ...!)

    Good luck everyone!

  • Ello Ello, I think I managed to see most of ya, though shame not to get the chance to chat with Jason as he was doing an awesome job at the drinks station!  What a fantastic course- except between miles 18-23 where I was wondering why i put myself through this, I thoroughly enjoyed today- awesome support, beautiful countryside course and a pb for me despite the undulations- got my silver goal of sub 4:20- came in in 4:18 something image

  • Hi everyone, how did you get on? I was at Levit's Corner as planned, managed to see my friend four times which I was really pleased with - she got back in a PB of 3.57. Had a lovely day, weather was a little windy but the course looked stunning and I was with a nice friendly bunch of marshals and spectators. I think I spotted SimonG but this spectating lark is harder than it looks!

  • Spotted everyone image!!

    very well done Angela looked like a very strong finish for you, glad you liked the course. 

    shame I didn't meet everyone, by the time i finished I assumed you had all gone home image.

    managed to convince 4 people to take the Vaseline from me hehe image

    DS2- I can only assume you smashed your PB, I was trying to work out everyone's times but gave up pretty quick image

    Minks- you did not look happy at all if I'm honest but I probably would of been the same.

    SimonG/Kandinsky- you looked like you loved it image 

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Hi all, nice to meet Angela. Oirish and biggest thanks to Minks. The company over the first 10 or so miles really helped. Just sorry you didn't have your best day but really well done for finishing. It's no mean feat when you feel like that.

    great PB Angela. It's a tough course and probably worth at least 5 mins on a flat course.

    glad you had a good day Susan, and your friend PB'd.

    I'm very happy with 3:19:07. 

  • Hi all,

    I'm sure I must of seen Jason but was a bit preoccupied at the time!

    Great to meet you all.

    That was tough out there, I was coasting along nicely and was very comfortable and heading to a time circa 3:30 - 3:35 and was loving life when around mile 20 my lower back and left glute just went ping!! Those last 6 miles were hideous, I was in so much pain down my left leg. Luckily after a bit of a run/walk and a masive sulk I gritted my teeth and I am both proud of finishing as well as not throwing up!

    3:54 in the end

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Jason - didn't realise that what was you dishing out the Vaseline!!! Made me smile.

    the marshals etc were amazing today!

  • DS2 wrote (see)

    Jason - didn't realise that what was you dishing out the Vaseline!!! Made me smile.

    the marshals etc were amazing today!

    +1 I can see why this event gets so highly rated, everything about it was awesome and despite my problems the encouragement from supporters and runners was just amazing.

    Roll on next year.

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    It is a great event isn't it? Done it three years running now and will be back next year!

    Very bad luck Oirisheyes - that's the marathon for you! Like I said to Minks you've should be proud for digging in. I had a similar run two years ago. I think it was one of my best achievements even though it was the slowest of my 10 marathons. Today's is right up there as well though!

  • Ja5onW wrote (see)

    SimonG/Kandinsky- you looked like you loved it image 

    Ha ha ha! It must have been the vaseline offer that put a smile on my face!

    It was a strange day for me, on the one hand I crashed and burned rather spectacularly in the second half missing my target time by over 30 mins in the end.

    However, once I'd made peace with the fact that it wasn't going to be my day I concentrated on making the most out of what is a cracking event and managed to put my dissapointment aside and enjoy myself.

    Given what I went through yesterday I'm actually rather chuffed to be able to consider 4:14 a "bad" time, I ended up having to work bloody hard for it and I'm already looking forward to coming back next year to have another go image (and remembering which stations I'd sent my drinks to) image

    Well done everyone, there's some cracking results for some but a great effort by all.

     

  • Tracey GTracey G ✭✭✭

     

    Well done everyone imageHad a fab time at the mini Fetch Point. Two of my club mates got pbs image

  • Awesome marshalling!  I really enjoyed this and so glad DS2 managed his good for age- was really lovely of you and Minks to cheer me over the finish line image.  Minks, so sorry your race didn't go to plan.  Do you think you'll try another one before July, or leave it until Autumn?

    kandinsky, I think you did well to hang on- do u know what caused the 2nd half problems- was it just the hills?  When I look back, my bad miles I think were a hydration/nutrition issue, but thankfully I was able to get past in.  Was great to meet u and ur wife and puppy afterwards- we shall have to meet up at our suspectIve parkruns.

    oiriish is also in the core team for Colchester.  Gutted for you and the leg/glute pain- really is a bummer (never mind the pun)

    ive written in my blog now-its looooong, but if ur interested-http://longroadtoboston2016.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/halstead-and-essex-marathon.html

     

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    I will take a good look later Angela. I think we all have bad miles even when you have the perfect race. Getting through those miles is what it's all about. 

    Well done. A 15 minute PB on that course is fantastic. Lovely course, but not easy. I thought the support at that corner was incredible yesterday. Every time I went past them they gave me a huge lift. 

  • Thanks DS- I think the pockets of support was great too and I would say more effective- it can get a bit much in London!!

  • Morning all.

    How are we all feeling? I hope everyone is in good shape.

    I've just walked the dogs and managed to out limp my three legged pooch for the first few hundred yards. I am relatively ache and pain free apart from the occassional twinge from deep inside my buttock, I'm fairly convinced the lady I passed thought I had soiled myself the way I was walking but by the end of it I was moving much, much better.

    So I seem to have escaped any repercussions from pushing through the pain yesterday if that isn't tempting fate.

  • Hiya, feeling stiff legged is all- sports massage in a few hours then I might wander along to aqua springs image

  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭

    Morning all, was too tired to post last night.  Of my five marathons, I managed my second-slowest time but it felt SO much harder than anything I've done before.  Not entirely sure why yet; I have analysed what might have gone wrong but haven't really drawn any solid conclusions.

