Manchester Marathon 2017

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  • It was one of those weekends when everything went right!

    Was looking for something touristy to do on Saturday, but ended up spending most of the day chilling in the hotel. A good nights sleep before the race. The weather on race day. Nearly new shoes on race day. Different socks than the two layered ones I'd done all my training in. Took a bit of a gamble here and there. Everything worked!

    Target was sub-3 but clocked 2:51:58, finishing with my last 5 miles as my quickest of the day, overtaking 69 people between 30km and the finish. Felt really strong. 30 minute PB since my 3:21 back in Dubai 2011.

    Couple of questions:

    Good for age - is a place in London guaranteed now? How does it work? Do I just apply when the ballot opens again?

    Photos - were there any photographers around other than the official one? Not massively keen to pay that much to see myself suffering!
  • Oooo - lots more results coming in.

    Congrats Cal on getting under the 4:30 mark - really well done! I'm sure you'll be fine in Liverpool... relax and recover well - you've already banked all the training, you just need to keep ticking over now :smile: I didn't get sunburned but I have got silly stripes on my arms from my t-shirt and my Garmin, plus the baggage tag!

    Ace running there Si - great achievement dipping under the 4:00 hour mark. I bet you were made up when your chip time came through! I agree with you about those final couple of miles - I had to stop looking ahead as I could see stream of runners heading upwards warning of the slight climb into the finish!

    Rachey... sorry to hear of your struggles and ITB flare up! As others have said - it was gritty of you to make it to the line after being ill so close to the race. Hope you recover well and are able to take it easy for a few days :smile:

    Ouch - woohoo... a surprise PB for you - that's an amazing time, congratulations!!! Yeah - I can't believe I'm now a marathon runner... which one next is the question...

    vodka - great running by you too, an excellent time! The roadworks (if you drove in that way) did make the queues to the car parks extra bad... glad you made it to the start though.

    Sorry to have left before you got there, DL34. Brilliant running by you... the folks on these forums do know what they're talking about. Glad it went so well for you. Not only is it a GFA for London, it's also a BQ by either just over 6 mins or just over 11 mins depending on how much under 40 you are (guess what I've been looking at! :wink:)

    MrPH - really good pacing by you and an excellent time... sub-3:00 does look like it's within reach!

    Fantastic PB for you Aber - by 7 mins is a big margin to trim off!

    Tasty - congrats on finishing your first marathon! My Garmin gave me 26.38... but I think that's pretty close all things considered. 

    Congrats on your GFA, Tucky... sounds like you had a great day! I've been having a read around related to GFA for London and it seems that you have to apply for a GFA place and don't need to go through the ballot at all. There's a deadline - which was towards the end of June for this year's VLM. Provided you can prove your time your place is guaranteed (unlike Boston where they fill up from the fastest times first, per age group, until it's full). I'm sure there will be folks who know for sure - this is just what I've been able to glean mooching about on t'internet today.

    Had a lovely massage this afternoon and went to Pilates this evening. Mostly I feel good except my right knee is a bit achey but, weirdly, my right wrist really hurts... don't remember doing anything to/with my wrist - can only assume it's from carrying my water!
  • WOW - sorry... didn't notice how huge that post is!
  • Oops, yes sorry, of course I meant 26.48, not 22.48.

    It was another brow beater at mile 24 after the watch beeped over a minute before the actual marker. My God those last few miles are tough. Nice one those of you that kept the pace going, and those that even increased it. I doff my cap.
  • ML84ML84 ✭✭✭
    Well done everyone on some great performances and plenty of Pb's. 
    Couldn't fault the organisation and how smoothly it all went after the short course fiasco and then hearing about baggage drop issues previously. 

    Even the weather was ideal although I prefer a bit of rain. It got a touch warm late on but that was to be expected and I always make sure I take a bit of water at every single station. Really started to feel it around 19 miles but managed to keep my splits consistent over the last 6-7 miles and ran a small pb. 
    Ended up finishing 18th in 2.33 and I think we may have won the team prize (first 3 runners) as 2 clubmates ran 2.30 and 2.34. Think we get £200 each. Bonus! 

