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Mr B - well done for yesterday. It's not easy when you know you're way off your target and know there's nothing you can do to make things right. I'm sure you've got more time to come off in future marathons!
WTGY - sorry it didn't happen for you yesterday, but I'm glad you got something positive out of the weekend with your lad.
The weather yesterday was too hot and humid for a 'comfortable' marathon as in if it wasn't for throwing water over my head and legs every water stop after taking a sip from each bottle first I would have definitely over-heated! I don't normally sweat much especially in the early stages of a marathon, but at 6 miles I remember wiping it off my brow and thinking boy this is humid. I tried to find shade as much as possible, but when coming out of the shade it did get intense at times. I have no idea if it affected my pace though as I had too much else going on to worry about it to tell the truth.
However, I do agree if you're having a flyer you tend not to notice too much and if you're already suffering for whatever reason you will notice and feel anything that makes it more uncomfortable. As for it not being classed as too hot until 20 degrees or over, I totally disagree. Ideal marathon conditions I believe for me anyhow is around 10 - 12 degrees. I know some people favour it slightly warmer and seem to cope well with it, but there's many who don't and if they feel that it cost them a few secs/mins due to being more dehydrated than usual or other reasons then I wouldn't say they are making excuses, they are analysing their marathon experience and rightly so. Great weather for spectators though
CD: thanks, I was going to ask about London.....bring it home JAP
JAP - great run!!!
Tom yeah your right about the common theme and yes I am pleased I kept it going. What I thought was a crawl was still 6:50 pace for the last 5k despite how much it was hurting. I think I was 1/2 a mile away from a Lemonchello shuffle! Someone asked if I was ok when I crossed the line!
KB I could sence you weren't far away from difficulties but well done for sticking at it. The tempo top looked good tho! Same goes to you WTG well toughed out.
Shame its not a world record, guess it's called the worlds fastest time instead. So who's going to tell JAP it can't be an official PB then
Afternoon
Some wonderful VLM reports again this year; I make it 32 so far! Thank you all for sharing the ups and downs on this forum; it continues to be an inspiration. Congratulations to all those who achieved their targets and all the best to those who had a testing day. I have particularly found RW-H’s enthusiasm very entertaining and the responses (and advice) of others to his fantastic progress has been an excellent reminder of some basic training principles.
I ran on heart rate this year. (150 gradually rising throughout the 26.2 miles to 170 on Embankment).
1:34:xx, 1:34:xx = 3:08:xx
New targets: continue to manage my foot instability, avoid any other injuries, do some training, run intelligently. (same as this time last year!)
Hail Hail
Awesome JAP
Had to go to work today which was quite painful (due to calves and toenails) so just started to read back and then I better write a race report!)
Been too busy today (which is good), to follow Boston, which is annoying because I read something a month or two back in the bowels of the interweb that G Mutai was training unbelievably well and was on the verge of something special. If I'd remembered he was in Boston today I'd have had a bet and made it a Mutai double for the weekend.
Speaking of which, does anyone know if Bazu Worku (Ethiopian) ran yesterday. He was in the pre-race listings but I never saw him at halfway. I had an each way bet on him as well, but I think he must have DNS'd which means I get my money back. Bookie has taken the cash but should refund my wager, but I can't find evidence that he didn't start and drop out early.
Edit: bah, beaten to it by three of you.
JAP - nice one, shame we cant ratify it !
NS2 - top pacing there. Lets hope you can keep the training consistency going
GN - it appears that you were always 20 to 30 secs ahead of me, you even put a fade in to keep the gap the same when I got cramp !
Read back...
GAWD - tough luck with the upset stomach
RWH - already said fine performance
CD - quality run, did you enjoy it?
RJ - you seem to pb in every bloody race, lol Ridiculous
MtR - pesky hamstrings ffs!
BK - another who had a tough day by the sounds of it
TR - yeah 3.00 is becoming a bit of a joke, atleast I can laugh at it though which probably tells you I don't take it overly seriously, lol Maybe I'll be better on form next year to run with you, I plan to be a different runner in a years time.
Bus Boy - great run
FR - still a pb despite not quite running what you wanted
OS - did well all things considered?
