Run > Race

Race went ok. After a complete shambles trying to get parked (3/4 hour to get into the car park only to find out that it was full!!) finished 42/570.

Ran around 6.45 mm pace for first 15 or 16 miles then it started getting really hard. Was much hillier than I was lead to believe and was running on my own for most of the race. Slowed down as I was conscious that there were 10 miles left to go and I had been led to believe that real problems would come at 20-22 miles. Had energy gels every 5 miles. The real problems never really came, in fact sped up slightly around 24 miles but was too late to get <3hrs. Bit disappointed to miss out on GFA for London but still pleased with the time. I think that I have gained valuable experience from this race. If I ran it again, I would push a bit harder to maintain a good pace from 16 miles on.

Went through 13.1 in about 1.27.45 which was according to plan - roughness started kicking in around 19 miles.

Mile splits were: (1)6.00 (2)6.30 (3)7.05 (4)6.44 (5)6.46 (6)6.34 (7)6.55 (8)6.43 (9)6.40 (10)6.56 (11)6.56 (12)6.46 (13.1)7.09 (14)6.35 (15)7.02 (16)6.34 (17)6.59 (18)7.00 (19)7.36 (20)7.06 (21)7.18 (22)6.36 (23)8.22 (24)7.33 (25)7.12 (26)7.43 (26.2)1.34
Couple of potentially dodgy splits in there noteably at 22 miles.

Lessons learned and things to do differently next time:

1.Peaked my training too soon - felt at optimum level of fitness mid-August. Motivation started to slip after that and training returns began to diminish.

2. Didn't keep weight down to optimum level for the race having kept it at a good level for most of the summer. Holiday 4 weeks before the race did not help and broke any training momentum.

3. Perhaps needed one or two more 20 milers and more long runs pushing hard on the last 5-8 miles to toughen myself up for faster running late in the race.

4. Maybe running the half marathon took too much focus away from the full marathon - should have used it as a training run, not tapered and not worried about getting a PB.