LEICESTER CITY MARATHON 19th October 2009
According to my calculations, Leicester was my 32nd Marathon of 2008. Admittedly, many of those marathons have been in training and obviously I did 8 in a row when I did the 8in8in08. However, Leicester was going to be different…..
I had targeted Leicester as the ‘only’ opportunity I would have a go at beating my PB. No doubt I have loads of miles in my legs. No doubt I have run countless marathons. But all of them in the remainder of 2007 and all those preceding Leicester had been based on ‘endurance’; the ability to run big miles day after day.
So Leicester was falling quite nicely as an ‘in-between’ race. Post my Ironaman I had run Coventry Trail 40 miler and the 100k on the Thames Path at the end of September, so, with those races out of the way I had a mini taper before re-building my mileage back up at the end of October, beginning of November.
Funnily, my marathon PB is not that quick, 3:12 ran at Paris Marathon in 2007. However, I have run lots since then and I know on a good day I can get a good time. My prep for Leicester, although good, was not ideal for a fast run. I had too little time to add any speed work and my mini taper in true marathon terms was not long enough. Give it a go anyway I thought…
In marathon terms, the weather was perfect. Cloudy, with a slight chill. However, after mile 13 the wind really picked up and made the last half tough going. So, the race !
The gun sounded at 9.20am and we were off. Difficult start as the half marathon race started with the marathon runners. It was too easy to start too quick as the ‘halfers’ flew off. My target was to really push myself, throw it all on the line and either come up with a thrashing of my PB and a long desired sub 3 marathon or die in flames….
Mile 1 was 5:57, mile 2 - 6:22, mile 3 – 6:23, mile 4 – 6:27 and then I settled. My target was to try and keep 6:30’s going and see what happened. Slight undulations slowed the pace every now and then but in principal I was being consistent. I felt good. Breathing was easy, I was on my toes and the miles were clicking by. I went through 10k in 38min (ish) and then the half marathon at 1:25, so, all good….
Then the wind and a few hills came. It was tough for a while. Then next 4 miles went by at 6:47, 6:46, 6:49 and 6:47. It wasn’t a problem, 6:50’s is sub 3 hr pace aand I had time in the bag from the first 13 miles.
At 18 miles I started to suffer a little and then at 19 miles the legs started to twitch. Oh dear, the wheels were coming off. Going long and steady no problem but my legs were just not used to this pace. Mile 19 - 7:09 and then I just had to hold on. My legs were giving me some real stick. If I could have held 7:30’s I would have still gone sub 3 but my legs were not having any of it. Mile 20 – 7:12, mile 21 – 7:31, mile 22 – 7:38….. you can see a pattern forming can’t you!! Grit your teeth and keep running I thought. I was still going to thrash my PB but not going to get that sub 3.
I crossed the line in 3:03:18 with bloody sore legs. I had knocked 9 miinutes of my PB but missed the holy grail by just over 3 mins. It will come. I know it’s there. I just need to dedicate a period of running purely for that target and not trying to ‘fit it in’.
Next time?
Ian