GN - well done with the pb
JH1 - top performance
LS21 - great to chat to you on a couple of occasions mate, another with a fine showing yesterday, fairplay to that pb
Drifter - similar day to me, your autumn mara plan sounds good.
WTGY - tough luck, sounds like the family element is still well worth it though
Piscator - impressive given the cirumstances in training what with the new arriva
Mr B - nowt wrong with being pissed off at the finish when you haven't got what you wanted after months of training. Atleast you went for it though as opposed to getting to the finish thinking "what if"
Clearly - that sounds like a bloody tough day, honest reflection to be fair.
Selbs - cheers, I went for more than a sub 3 early in the race and it didn't come off so was probably a mistake given how I felt but I'm glad I still went for it anyway with the sub 3 already bagged last autumn.
JAP - nice pb!
I don't think the warm was a major reason for an average performance yesterday but as many have said it probably feels like 40C Saharan desert heat if yr having a bad day, lol I need to chill out more before these things rather then going into them so sleep depravated that I might as well have gone raving beforehand haha ! I think the 3 week block where I was run down also cost me too, even though I felt strong in all of my long runs and they were of better quality they still only amounted to 6 runs of 20 miles or more. Thats not enough plain and simple. Anyway already looking forward to the prospect of racing again in the upcoming months and don't feel burnt out/jaded physically or mentally.
Drifter – sorry it wasn’t quite there today, but great attitude nevertheless. I think I’m the one responsible for the “can’t run a marathon on less than 50mpw”…one of many of grandad’s bloomers!
RSalter – when I saw your result on the VLM website, I though oh no not again, so I’m glad that your not too hacked off with it. From your training I thought your 2:50 target was realistic….do you think it was just one of those days and the tension got to you?
BR – also sneaked a peek of your’s and Hilly’s result on the VLM website. I thought your performance was pretty strong, so I’m a bit disappointed for you that you were so close to that “this is finally my year”. If anyone deserves it, it’s you. Despite that, you ran true to your principle and gave it all…..and I’d expect nothing less.
Hilly – I didn’t realize that you were currently having a tough time with injury. Some times I think you are a bit too brave for your own good. I know I’ve said this before and it’s a sort of complement, but it upsets me when you describe what you put yourself through in races that you really shouldn’t be running. Notwithstanding that, 3:10 is very commendable………so I do admire you really
MtR – thoughtful analysis from you there. Providing you can avoid injury you will carry the accumulated fitness from your VLM forward with you. I’m sure you’ll be up for it again soon. ….you can take the man out of the marathon, but you can’t take the marathon out of the man.
Mr Boat – sounds like you had a tough time over the second half (1:22/1:34) even though you survived to a PB. I’m sure your pleased you stuck with it. It’s how we cope when things you wrong that tell us about ourselves. I doubt that there’s a serious runner ever, who hasn’t had that sort of experience.
WTGY – sounds like it just wasn’t there today, still it doesn’t make a bad runner. No doubt you’ll be planning on doing yourself justice in the Autumn.
….pausing for breath again….back later.
Top notch JAP, even if it was like running downhill with a tailwind
Great to see so many PB's at VLM, CharlieW, Piscator, GN, BB, TJK, LS21 (nice to have a pre & post race chat), AC, RJ (massive improvement!), ditto RWH, solid debut from GAWD on a dodgy tummy.
BR.. a fabulous run, pity you had a niggle which prevented it being even better. Hilly.. 3:10 is a very good time on a gammy leg! Nice age group position too.
Fantastic stuff at the pointy end.. Marigold (wow!), CJ, Coro (nice time trial!), CD.
Close to 2:45'ers.. Dids,TR,CRAB, FR, CL, JH1, well done all.
Nichs2.. very even splits! TMap.. sorry to hear about those annoyances & bliddy nuisance about the bag.
Much sympathy to those who didn't get what they wanted.. MTR, Kinase, Dull, Drifter,RS (3hrs and a few secs seems to be your speciality lol!), Mr Boat (but well done on the PB), WTGY, Clearly, Frankie C. I hope you will all come back another day and try again. The marathon can be a cruel mistress indeed.
