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Sub 3h15
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Come on people. Less drinking, more reports. This is the age of mobile data.
While we are waiting for the main event
, I ran Strabane half today and ran 1:27:25 (garmin time) for a 30 sec pb so pleased with that , hailstones for about 2 miles in the race !
Pleased with that with running a 22 miler on tuesday and 50 miles for the week , 6.29 last mile and 5:15m/mile for the pointy bit at the end
Nice work Leslie. Impressive time, a PB and a big week.
Congratulations Badbark. A fantastic result and no less than all those miles and your meticulous preparation and dedication deserves. It's one of the great things about running that by and large you get out what you put in.
Well done also to LH for braving the hailstones and emerging victorious with a shiny new PB.
An interesting run for me today. Mixed emotions. I'll write up a report now. There was a bit of drama so I won't spoil the punchline by giving away the result here!
Good to see Lorenzo at the start and run the first couple of miles together. I did go to Chandos and mooched around for 15 mins or so but didn't see any faces I recognised so I scuttled off as I needed to meet the family - turns out they made a late decision to come and watch as my son's cricket was cancelled. Sorry not to be able to meet a few new faces.
X- post. WOW! Awesome result Joolska. That's fantastic. Enjoy the well earned celebrations.
So, here we go with the report...
Met Lorenzo at the start and we decided to set off together but given I was gunning for a sub 3:15 to retain GFA and he was looking to go a bit quicker it was likely we would go our separate ways, which we did after the first couple of miles. Conditions were perfect as far as I was concerned. We passed RFJ and Lorenzo had a chat but I didn't realise until after that it was him.
A rather skittish first 5 miles. First one was slow and then 3 quick ones - i ended up with the sub 3 pacer for miles 4 and 5 but he must have started slow as i wasn't going that fast (I got to 5m in 35.39). Garmin HR data was all over the place so ignoring that for now.
I then settled into a groove at around 7:15 pace (3h10m pace) and felt pretty good. HR monitor had clicked into gear and was in the right place (162-165) so I thought i'd keep going at this pace and see how things were at halfway.
Got to halfway in 1:34:38 and all was still in order. Feeling comfortable and no HR creep. So - onwards and upwards. I thought maybe 3:10 was a possibility and, if nothing else, if I focus on that i should pull away from the 3:15 target. I even wondered whether my second best time from 2009 (3:09:11) might be in play. I decided to keep chugging along at 7:15 pace and see how things were at 20m.
Got to 20m in 2:24:53. Felt as I would expect to feel and HR up at 170 but I would expect to see that. I wasn't wearing a pace band but I knew that 3:10 pace is 2:25:xx at 20m so 3:10 is still on (although my 2009 time may now be out of reach).
Mile 21: 7:18
Mile 22: 7:23
Mile 23: 7:33
Mile 24: 7:36
Yes - it is getting tougher, as it tends to, and I am struggling to hold the pace. I give myself a talking to. I accept that I may be the wrong side of 3:10 and can't hold the 7:15s but I decide I want to do the last 2.2 miles at sub 3:15 pace (7:26 or better) which should give me a 3:10:xx. I push on and get up to the required pace again. I spend most of mile 25 chasing down a Mankini-wearing Borat until disaster strikes.
Just before the 25 mile marker, under Waterloo bridge, I get a big hamstring cramp (as do 2 other runners near me at exactly the same moment). I stop and make an inept attempt at stretching it out which only serves to set off my quads and calves. I try again by touching my toes. This works better, and after about 50s i am on my way again.
I go through the 25m marker in 3:03:11 so I still have plenty of leeway for the critical 3:15 target - provided I don't cramp again. I continue on, gingerly, at about 8:05-8:10 pace, and hope for the best, concerned only with bagging the GFA. I turn right at Big Ben - less than 1m to go, the 8m/m pace feeling really easy. I turn left into Birdcage walk and about 200m short of the "800m to go" sign I cramp again. I stop and stretch. This time there are lots of spectators around - yelling at me to keep going - nearly there etc., but what can you do? This time I get going again after 20-30 secs and for the next 600m I feel I could cramp at any time.
I go round the bend past buckingham palace, through the 26m marker and see Paula on the big screen giving her post-race interview. This brings a smile to my face and takes my mind of the cramp. I see the finish. The clock says 3:13:xx. I know I have 20s in hand on that as that's what it took me to get over the start line. I dare not push on for the finish and I begin to wonder what I would do if cramp strikes again. Could I walk? Crawl maybe? Roll?
