Run > Race

Belfast Marathon. Came 1203/2308, 8/35 in category and in the end it was a bit disappointing. I had a plan for the race, which went okay up to a point, but then I just ran out of leg strength. The course profile showed a hill from miles seven to fourteen of over 300 feet of climbing and I knew I had to prepare myself to deal with that. I'd missed two weeks of training because of a torn hamstring and then was only allowed to run gently for two weeks before running properly, but no hill running. This course needed training for hill! So I knew I was at a bit of a disadvantage. I had three goal times. I could live with 4.15, 4.05 would be good and anything under four hours would be great.The plan was to aim to beat four hours, so an average pace of 9.09 or better. My race strategy was to build up a cushion of a few seconds over the first seven miles of reasonably flat running, then try to limit the amount of time lost climbing the hill. I expected to be worse than 9.09 pace when I finished the climb but hoped to be able to maintain about a 9 minute mile pace on the flatter homeward stretch. By the time I hit the hill around seven miles i was average pace 8.48, so about 2 minutes 20 cushion. This was encouraging. The seven miles of hills weren't quite as I imagined them, because it wasn't just a steady climb. It was up and down, with obviously more ups than downs. My Garmin later showed that it was actually over 700 feet of climbing. This was tough. and to add to it, the fifteenth mile lost all the height gained in that one mile. Steep downhill. It was tough going but as I turned right down the steep hill I was still averaging 8.50 pace, so I now had a cushion of about 4 mins 40! Sub four hours looked to be a distinct possibility. However, I knew I was feeling more tired than I normally would do at fifteen miles. I got to eighteen okay, but then I just ground to a halt and had my first walk. From then on it was a long slow grind. It was really disappointing to see the time slipping away and i faded badly. Disappointing in the endb, but at least I had no injury problems. What I now need to do is stay injury free in the run up to New York.