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Apr 2012
1:32pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,953 posts
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clare1976
Sorry, also meant to wish Heebie a massive Good Luck also for Sunday (plus any other lurkers!) - you are due a massive marathon PB 
Re the pace / 'getting going' etc at VLM... I started from green (GFA) which is where you'd start hellen unless u get your champ qualifier before Jan 2013 (I think you can upgrade it even if you initially apply for GFA). I started in pen 5 (3:34-3:59) cos when I applied in July 2011 I was 8 months pregnant and genuinly had no ideawhat I'd be capable of. I thought the 3:55 I put was ambitious but I would have felt 'wrong' putting anyting slower as a prediction when applying for a GFA place! The green start is smaller than the other 2 and hence, you get going more quickly. There wasn't much between the back of pen 3 (sub-3:30) and the front of pen 5 where I was as I guess most people put the faster times down. But, it did feel very busy when we merged with blue which was at about a mile I think. I had a slower first mile (8:08) and that was with some effort to find gaps and push myself into them. But, it wasn't too bad after that. I guess the further up you start, the less of an issue the crowding is. It felt busy for the first 10m but at no point did I feel held back too much. I found myself near the blue 3:30 pacer (which was Contro) after about 3m - just before we merged with the red start and I stayed around that group for the first half - not letting them go ahead but also not wanting to go too far ahead. After tower bridge I lost them and wasn't sure if they were ahead or behind for a while - turns out they were not far behind. At 24ish around the horrid underpass, I was beginning to struggle and was starting to see average pace 8:0X on my watch for the first time - and the other 3:30 pacer from the red start passed me. Didn't seem to have too many people with him.
Have doen my 'first' VLM blog with the numbers - won't really help anybody much as I ran a fairly even race. The words are slowly coming together and I hope to post it tonight or tomorrow - may have something which may help somebody though don't count on it ;-)! What I realised is that 3:30 really is a nice target as it's so easy to work out the timings / splits - 8mm / 5mk is easy to work out and although the garmin was measuring out after 2 miles, the mile markers and 5k markers / mats allowed me to check I was on track - something which wouldn't have been as straightforward with fiddly numbers, especially later into the race with a mushed brain!!!
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Apr 2012
1:33pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,954 posts
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clare1976
sorry, typo - pen 5 was 3:45-3:59!
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Apr 2012
2:18pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,630 posts
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Jon_T
Good work Clare, very even splits, excellent pacing, far more disciplined than mine was.
Well done again to everyone else who got what they wanted and good luck to Milton Keynes and Manchester runners this weekend
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Apr 2012
4:04pm, 25 Apr 2012
12,902 posts
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hellen
Thanks for that info Claire
I thought your pen was decided based on the time you had achieved not the time you predicted?
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Apr 2012
4:25pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,955 posts
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clare1976
no, it's based on prediction, so in theory everyone could put sub-3 to get at the front but i guess it evens itself out.
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Apr 2012
4:49pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,295 posts
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slowfish
Well done Clare, look forward to your bloggage!
Hopefully I can get a sub-3.30 too this Sunday and agree about the ease of calculating. Not so easy at the 5km markers though or am I missing something?!
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Apr 2012
5:00pm, 25 Apr 2012
9,890 posts
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Naomi P
25 minutes per 5km. Easy!
(You may want a few seconds cushion)
Good luck Sunday
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Apr 2012
5:06pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,296 posts
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slowfish
Thanks Naomi. Congrats to you too
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Apr 2012
7:30pm, 25 Apr 2012
77 posts
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AmGettingFitter (AGF)
Very consistent Clare... Congrats!!
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Apr 2012
10:03pm, 25 Apr 2012
1,956 posts
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clare1976
Thanks all 2nd much more wordy (!) blog written - as much for my own record as anything - sorry, it's long :-o!!
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