Fortunately this was not necessary and I got there as the clock turned 3:14. Official chip time of 3:13:40. GFA bagged and I w
Fortunately this was not necessary and I got there as the clock turned 3:14. Official chip time of 3:13:40. GFA bagged and I would have happily taken that at 10am this morning. My 3rd fastest marathon, quickest since 2010 and 5th sub 3:15. So not too shabby in the scheme of things.
Nevertheless, upto 20m I was running really well and even after that I was happy with how I responded to the slight slowing over the next 3-4 miles. I think the cramp cost me about 3 minutes, which is disappointing, but the main aim was GFA and that was achieved.
I have had issues with cramp several times in marathons and it has tended to be at pretty much exactly the same point in the race. Something to look into for next time...
So - a great day. ultimately successful, but not without drama and some feelings of what could have been. Looking forward to a beer this evening and watching more reports roll in.
I've had no cramp problems since switching to hokas (Cliftons). Might be worth a shot.
Some great times folks Joolska & Badbark exceptional....
Tough day for me but ground out 2:58:09 with very consistent pacing. Full report to follow, drinking beer on the train....
So I started off the green start. Saw Paula on arrival, not into celeb hunting, but gave her a respectful nod. The toilet queues were pretty horrific, but on the plus side the access to the start is great.
Training had gone fairly well, so set off confident of sub-3:15 and a bit scared of sub-3:10.
Set off steadily and hit mile 1 in 7:30. Picked it up a bit towards 3:10 pace and felt comfortable. By mile 6 I was getting towards 2 minutes ahead of 3:15 schedule. I then settled into 3:15 pace and felt good.
Halfway passed in 1:34:35 (nearly 3 mins up) ahead of my 1:35 to 1:36 window. It then started to get harder, but pace was OK. By mile 18 though, hamstrings and calf muscles were clearly getting tight.
Things got progressively tougher mile on mile. 20 miles passed in 2:25:45, just a tad quicker than last year. Clearly survival was high on the agenda and it was tough to gauge pace. Felt better at mile 23, but by mile 24 I was on the marathon death march.
By mile 25 I gave up on beating last year's PB (3:12:52). Cramp set in at big ben, but kept it going.
Nothing left in the tank at the end and happily crossed the line in 3:13:27. Very satisfied with that, but muscles are now shot. I definitely looked worse than average on the walk to the station.
awesome day and a decent PB -loved every second. Well except for the 19 seconds wrong side of short GFA at 3:15:18.
the blue start 3:15 pacer knew his stuff and told me that his experience told him we'd need to bank a few minutes for the first half to help deal with the fade he sees from everyone at about 22 miles, coming back towards Tower hill.
It all made sense but I hadn't really trained for much faster than 4:33/km so I knew it was going to be tight. Still I went along with it and kept up to the halfway point.
At that point I sensed that if I kept going like this Id be risking a blowup towards the end and I just wasn't having that. So I figured Id run my own race at that point and try to just hold goal pace. IT wasn't too bad but I did fade a little after mile 22. I think I picked things up for mile 26 and birdcage but it wasn't quite enough.
In retrospect maybe I should've binned the pacer idea as soon as I learned what the target splits were but I wanted to see how running in a group would go, just for the hell of it. At it did still yield a PB lets face it.
Feeling pretty good right now to be honest! And Ive done london now. I can pick someplace else for 12 months time
Wow, some amazing results today!!! Looking forward to hearing them officially and reading the reports.
Jools - HUGE congratulations - that is fantastic!
Badbark - congrats on a great time - incredible.
Congrats too to GE and SB - nice reports too.
DPoD - well done - so close to sub 3:15!
Congrats also to Leslie - excellent HM. All looking very good.
OO, another class result from a class runner. Respect. (as the youth of today often say).
Well done SB. That's a serious level of effort. Enjoy the doms!
Old habits die hard, couldn't resist seeing how you guys did, 5 years since retiring! Very impressed to see some old (or should I say established) names still doing it.
Top reports, massive well done Joolska!
Worked on a baggage lorry for first time today and while it was a lot of fun, it certainly didn't change my mind about wanting to do one again .......
Well done all of you who did!!
OO - another sub 3 notched up. got to be pleased with that. Enjoy the beer.