    Promised I'd take my daughter trampolining too yesterday which was an experience! Haha. 
  • OuchOuchOuchOuch ✭✭✭
    How's everyone feeling?  Trampolining - now that could be a revolutionary new way to offset the DOMS!
    The race is on You Tube - They have a camera at the end, to show us all running in, although there was a 90 second gap when I was coming in and they restart with the guy just behind me.  But I don't think you can say that marathoners finishing a marathon are the prettiest of sights (this forum excepted).
    DL - Well done, fantastic pacing - far better than mine - and a cool head to go through in 1;29, stick to your guns and nail a sub 3.
    A few walks with the dog on the cards today as back slow running tomorrow as re-tapering for London.

  • CSMLFCCSMLFC ✭✭✭
    Posted in the events forum but will share here too. Only right extramile get the plaudits they deserve

    Absolutely faultless. The best big city marathon I've done and a million times better than last year.

    Great route. Super support. Fantastic gel and water stations. Perfect baggage handling. Lovely free Erdinger. I do not have one single criticism. Felt like royalty in the exclusive athletes village at the cricket ground too. Every single lesson from previous years learnt. Can't wait to book again for next year. Flat as a pancake and a 4 min PB (3:09)
  • Cal JonesCal Jones ✭✭✭
    I had a light massage and a short walk yesterday. My masseur (he's also an osteopath and is very up on anatomy and physiological systems) said no running or hot yoga for a week. Not sure I can stick to that, but for now I'm taking it very easy. I'm still tired and sore. Oddly, my right leg is way more sore than the left. I was trying to run on the middle of the road to avoid the camber so I don't think it's that.
    The good news is that my perenially niggly left glute wasn't as much of an issue as I thought it could be. Or possibly, my feet were so sore they distracted me from all the other aches and pains. :grimace: (They're fine now, by the way).
  • Some great performances everyone! So pleased that so many of you got what you wanted from the race. Despite not getting what I wanted from Sunday, I have to say I couldn't fault the organisation and the support around the course was generally pretty good. I think I've been spoilt with my previous three road marathons being in Brighton and Berlin, but the support (almost) lived up to my previous experiences.

    I could barely move yesterday. My back feels bruised and I've no idea why! Lots of foam rolling last night and today I feel a bit better, but I've got a 4 mile club race tonight. Luckily, to set up a decent handicap for the rest of the series, I just have to match last week's time which I ran very steady because I felt awful! I'm going to get through that and then get rid of this horrid chest infection before my next marathon in two weeks (an off road jolly with cake!).

    Oh... and to cheer myself up I've started pencilling in my training plan for Berlin in September and I've just entered Barcelona for March 2018!
  • NickW2NickW2 ✭✭✭
    My legs were in bits by the time I finished on Sunday. Much better after I had a shower but yesterday I definitely felt like I had ran a marathon the day before. Today I feel more like the day after a long run. Hoping tomorrow I feel nearly back to normal...

    Hope everyone is recovering well :smiley:
  • FayaFaya ✭✭✭
    Gosh, so many awesome races. Well done everyone! 

    Sadly I had a bad run. It was going great till half way, then it got a little harder. At 20 miles was where it all fell apart. I just couldn't run anymore. Had to walk the rest of the way until just before the end where I managed to limp across the finish line. I had aimed for 5:30, ended up crossing the line at 6:30 :( It's a shame as the rest of the day was great!
  • Awesome stories everyone. Really well done. It was almost a perfect event (though sports drinks at water stations would be great), but sadly, my run wasn't perfect. But it was my first, so even finishing the race was an achievement I think (Am I the only one that had no feeling of any achievement or joy or anything after the race? Felt like a training session that went really wrong. Even now, on Tuesday afternoon, the event left me emotionless?!?! )

    On the train back, I realised what had gone wrong. Back in December, when I was setting goals and finalising my training plan, I set a goal of 3:45, assuming that it will get tough nearer the end of the race and even on a bad day, I might still be on for a sub 4 marathon. So when I calculated my target pace, it came out as 5.33 (min/km). Which isn't 5:33 min/km. I didn't convert it into seconds. And so, essentially, I trained for a 4 hour marathon when I thought I was training for a 3:45 marathon. And not once did I check it, before Sunday evening after the marathon that is.

