I’m disappointed, but I ran a personal best. Work that out.
Got into London Thursday morning, and spent Thursday sorting out visa stuff and getting bib(s) and chip and got a 3 mile run in that evening, Friday went for a 3 mile run with my sister, and Saturday put in a gentle 4 miles… ate bad food during this time, and wasn’t disciplined enough with my diet… especially Saturday night when the overwhelming desire to consume bad food somehow beat out the knowledge that I had a marathon the next morning… I’ll run it off… I need the fuel… won over. I should learn from the mistake.
Sunday morning got up and ran a couple of miles around 5:45am and did a bit of stretching: trying to wake the system up. Got the overland to Blackheath – got into the best marathon pre-start setup I’ve ever had – the AAA British Marathon Championships set up at London has it own enclosure, covered tent with water and tea and coffee and lucozade… separate toilets out back… posh ones with sinks and mirrors and working plumbing. I’m doing London next year based off of how well they treated this group of semi elites. Got walked to the start and put right next to the elites, but ahead of the masses behind us (who were marshalled to actually stop them from crushing us and the elites.. I felt special…)
Rainy and cool weather. Lord Seb Coe (about 10meters to my right) started the race and then it was fairly bunched and clustered for the first 5 miles or so. Wet, but my shoes (brooks racers – version 4 I think) didn’t have any problems except around cutty sark which was quite slippery. There were a couple of really gentle hills, so it wasn’t completely flat, but mostly flat all round. I felt fine through 10, then started to fall apart at 12… felt dreadful at the half and started to get slower and slower… 15 I was in a bit of a purple patch. By 18 I was feeling better and pushed through to a decent time at 20miles. I was almost bang on my time at 20 as in Chicago 6 months ago. At the half I hit 1:17:&change and this was really clocking it compared to my other marathons. After 20 my thighs were fairly shot and it was an effort to keep my stride open. My right shin (problem from the last 5 weeks) started to tear open and so the last 6 miles were quite painful as each mile the muscle tear would get worse and worse. Every now and again it would jar when I hit down with my right leg (one downhill section was a bit unpleasant). But I kept trying to keep my form light and keep the impact of my feet on the ground as smooth as possible. I think the adrenaline helped take a lot of the pain off as well. From mile 13 I start to have stomach and bladder problems but managed to hold off actually until the finish. There was a couple of times when I thought I needed to fix the problem pretty desperately, but it was merely discomfort, and I don’t think it cramped me up enough to affect my running.
The last 6 miles were actually alright. The crowds were great and I knew I had enough in me to keep kicking out reasonably solid mile times. Tried to kick as much as possible in the last 2 miles and over took a handful (maybe 20…?) in the last two miles. Really kicked for the last 800 meters. And…
2:38:43. A new personal best by 35seconds. It seems silly to have put in so many huge mileage weeks to only score a personal best by 30odd seconds. But, considering I was injured 5 weeks ago and didn’t think I could run the race today… and I was able to run it and complete it and complete it well. That’s a plus. Considering I didn’t run for 3 weeks which were when I would have pushed my sharpening phase and thus got my body to be happy running 5:45s or 5:50’s efficiently…. I missed out on that so I know I have a huge room for improvement if I avoid injury and get through a full marathon training with all of the phases of training completed correctly. I also put on quite a bit of weight while injured, and in the last week before the marathon, and if I was 10lbs lighter going into a marathon I’d give myself such a greater chance of getting around in the time I want. I was really close to my racing weight right when I got injured and I do lack the discipline to keep my weight down when injured or when not running 100+ weeks. The weather today was close to perfect… I was a bit cold from about mile 20 onwards, but it was still, slightly damp (enough to cool you off), overcast, about mid-40’s… all helped me today. There was also always a bunch of guys nearby to tack onto to help pull me along. Or in the last 5 miles, guys to pick off one by one to keep me focused on putting in a fast finish. And I had people looking out for me, and me looking out for them, at mile 13, 15, 18, 22, 25 and the finish and that really helped break up the race. I finished 183rd (I think) and hopefully that places me well in the UK Marathon championships. I feel like I deserved to be in the special UK championships race and will 100% aim to do this race again next year to try and improve. I think I could get down to 2:30 form in 12 months time… and that, for the next 365 days, is my goal. But for now, I’m going to have some ice cream and spend the next 7 days resting my shin… (it’s already had icing and vit I)… lots of cycling around the british countryside and walking the dog through the fields. Lots of chocolate hobnobs. Fish and chips at some point.
So… yes, my goals are now so high for myself that a 30second PR and running a marathon in 2:38 really doesn’t seem like a success… but knowing the injury trouble I had, and not running for 3 whole weeks out of the last 5 weeks of training, I knew at the startline that all I could do this morning was my best… to give all of what my fitness would allow there and then. I think this morning was fairly close to that. Considering the condition I turned up to the start line in… I think I did close to my best. So it’s not all doom and gloom.
I may never be happy…. Until I break 2:30.
