The Sub 3:15 Marathon Thread
336 watchers
Oct 2018
1:07am, 8 Oct 2018
449 posts
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Slowkentrunner
Joe, I think it's difficult running on a pancake flat course, you have to be always "on", no uphills to break your stride and no downhills to help you rest. The tangents were not as bad as I had thought they'll be and I've already mentioned the bad GPS. The crowds were amazing though and the nutrition benches were 2 blocks long. You couldn't miss a drink if you tried.
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Oct 2018
8:59am, 8 Oct 2018
29,302 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
SKR, many congrats. Fab time, dedicated training and sounds like you held it together for a tough finish. Re non-GPS pacing, were there decent mile / km markers on course? If so (most big city marathons) then Paul The Builder's patent manual lapping technique is perfect. Effectively it's old school "stop watch at distance points" but with the watch converting that into the pace (time / distance) that we recognise. Hit "Lap" at a mile marker. Took you 6:30 to do that mile. So that was 6:30 pace (obv!) Missed a mile? Hit lap twice and the 13:10 it took you to do that section is 6:35 pace. It can also show your average pace *more* accurately than GPS (because of the accumulation of distance inaccuracy, the "raw" pace measurement of a GPS watch tends to "flatter" our pace, hence why some folk miss out by seconds and complain about GPS measuring "over distance".) There's an article on manual lapping. I'll post a link to it. Well done again.  G
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Oct 2018
9:19am, 8 Oct 2018
29,304 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
fetcheveryone.com/article-view.php?id=525 There we go, it could be just the job for you? G
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Oct 2018
9:46am, 8 Oct 2018
5,755 posts
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larkim
It looks like manual lapping was used yesterday by SKR - based on the laps showing in your log. TBH I think he paced it well - aggressive but not so aggressive that there was a complete detonation. Fastest timed mile looks like 6:17 (mile 1, whooaa) but apart from mile 1 and 2 all were in the 6:30s until 6:46 23, 6:54 24, 7:19 25 and probably 7:30 for the final mile (look like 26 mile was left until the finish line). Yes, it could be better paced, but if he lost 100s in the last few miles to some early aggressive pacing I think that's not much worse than people like Galen Rupp ran yesterday. |
Oct 2018
10:17am, 8 Oct 2018
13,316 posts
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Chrisull
Well done SKR, you will have to change your name now, you smashed it out the park! Sub 2.45 thread next
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Oct 2018
10:30am, 8 Oct 2018
450 posts
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Slowkentrunner
Thanks HG, yes Larks I did manual lap. I started in the first wave behind the elites and everyone there was so fast. Halfway through the mile I slowed a bit and it was like the whole field overtook me. So I decided to hold a bit, when I realised that mile was 6:17, I slowed down even more but not enough and I had no indication what was bang on pace. The plan for the first 10k was to keep to 6:45 pace, I asked the sub 3 Pacers what they were going to be doing and they told me they were going to run a 7min mile for the first mile(they didn't, they were later spotted running 6:30s) After that first 5k though I slowed it down and got back on plan, I was meant to basically take 3-5secs off my pace every 10k block but since I knew I had banked time I just tried to keep it steady at the 6:35-38 pace. I managed that till just around mile 23 and then the fight started. It would have been nice to know how it would have gone with a slower 5k. |
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Oct 2018
10:32am, 8 Oct 2018
451 posts
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Slowkentrunner
Thanks Chrisull ! I'll have a think about the name 😅 Now that I've got my Boston qualified. I'll probably aim for that sub 2:45 for Boston 2020 |
Oct 2018
10:37am, 8 Oct 2018
13,496 posts
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Bazoaxe
The only problem with manual lapping and poor GPS is that you don't quite know where you are between markers and that bit is run to feel. You do at least find out every mile or kilometre how things are going and can reset, but it would be easy to be too fast or slow without realising it. I had that problem in chester last year when my garmin lost signal at 11 miles and I started to manual lap from 13 although I did have the comfort of the sub 3 pace group to regulate my pace until I fell off the back. |
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Oct 2018
10:38am, 8 Oct 2018
5,756 posts
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larkim
The beauty of your time yesterday is that you'll never know what might have been but I doubt you'll lose any sleep on not getting 2:53 when you've hit 2:55! If it had been a 2:59 target and 3:01 outcome, perhaps that would have felt psychologically different. It's an interesting equation that perhaps 20-30 seconds of excess pace at the beginning seems to give a 100-150s pace impact at the end. I wonder how physiologically true that is? |
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Oct 2018
10:40am, 8 Oct 2018
454 posts
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Slowkentrunner
Baz exactly, most of my laps were: 1 fast, 1 slower. I'd say HR was a good indication in the middle miles, but not at the beginning with a freshly tapered body or near the end with an exhausted one. |
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