    Before I go back to that, I have to say that despite having a shocker of a race, it's an awesome event and even though I said yesterday "no more marathons!" I can see myself coming back next year to pace it better and run a better time now that I know the course.  I would agree that it isn't hilly as such, but there are enough relentless undulations to make it feel quite hard, especially once you get to around 16-18 miles and everything's starting to hurt.  I found the wind quite hard going in places as well.

    Big thanks to DS2 for the company over the first 10 miles or so - I'm glad you pulled away in the end; I would have felt dreadful if I'd scuppered your marathon as well as having a bad day myself.  Really glad you achieved your London GFA.  I was 4th lady in my age category, so not all bad, and if I hadn't had a bad day and had PBed I'd have been third lady overall image

    I said to DS2 early on that I had a stitch I couldn't get rid of - I very seldom get a stitch so was a bit surprised by this and especially not to be able to  get rid of it which I can usually do quite easily.  Turns out it's not a stitch, but probably a strained or torn muscle just below my ribcage near the top of my stomach.  It really hurt all last night and still hurts this morning.  Otherwise I feel pretty good, calves hurt (left one in particular kept cramping after 12 miles), probably my own fault because I stopped for a good few minutes while my husband and son convinced me to keep going; could have pulled out quite happily at that point but I'm glad I pushed through.  I have always had a policy of NEVER stopping in a marathon - getting going again is almost impossible.  It's much better to walk for a bit if need be (although I've never done that before either!) than to stop altogether.

    Sounds as though a few of us didn't have the race we wanted, but I have to say it was such a lovely, friendly race.  I had so much encouragement both from the marshalls (who were amazing) and from other runners.  On balance I prefer the atmosphere of a smaller race and it meant also it was so much easier for my family to spot me.

    So what went wrong?  I've had a few random thoughts on this so far:

    1. I underestimated the difficulty of the course and went out too hard.
    2. Possibly I hadn't fully recovered from my London effort a few weeks ago, or from the virus that forced me to pull out.  I didn't give myself any recovery time and jumped straight back into hard training as I seemed to be feeling better.
    3. As I'd been training for London originally and hadn't planned to do Halstead all my long runs were on a flat route at a fairly brisk pace.
    4. I'd done over 150 miles more training this time around than for my last marathon.  Not sure that more mileage is the answer for me. My lifestyle is very busy and perhaps I underestimated the importance of rest.
    5. Apart from 5 x 20 mile long runs, the rest were only up to 16.  I think fewer midweek runs (or less miles) but a couple of extra 18 milers might have helped.
    6. Training wasn't well structured - because of other commitments, I would run long Sunday (usually too fast for LSR pace), then run Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday back-to-back, then Friday.  Think I'd ditch the Monday run another time.

  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭

    One final thought - maybe I'm past the point now where a PB is a possibility?  I ran my PB in 2010 when I was 40 and there obviously comes a point where age becomes a limiting factor.  Not sure when that point is but maybe I have to accept that it's been and gone and just focus on doing the best I can rather than chasing targets ...

    Overall, I thought Halstead was a lovely, friendly race and a lot less impersonal than London.  I really appreciated all the supporters at the Levit's Corner junction, and it was great to be able to meet a few of you on here and put some faces to the names.  Great to be able to watch Angela cross the line in a fantastic new PB too!

    Jason, had no idea it was you handing out the Vaseline or I'd have smiled and said hello! 

    And a special mention to my super son, Kit, who high-fived me and pretty much everyone else on every single lap, and was there with a big hug for me at the end of the race - he really kept me going when I hit the low points. image

    And despite the disappointment of being miles off my PB and getting consistently slower with every passing mile, I wore my medal with pride all the way home! 

  • DS2DS2 ✭✭✭

    Hi Minks, glad to see you are feeling more positive this morning! I wonder if you slightly tweaked a muscle running down that first steep hill. That is always a danger when not properly warmed up.

    i will struggle to communicate today due to very stressful work day but will catch up later!

  • Hiya minks- glad to see u back on here was getting a bit worried... What was ur pb before? I don't know that your age should be in your way? I reckon with the right trainiNg and rest you'd be flying- honestly I don't know how I would have coped with the taper-train-taper all with a virus thrown in.

    glad ur son had a good time image

  • MinksMinks ✭✭✭

    Hi Angela, how are you feeling today?

    PB from London 2010 is 3:19:11.  My first 12 miles at London this year before I had to pull out were average 7:22 pace, so I was on for sub 3:15 at that point.  Maybe that 12 miles plus the virus took it out of me more than I thought, plus I didn't really know what sort of training I should be doing between London and Halstead and may have overdone it.

    DS2, yes - I reckon I must have strained something as we flew down that first hill at the start.  Stitch-type pain started just about there and never went away.  I have never run an entire 26.2 miles with a "stitch" before and there were times when I almost couldn't put my right foot to the ground (which may explain why the left calf kept cramping).

    I think I'll definitely take a whole week off to recover image

  • Hiya, feeling tired and stuff... my sports massage is arriving any minute now- currently watching wedding crashers image

  • Really interesting to read this, yesterday was my first experience supporting and it was great fun. I think being able to see the runners four times was great; also, where I was standing (basically in the middle of the road) meant at times there were runners passing both sides. Really made me appreciate the job the marshals do and the only downside I saw was the tiny minority of drivers who were inconsiderate, fast and/or abusive. 

    Might think about this one next year, but I have York in October plus the vlm ballot (though unlikely to get in twice in two years!) - and I like hills but maybe not 26.2 miles of 'em! Well done everyone.

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