A very modest 3:20 for me. I feel a bit like MTR when he spoke about scant reward for a lot of training. Whether the family traumas since xmas have taken a bit of a toll I don't know. After 10 sub 3:15 clockings this is my slowest marathon for 11 years and I would say it probably felt the toughest. I do have a GFA time left for 2012, I will do what I can to try to improve for that. If old father time is the cause of this I will have to do some thinking. I'm not sure I can be bothered running 50-80mpw to run a sub 3:30 time. Having said that don't worry I will probably cheer up in a day or two!
Great to meet so many of you at the Hotel & the FGFA start. Sorry I didn't make the Red Lion, unfortunately other stuff prevented it. Oh, and I didn't mind the cherry lucozade, I must have a stomach of iron!
Thanks. To be honest coming up to the marathon I only had some 4.5k races to judge any sort of time from and also a half I ran when dosed up on antibiotics so it was all a bit of an uncertainty. In the end I basically added 40 seconds to the pace I would have attempted if I'd have done a half marathon in the buildup if that make sense.
I just felt good the whole way, waited for the pain to kick in and when it didn't at mile 22 decided to speed up a bit.
Maybe it was just one of those days where things went right, however, I like to think it was ZaTTu's (I think) theory about green shoes being faster.
I'm dead happy to be able to say I've gone sub 3 so hopefully will stick around here for a while and maybe contribute something useful in the future.
whoops, spotted a typo
1:34:xx + 1:34:xx = 3:09:xx
Tom - to a certain degree I think the marathon defeated me before I even got to the start line! Got way too tense for this one in the last week and wasn't able to chill out the two nights before which is odd because I wasn't stressing on a time like sub 3. That left me hugley tired/drained on the day itself and probably unable to perform to what I might be capable of. That said though I've never converted my half times in any of the marathons I've done. I'm also probably closer to being more of a 2.55 runner than being near 2.50 currently when all is said and done. I have a feeling with the right training at shorter distances, and a more relaxed attitude going into the next one next year that I'm capable of taking a really solid chunk of 2.58.
Just a chip in on the great heat debate. I love the stats but Dids and his average finishing time is only half the story. If you do a search of the 18-39 category and click on the 5k split and check out who went thro 5k and then didn't finish it seems to be around 1 in 20. These runners don't register in Dids calcs as he only tracks finishers. This age group is the prime age group. Why did so many struggle? Are the quitters all not mentally tough enough?
If Dids can run the whole race with one drink from the only bottle he is carrying he is very different from your average runner. That said his performance was staggeringly good but he shouldn't use his natural ability to mask what was a pretty tough day for the ordinary (which he isn't).
If it wasn't the heat then something else out there was causing a problem. Humidity/pollution?? I am just a sample of one, but I ran 2007 with no major probs and never felt anywhere near as bad as I did y'day especially on the Docklands loop.
FYI my first pee was at a pub at around 5pm yday.
Dull
RS - keep at it. Just look at where folks like Ode are now. You need to have a certain amount of self-belief and self-expectancy in this game, as well as the miles and build up race times. I think I rely on it a bit too much sometimes though, rather than miles and build up race times. See you next yr, if you're aiming low to mid 2:50s then I'm your man !
NS2 - I feel cheated !
Just on my phone so not had a chance to check out all the stories from Sunday. Will hopefully get to do that in the next couple of days. Hopefully there was lots of good results and happy people.
Well today's tailwind in Boston was greatly appreciated, the downhills weren't. And even the downs were a mixed blessing, keeping the pace for the effort was easy, but battered the quads. Anyway, overall chuffed to bits as I found it a lot tougher than I was expecting despite the tailwind. A 2 min pb is cause for celebration, so that is exactly what I am off to do. I could be sometime! Or I could be asleep after 2 pints
TR - good point, I'm also only 33 and plan on running marathons for a good few years yet.There'll be plenty of twists and turns to come, no doubt some days like Amsterdam and some horror shows to boot, haha. I've done 7 but I'm still learning and more to the point I still enjoy training for them which is the main thing.
Wardi - maybe I should go and see that Paul Mackenna hypnotist bloke to help me avoid another 3.00 in the future!
Good to meet you.