Run > General

The Big Day - First Marathon MK 2013!

Well it all went to plan until 12 noon ish on 6th May 2013....

Followed training plan to the tee for 18 odd weeks.
Training gone very well and overall on pace for target 4:15 - or so I thought
Rested well for about 2 days.
Fully carbed up.
Tested beetroot juice even. Yummy!
Fully hydrated.
Very emotional but very ready!

The journey over with poor Mr CK involved me in silence and crying a little with the emotion that the day had arrived! Got there in plenty of time and felt fully relaxed and nearly holding it together(well I like to think so) then was met be Lollepop, Ginger Wand, Old Man and Mrs C. Had another cry and hug at level of support - and on advice sat in the shade - oh yes cos after months of training in the depths of Winter, it was now a mini heat wave - hurray!!!!!

The field was small - which suited me. The start line very close to the area where we were waiting so a very relaxed atmosphere which suited me. Took my place on the start line and we were off. I stuck to plan - 9:30-9:40 min miles and despite temperature was pleased with initial few miles. The first 6 odd were on major roads and to be fair was easy to get into pace fairly early on. Great to see E'O twice on this stretch at a about 3 and 5 miles-ish - a lovely surprise thank you!
The next section (in my head) was towards the first set of lakes, and I had great cheers from GW. LP, OM and MrsC here - and was bang on pace. Woo hoo.... There was a man at about 8 miles odd with a hose pipe in the road dousing the runners - needless to say he was very popular (I'll say no more. In fact there is no a facebook campaign to find him and thank him personally!). At this stage my resilience to "forget the weather and stick to plan" was becoming more difficult.
Headed out to 13 miles odd and saw GW and LP again - thank you! Again was on target - I think 2:05, but struggling with heat - I'm not sure how hot but I think it must have been about 24c + by then. (All I know is it was 23c on the drive to pub afterwards at 5pm ish so it had to be hotter at midday I think).

I read on the internet yesterday inspirational quotes for marathons and one of them was "it's not 26.2 miles, it's 10 water stops" and that became my focus. Every time I hit a water stop I took two bottles - 1 for cooling, 1 for drinking - every time I saw a marshal I asked how soon the next water stop was - though to be fair I knew this - I just wanted them sooner!!!!!!!!!!
The next section was to the second set of lakes (Willen) - this was very pretty - if you fancied a bbq and a beer garden - LOL. To be fair the local support was super and I was very pleased and surprised to see a friend of mine pop up with a "GO KAREN" sign at this point and cheer me on The fact I ran past her and walked a bit is beside the point right?
I had been run-walking (stress the walking) from 13 miles til the end. The heat tried to kill me - but didn't quite succeed. My head was telling me that I'd never done that in training - but it'd never been so blinkin hot in training either!!!!!!!!!
My sister was at about 21 miles with a cheer - thanks Sis and family and great to see Totley about that point too with her two girls - hope no sunburn? Again a lovely surprise to see a friendly face!
E'O greet me again at about 22 miles and offered me water - thank you and apologies for mishearing our conversation regarding you offering me your water bottle from "do you want mine" for "do you want wine" - clear madness on my part - but again great to have a friendly face - thank you!!!!!!!!
GW found me walking at 22 miles odd and very kindly ran with me offering support and Keaton’s drink as was so blinkin thirsty! Genuinely though it did help (tales of a collapsed woman who you had helped aside )

Then saw my friend and her husband from Yaxley who ran with me for a bit (he got a raw deal) but again helpful. In all honesty once I realised I was out of water stations I thought I'd better make an effort to get to the end. I can hardly say the stadium finish was calling me as I had clearly missed my goal, but at least there would be water there!!!!!

So on with the last mile - was great to see MrsC then OM, then LP, GW then MrCK all on the final mile then the stadium finish was great if I'm honest. I overtook the most amount of people in that 0.2 miles odd I'm sure - the daft think is I felt fine - I'd just got over heated !!!

So there you have it - Marathon #1. If had been good/perfect conditions if I'm honest I would have been pretty gutted with time. But it wasn't and this felt more of a survival day! So not to plan - but thoroughly enjoyed the journey to get there, the finale wasn't quite as planned, but time wise has set a bench mark for next one

Brighton 2014 anyone? LOL

Split Summary

====

1) - 1m - 9:24(9:24/m) - 111cal

2) - 1m - 9:34(9:34/m) - 115cal

3) - 1m - 9:25(9:25/m) - 115cal

4) - 1m - 9:22(9:22/m) - 115cal

5) - 1m - 9:24(9:24/m) - 115cal

6) - 1m - 9:30(9:30/m) - 115cal

7) - 1m - 9:16(9:16/m) - 113cal

8) - 1m - 9:17(9:18/m) - 115cal

9) - 1m - 9:42(9:42/m) - 115cal

10) - 1m - 9:38(9:38/m) - 115cal

11) - 1m - 9:19(9:19/m) - 113cal

12) - 1m - 9:37(9:37/m) - 116cal

13) - 1m - 9:52(9:52/m) - 115cal

14) - 1m - 9:39(9:39/m) - 113cal

15) - 1m - 10:11(10:11/m) - 113cal

16) - 1m - 10:04(10:04/m) - 115cal

17) - 1m - 11:16(11:16/m) - 111cal

18) - 1m - 10:43(10:43/m) - 112cal

19) - 1m - 13:08(13:08/m) - 106cal

20) - 1m - 12:43(12:43/m) - 105cal

21) - 1m - 11:41(11:41/m) - 106cal

22) - 1m - 11:10(11:10/m) - 114cal

23) - 1m - 11:49(11:49/m) - 109cal

24) - 1m - 11:17(11:17/m) - 108cal

25) - 1m - 11:06(11:06/m) - 111cal

26) - 1m - 9:58(9:58/m) - 114cal

27) - 0.5m - 5:00(9:55/m) - 60cal

Pace Zone Summary

====

Pace Zone: 7:40-7:59/mile: 1.5%

Pace Zone: 8:00-8:19/mile: 2.4%

Pace Zone: 8:20-8:39/mile: 5%

Pace Zone: 8:40-8:59/mile: 7.7%

Pace Zone: 9:00-9:19/mile: 10.7%

Pace Zone: 9:20-9:39/mile: 12.1%

Pace Zone: 9:40-9:59/mile: 12.4%

Pace Zone: 10:00-10:19/mile: 10.2%

Pace Zone: 10:20-10:39/mile: 7.9%

Pace Zone: 10:40-10:59/mile: 4.5%

Pace Zone: 11:00-11:19/mile: 4%

Pace Zone: 11:20-11:39/mile: 3%

Pace Zone: 11:40-11:59/mile: 2.1%

Pace Zone: 12:00-12:19/mile: 1.4%