Run > Race

London Marathon. 2:31:59 chip/2:32:07 gun. Welsh Championships silver medal. By far the best run of my life - the time was in the "wildest dreams" levels.

Previous races and recent training runs had suggested I was capable of 2:36-7, though the hope was I might get inside 2:35, if I could go through halfway in just inside 1:18 and then kick off that. Garmin splits can't be trusted from probably around the 5:29 - lost signal several times in the second half. Official splits: 1:17:03/1:14:56. 5km splits: 18:11, 36:25, 54:51, 1:13:13 , 1:17:03, 1:31:04, 1:48:56, 2:06:40, 2:24:18. That's a PB by nearly a minute for the second half, a 20-mile PB en route and, I think, about 34:50 for the last 10km.

I was further back in the pen that I'd wanted, even though I managed to push my way to the front quite a bit. Dodging slower runners for what seemed like an eternity, I got running at race pace after about 70s. The opening miles were more undulating than I remember last year being, but got to five miles thinking that I could perhaps maintain 5:50 miling all the way and started to dream about sub-2:33.

It felt easy but I was conscious that a marathon should feel easy untiil at least halfway and that you should be led by what your recent race times predict rather than how it feels, so I feared I may be going too quickly. From five to 10 miles, the pace seemed more difficult to maintain, for some reason - maybe the course was sligthly uphil - so I reassessed the goal to sub-2:35. At about six miles I had bumped into Anthony Jackson (Sittingbourne Striders) whom I had run against at the Himalayan Stage Race and who passed me in London last year while I was fiddling around with my problematic shoes. After a few words were exchanged, I pushed ahead.

Going over Tower Bridge is probably the highlight for many, given the incredible crowd support. Personally, I find it difficult to "take in" the atmosphere when racing. Thanks and apologies to anyone who shouted out encouragement but the most I could manage was a wave - I can barely look aside from the road ahead while racing. That said, I can't imagine racing 26 miles without that support and this year I seemed to get more shouts from the sidelines than last. It seemed all along the course there was someone shouting for Werrington Joggers.

Halfway reached, I believed I could run a quicker second half. I consciously picked up the pace, but not markedly, I thought. At about 16 miles, I recall thinking "this is a marathon, it's not supposed to feel this easy" and so picked it up a bit more.

All this time, I was aware I could hit the wall at any time, remembering what happened last year. Also, with the GPS all to pot and the mile markers seemingly out too, I didn't really know what time I was on for.

The last couple of miles were tough. Even though I was actually speeding up all the time, the distance between "800m to go" and "400m to go" (or was it "385 yards"?) seemed about two miles. The bottoms of my feet were hurting in the last few miles because of the lack of support from the racing flats, but they could have hurt 100 times more for all I cared. Shame this wasn't the London 50km not the London Marathon.

This was worth 33:00 for 10km and 15:52 for 5km, thus beating my previous best PB at any distance by around half a minute.

By comparison, the club record means nothing. It was such a weak record that at least one of three of us was going to break it. I'm only record-holder through John being below-par and I know the record won't be mine for long.

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Split Summary

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1) - 1m - 6:04(6:04/m) - 88cal

2) - 1m - 5:50(5:50/m) - 92cal

3) - 1m - 5:45(5:45/m) - 92cal

4) - 1m - 5:41(5:41/m) - 92cal

5) - 1m - 5:50(5:50/m) - 90cal

6) - 1m - 5:52(5:52/m) - 92cal

7) - 1m - 5:52(5:52/m) - 90cal

8) - 1m - 5:58(5:58/m) - 92cal

9) - 1m - 5:55(5:55/m) - 91cal

10) - 1m - 5:48(5:48/m) - 92cal

11) - 1m - 5:48(5:48/m) - 91cal

12) - 1m - 5:52(5:52/m) - 93cal

13) - 1m - 5:46(5:46/m) - 91cal

14) - 1m - 5:44(5:44/m) - 94cal

15) - 1m - 5:29(5:29/m) - 92cal

16) - 1m - 6:05(6:05/m) - 94cal

17) - 1m - 5:34(5:34/m) - 93cal

18) - 1m - 5:39(5:39/m) - 90cal

19) - 1m - 4:42(4:42/m) - 77cal

20) - 1m - 4:42(4:42/m) - 80cal

21) - 1m - 5:36(5:36/m) - 93cal

22) - 1m - 5:38(5:38/m) - 93cal

23) - 1m - 5:36(5:36/m) - 93cal

24) - 1m - 5:27(5:27/m) - 92cal

25) - 1m - 5:41(5:41/m) - 86cal

26) - 1m - 5:39(5:39/m) - 92cal

27) - 0.84m - 5:00(5:57/m) - 81cal

28) - 0m - 6(Infinity:NaN:NaN/m)

29) - 0m - 5(Infinity:NaN:NaN/m) - 1cal

30) - 0m - 7(Infinity:NaN:NaN/m)

Heart Rate Zone Summary

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HR Zone: 42-151bpm (Sub 70%): Infinity%

HR Zone: 151-159bpm (71-75%): Infinity%

Pace Zone Summary

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Pace Zone: 3:00-3:19/mile: 1.5%

Pace Zone: 4:00-4:19/mile: 1.5%

Pace Zone: 4:20-4:39/mile: 2.6%

Pace Zone: 4:40-4:59/mile: 5.6%

Pace Zone: 5:00-5:19/mile: 12%

Pace Zone: 5:20-5:39/mile: 19.9%

Pace Zone: 5:40-5:59/mile: 21.2%

Pace Zone: 6:00-6:19/mile: 15.3%

Pace Zone: 6:20-6:39/mile: 9.1%

Pace Zone: 6:40-6:59/mile: 4.1%

Pace Zone: 7:00-7:19/mile: 1.6%