    My plan was to follow the 3:45 pacemaker as long as I could, as I had been quite comfortable at my (assumed) MP runs. Hence, I went off with him and he seemed a bit fast. But I had a newish Garmin and I didn't really trust its pace monitoring, so I thought the pacemaker knows best. And it always takes the first few go get me going. The first 10k was a breeze. Between 10-half, it was a moderate to hardish run. After the half-way point, it just got progressively harder. Struggling so early on meant my head was full of angry thoughts (Why did I sign up for this? This is horrible, such a stupid idea). I kept up the pace (with the 3:45er) until 27k, where the strongest wall came. Now, looking back, I know that it was due to the high pace. But my body had hit the point where there was just nothing left anymore. And my muscles were in so much pain. Looking at my watch, 15k to go, with nothing in the tank. I just wanted to cut my losses and take the tram to the finish line. I walked a bit and then slowly continued running.
    But after 30k, it was a mixture of painful walking and even harder jogging, by the end it seemed that walking was even more painful than jogging. Every 100 meters I check my watch and couldn't believe how much was left. As I was struggling, I took 2 gels at one station. And I had one on me. By the end I was sick from all that sweetness, I had taken too many gels (5? 6?), so that was a huge mistake. I felt like throwing up for the last 5k. And an hour after finishing.

    I crossed the line in 4:24:30. Which overall, I guess is not that bad of a time.

    My splits:
    Start 00:07:53 00:07:53
    10KM 01:00:38 00:52:44
    Half Marathon 01:59:32 00:58:54
    30KM 02:52:40 00:53:08
    Finish 04:32:23 01:39:43

    So, I guess the most positive part of my run was that I my 30k time was alright and that I could keep up with a pacemaker running at 15 seconds min/km faster than my MP for ~27k. My last 10k took almost as long as my first 20.

    I guess that makes me the novice runner who starts off too fast. Though I did it unknowingly. Still.
  • OuchOuchOuchOuch ✭✭✭
    Ouch....Well done for toughening it out and finishing MartinU - many wouldn't have done. Your next one will be all round and sooo much much easier.  You have learn't loads from your experience and I am sure you will enjoy it and hit your target next time around. Your now a marathon runner btw, not many can lay claim to that.
    Faya - Similar sentiments. Well done for completing. Marathons are not easy and being out there competing for 6 hours+ is certaintly not easy.
    Rachey - Would love to do Berlin one day and might run Barcelona next year as a tasty sandwich involving Las Palmas in Jan and Paris in April.   
  • NickW2NickW2 ✭✭✭
    Faya/Martin, sorry to hear you had bad days at the office. But, you still finished, which in a marathon is always an achievement I think.

    Martin - that does sound a bit of a schoolboy error! However, sub 4:30 is still very respectable for your first marathon, and you know you probably have a sub-4 time in you if you decide to have another crack! Well done for not giving in and taking the tram.

    I actually did a similar sort of thing in a half marathon I ran in February. Had decided to aim for 7:15ish per mile pace, which I had worked out beforehand was near enough 4:30 per km. Then somehow managed to forget this on race day, and set off at 4:20 per km, thinking that this was 7:15 pace. Got through 3 miles in under 21 mins and thought it must be measuring very short, then realised my error. Luckily I realised during the race or the 2nd half would have been even more of a struggle!

  • Cal JonesCal Jones ✭✭✭
    Martin, I felt like that after my first marathon (Manchester, last year). After losing a month's training to a groin strain, I managed only one 20 miler, which I found exceedingly tough. It wasn't surprising, then, that I fell apart after mile 20 and had to keep stopping due to muscle spasms. It felt like a failure because I hadn't run 26 miles. Yeah, I'd completed a marathon, but in my head, it didn't really count. Add to that the misery of the baggage queue and I didn't come away from it with any sense of achievement.