SB - A job well done. Sounds like we had quite similar runs and must have been quite close to one another for most of the race. I was off green too.
DPoD - sounds like it was a good decision to run your own race in the end. Well done on the PB and pleased to see you enjoyed the day despite those pesky 19s.
Cheers all. Will just have to smash it in Abingdon now
Cheers all. Will just have to smash it in Abingdon now
well done SB, Joolska and OO
Near miss 'Death Punch of Death', but still a very good time, well done.
Briefly dropping in to report 2:59:12 today. I was aiming for 2:57 with 6:45s but seem to have run an extra quarter of a mile so perhaps could do with some work on tangents. Mini disaster 3.5 miles in when my ankle went over on one of the many water bottles carelessly thrown on the ground. the pain shot through my foot but I wasn't prepared to stop and throw in the towel so ploughed on and thought I would see how it fared. It generally was not a problem until around 17/18 miles when I could feel it quite a lot. I now have a fat ankle to add to one blister and a sub-3 marathon.
I saw Lorenzo at the pub who ran a brilliant watch free race. Poacher too in his fancy dress. I'll leave them to tell you how they did...
Jools - you are inspirational! I couldn't be more pleased for you.
Badbark - very well deserved AND with chicken pox interrupting training too.
OO - superb time although I never had any doubt you could pull a sub 3 out of the bag.
GE - congratulations on achieving your goal despite the cramp. Do you take electrolyte drinks beforehand?
SB - brilliant time! Well done.
Leslie - tasty HM time Which is well deserved after all your mileage.
Gahhhhh! Pressed too early before wishing DPoD a huge congratulations on a superb race. It's still a 3:15 which is a fantastic achievement.
Well done everyone today. Truly inspiring by all.
Wow – what a fantastic set of results. Huge congrats to Jools, MsE, Badbark and OO52, all of whom could easily defect to the sub-3 thread but we want you to stay on here!
Suffice to say Poacher and I had to have very stern words with MsE in the pub for not being absolutely ecstatic at a 13 minute PB combined with a sub-3 – super super stuff and you should be really chuffed.
Well done to GE for battling through at the end to smash the pre-race goal of 3:15, and hats off to Carmen Miranda for making it round despite the recent injuries and lack of training miles.
Also, fab stuff from Sandy Balls and a cracking PB from Death Punch.
Hopefully Race Jase will pop on here and explain just how he keeps making such massive improvements!
As for me, I got to the start nice and early (and before the toilet queues built up!) and then tried to work out what I was going to do for an hour before sticking my bag on the lorry. Read a bit of Charlie Speeding’s book and did a spot of celeb hunting (Jensen Button, James Cracknell and, er, Lee Hendrie) before I spotted GE and we had a good natter before slapping the Vaseline on (not on each other!) and heading to the pens.
I was running completely to feel with the aim of 3:10 give or take but went through the first few miles a bit quickly if my mental maths at the mile markers was correct, but was still a bit surprised when one of the 3:00 pacers came past.
Good to see RFJ after a few miles and kept my eyes open for other familiar faces but other than a few supporters from the Club, I had quite a quiet race without the chatting from previous years.
I went through halfway in 1:32:19 but faded a tad in the last 10K as the following 5K splits will testify.
5K: 21:55
10K: 21:41
15K: 21:59
20K: 22:00
25K: 21:57
30K: 22:19
35K: 22:35
40K: 23:02
Last 2.2K: 9:53 (about 22:35 pace)
I missed Minni at the 22 mile mark, but think I saw Speedy out of the corner of my eye as I passed the Fetchpoint.
No problems with cramp in the last few miles and I was doing plenty of overtaking and fortunately still had enough for a semi-sprint battle with Rob (aka Marathon Man UK) although he was probably saving himself for his second marathon of the day somewhere in the States – the guy is both an inspiration and a lunatic.
So, ended up with 3:07:21 with a 2:43 positive split (1:32:19 / 1:35:02) so I know what to work on.
Overall I was just under half a minute slower than my PB from last year, but despite the fact that my training has been focused on Comrades, it was still my fastest ever second half of a marathon and my best WAVA score for a marathon so I’m taking plenty of positives out of it and will be giving a sub-3 a serious attempt either at Abingdon in the autumn or London next year.
Great to catch up with OO, Minni, MsE and Poacher in Chandos.
Roll on next year!