So my big race day finally arrived. Over a year of training, who knows how many miles but I've worn through my Newton Sir Isaac trainers. I have new training shoes, Newton Gravity. I tried them out at Reading Half and got a good time there - they are very light, but a little more aggressively forefoot than the Sir Isaacs.
I slept very badly the night before, but got up on time and made my way to the train station. Ate and drank normally as with Belfast Marathon last year. There was no change in my plan and I should have been OK.
I met Libby on the train who was coming up to support me and some other friends and she helped my take my mind off the race. I was very nervous; I was chasing a time of three hours, and had put a lot of pressure on myself.
I had a good for age place, which means getting in a spot to start near the front. It was all very exciting. Warm and sunny, lots of other fit people ready to go.
We started and I stuck to my pacing, no sprinting, but things were just not right. After three miles I was feeling tired - I should have been fine. In training I do six miles without thinking even about it. I'm also never thirsty and had planned my first drink at about 10 miles. I took a bottle of water at the first opportunity.
It was fun being in the race, but I was suffering physically. I tried to enjoy it, just kept pushing, and watching my average speed, but I was tired. I made it to the half way point almost on schedule (1:30:32) but I was slowing. At about mile 16 my feet were hurting, and my thighs were burning. I took a couple of painkillers but they did nothing. I started thinking about the state of my feet, my left big toe was worse. The pains running down the front of my legs were making it hard to keep moving, and I counted down the slow miles one by one.
I knew I was going to miss my target, I also know my secondary target of beating last year's Belfast Marathon time of 3:05 was also out. I struggled to the line in 3:11:39, very sore, and very disappointed. I know it is still a respectable time, but from my training I knew I was capable of more. Perhaps I trained too much. Perhaps the new shoes were the problem (my big toenail has gone black, as have a couple of others).
Links
Results 03:11:39
Photos - now seem to be removed, sorry.
I slept very badly the night before, but got up on time and made my way to the train station. Ate and drank normally as with Belfast Marathon last year. There was no change in my plan and I should have been OK.
I met Libby on the train who was coming up to support me and some other friends and she helped my take my mind off the race. I was very nervous; I was chasing a time of three hours, and had put a lot of pressure on myself.
I had a good for age place, which means getting in a spot to start near the front. It was all very exciting. Warm and sunny, lots of other fit people ready to go.
We started and I stuck to my pacing, no sprinting, but things were just not right. After three miles I was feeling tired - I should have been fine. In training I do six miles without thinking even about it. I'm also never thirsty and had planned my first drink at about 10 miles. I took a bottle of water at the first opportunity.
It was fun being in the race, but I was suffering physically. I tried to enjoy it, just kept pushing, and watching my average speed, but I was tired. I made it to the half way point almost on schedule (1:30:32) but I was slowing. At about mile 16 my feet were hurting, and my thighs were burning. I took a couple of painkillers but they did nothing. I started thinking about the state of my feet, my left big toe was worse. The pains running down the front of my legs were making it hard to keep moving, and I counted down the slow miles one by one.
I knew I was going to miss my target, I also know my secondary target of beating last year's Belfast Marathon time of 3:05 was also out. I struggled to the line in 3:11:39, very sore, and very disappointed. I know it is still a respectable time, but from my training I knew I was capable of more. Perhaps I trained too much. Perhaps the new shoes were the problem (my big toenail has gone black, as have a couple of others).
Links
Results 03:11:39
Photos - now seem to be removed, sorry.
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