    Still, I decided to give myself and the event another try. And I'm glad I did because now I can say I have run 26 miles (not to mention that the organisation was light years better this year).

    Anyway, Martin and Faya - the first marathon is always hard. I mean, all marathons are hard, but you get a bit better at surviving them. You'll come back stronger next time.

    I've been looking at my results in more details, and it's interesting that, even though I slowed down a lot (about 1 minute per mile), I climbed quite a few positions during the second half (from 6221 to 5767 overall, and 1263 to 1210 by gender). I guess a lot of people hit the wall hard. It did get a bit warm.

















































  • FayaFaya ✭✭✭
    Thanks Nick, OuchOuch and Cal. That was actually my fourth marathon! I've done enough races now though that I'm surprisingly chill about the whole thing. Sometimes you just have a bad race. The only thing it's actually done is made me more determined to get that 5:30 time that I'm chasing. 
  • NickW2NickW2 ✭✭✭
    Cal - that's interesting, I wonder if it's too much of a stereotype to say that men are much more likely to go out too fast and crash and burn compared to women? In particular younger men - as I notice I gained places towards the end in my age category (SM), compared to losing positions overall.
  • Pete HoltPete Holt ✭✭✭

    hi Nick, I have read on these forums, previously, that men are more likely to crash and burn owing to greater muscle mass. meaning: poor diet, pacing, LSRs etc is less forgiving in men. I have absolutely no idea if this is true however.


  • Cal JonesCal Jones ✭✭✭
    Faya, I stand corrected! Well, you'll get there I'm sure. :)
  • I think the build up to a marathon can really get to you pressure wise, for me, whether you are running sub 2:30 or sub 5:00, you have months of training and build up and then just a couple of hours to bring it all together. For some people, it will not run smoothly.

    I had massive doubts the day before, and had a real meltdown with self doubt. So much so, that I found the first half of Sunday to be really difficult and was ready to drop out at 9 and 16 (where my wife was supporting) especially as there was no transport back to the finish after 16.5M, but for some reason at around 12M I just started to concentrate a little bit and tried to push on.

    Interesting what people say about even pacing or at least not slowing as much as others in the last 10 miles as it gives a real boost (sorry) to pass people.

    My Garmin splits for each 5k were :
    23:00, 23.50, 23:25, 23:10, 23:00, 22:10, 22:45, 21:40, 10:39 (2.5k)

    Looking at my chip overall positions, although I got gradually quicker, the gain from 30k to finish was pretty scary in terms of people who were coming back to me (luckily including the 3:15 pacer)
    Start - 550
    10K - 1200
    HM - 1400
    30k - 1250
    Finish - 800
  • I had a very negative split surprisingly. Last 6 miles were the quickest of the race for me - all under my average pace of 6:32 per mile:

    20: 6:29
    21: 6:31
    22: 6:30
    23: 6:31
    24: 6:25
    25: 6:23
    26: 6:15
    0.3: 5: 58

    Start 251
    10KM 265
    Half Marathon 254
    30KM 219
    Finish 149
  • ML84ML84 ✭✭✭
    SQRunner, I also had some big doubts leading up to the race and didn't feel anywhere near pb shape. It didn't help that I tried a 2 mile effort at goal marathon pace on the Wednesday and it felt way too much effort. I then tried 3 minutes at goal marathon pace at the end of jogging the local parkrun the day before and I was dripping with sweat and breathing far too heavy. 

    Thankfully it came together on race day and I agree about getting a boost when passing people. I ran solo for the first 14-15 miles as the group ahead were going too quick for me. Luckily for me, one by one they all came back.

    position was 
    Start  39
    10k.   29
    1/2.    28
    30k.   28
    finish   18
  • I'm looking forward to reading back and posting on this thread.... by which time everyone will have moved on. So before that happens, just to agree with the general sentiment that the organisation, marshals, support... all superb... except for the course clearly having been measured long...  about 8 miles too long!

