Run > Race

Wokingham Half. Conditions were beautiful: sunny, low wind in the most part (although some headwind in the second half). I felt well rested after not much running during half term. I want to test out the 70-85 P&D marathon week taper, and has I had a cough and general lethargy this seemed a good opportunity. Some lost marathon miles, but sensible nonetheless.

After a quick 2M warm up with Jooligan and my best man, Ben, I squeezed in a good few rows back. The 1:20 pacer said he would run 6:05s and I wanted to be a shade quicker. I was a little caught out by the start line, as I was anticipating it being the big arch.

Immediately, Maca and I were running together. Running with Macca was brilliant – he really was metronomic. Think he quite enjoyed the fact he ran a 5M and 10M PB on route – and quite right too! We both went through 10M in 59:46. It might be marginally net downhill to that point, but I would love to target a legitimate sub 60 10M at some point. Easier said than done! Macca then pulled away on the tough hill at mile 11 and maintained that gap.

I felt in control the whole way, until said hill, then had to really work for it. I was absolutely hanging on by the end, as shown by the rising HR. I really wanted to quit and walk off the course within the last mile. Still, I think it was a pretty well paced race.

Having crossed my line and stopped my watch, I couldn’t believe it said 1:19:00. I was reasonably confident of sneaking a second, but didn’t confirm this until lunch time. Delighted with a 50s PB for a time of 1:18:56. And to sneak into the top 100 in a field of that quality is, well, meaningless, but a nice round number anyway.

Great to chat away with HPR, Joe, Millsy and Macca during the warm down. I felt tired and nothing more than 8m/m on offer. My lower abs felt very stiff. Possibly from my daughter jumping on my back when I was planking a couple of days ago. Just shy of 5M for this rounded things up to 20M for the day, giving some good marathon gains from what until then had been a lighter week.

Legs not too bad this morning, although abs/groin still stiff. 7M recovery run in beautiful if very cold weather. Standard 8:40s. Hope to sneak out for 3 later. The V dot calculator puts this race performance as a 2:45:01 marathon, and marginally better than my 35:56 10k a few weeks ago. I find it impossible to believe that I am capable of running a marathon at that pace, and for me, it will be too much of a gamble. Still – progress!

Split Summary
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1) 1m - 6:05(6:05/m) 179/190bpm
2) 1m - 5:59(5:59/m) 162/167bpm
3) 1m - 5:54(5:54/m) 163/183bpm
4) 1m - 6:01(6:01/m) 165/170bpm
5) 1m - 5:53(5:53/m) 164/167bpm
6) 1m - 5:56(5:56/m) 165/169bpm
7) 1m - 5:49(5:49/m) 166/170bpm
8) 1m - 5:53(5:53/m) 167/170bpm
9) 1m - 5:57(5:57/m) 168/170bpm
10) 1m - 6:00(6:00/m) 168/171bpm
11) 1m - 6:18(6:18/m) 169/171bpm
12) 1m - 6:09(6:09/m) 169/171bpm
13) 1m - 6:06(6:06/m) 171/173bpm
14) 0.16m - 59(6:06/m) 174/176bpm