    I had a great day. Faded a bit in the closing miles (out in 1:42, back in 1:47 for 3:28:50) and so was 4 and a half minutes longer than last year - but better than expected given the training.  

    My abiding memory will be running the last 3 miles with an ever widening grin on my face - knowing I was not going to crash, knowing I was going to break 3:30, and just enjoying the support.  Well done Manchester.
  • OuchOuchOuchOuch ✭✭✭
    Tucky4 - Well done, must have felt great to be overtaking that number of people. Wish I had your nerve. I am more a time in the bank kinda runner. Might try and go for a negative split in London.
    ML84 - Super impressive esp considering you were running solo for soo long.
    NE - Hear hear, you and the City did well.

    Takes me a few days to 'come down' after running a marathon, its my drug of choice at the moment.  So a few more days then will get my London head-on.
  • Cal JonesCal Jones ✭✭✭
    ML84 - 18th is amazing!
    Northender - though I was an jour behind you, I had much the same feeling. Even though I slowed down by a minute a mile during the last 6, my legs just kept moving. It was really good putting last year's demons to bed.
    OuchOuch - good luck with London - that's not much time to recover! Thought I was ambitious doing Liverpool with an 8 week break. (Having said that, I'm a marathon novice - just two under my belt to date).

    I managed a little two mile trot this morning. My right quad is still pretty gnarly but I figured as I can now walk down stairs properly, a little jog would be OK.
  • NickW2NickW2 ✭✭✭
    Photos are out. I never buy any (my wife would never permit them to be on display anywhere in the house!) but they are sometimes fun to look at. Unusually there's actually some of me that I like - you can really tell how hard I am trying while sprinting for the finish. There is also one that is possibly the worst photo of me ever...here. I was feeling great at this point as well! (the photo a split second before I look much happier)
  • FayaFaya ✭✭✭
    Nick, I've just had the link to my photos through too. I've never bought any and I doubt I ever will, but I do enjoy having a laugh at myself. I'm pretty sure I had one once that showed me what I'll look like when I'm 60, I looked truely terrible. If I knew when it was I'd share.

    I think they may have gotten a few of mine wrong this time though, one is of a group of people and I'm nowhere to be seen and the other is of someone that is very much not me. 
  • My photos are all rubbish. My kids took better ones! There are none from the 1st half.

    Itching to get out for a run, especially as it's such nice weather. Will go out tomorrow morning for a short gentle jog I think.

    I love marathon training but going to wait until next year to do another. I would love to get close to 4 hours. That's 19 mins to get off my PB... I can dream  :D

    Sounds like a number of you have another marathon lined up in the coming weeks. Good luck with those!
  • Faya and Martin - sorry you both had bad days at the office on Sunday.

    ML84 - stunning performance by you... well done!

    Nick - honestly, you haven't seen bad photos until you've seen mine!!! I'm the most unphotogenic person ever (even my wedding photos are awful and that's not in any way false modesty). I have photos from Sunday just as I'm drinking immediately followed by me spotting the camera and staring at it thinking "oh god - I think he just photographed me drinking!"... bloody awful... drinking and noticing camera 

    Haven't run again yet - although I feel great... (can't believe I've recovered so well) mainly because I haven't had time. Was hoping to do a little trot yesterday but forgot hubby and I were going to see The Who at the MEN. Should have gone tonight as I'm out on the town in Manchester tomorrow... so it looks like running will have to wait until Saturday.

    Best of luck for London, Ouch... (and Coops if you happen to look on here), and same to you for Liverpool, Cal - although I'll try to remember to wish you luck again closer to the time! :smile:
  • Cal JonesCal Jones ✭✭✭
    My photos aren't too bad although I won't be buying them at £15 a shot. Nick, I have one with that exact facial expression at the finish of the Hampton Court half back in February (no, didn't buy that one either). So don't feel bad. :#
    Nell, the drinking photo... :lol:
    The weather's lovely but I've resisted the temptation to go running again today. My quad feels better but my calves are quite tight and I have some light DOMS from doing yoga yesterday after a break. I'll do some more yoga today instead.
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