Thank you Paul, quite hilly after all then, got this from the runners world website, Chester is the hilliest of them all !
Greater Manchester Marathon 2013 - 55m of gain Edinburgh Marathon - 67m of gain Brighton - 105m London - 85m Liverpool - 151m Milton Keynes - 102m Sunderland - 125m
Berlin - 76m Amsterdam - 44m Chicago - 151m New York - 176m Boston - 107m Paris - 114m
It's the positioning of the hills at Chester rather than the height gain itself that makes them so hard. If they were in the first 13 miles then they would have hardly registered with me. The one at mile 16 gives you a kick just at that point in the race where things are starting to get a little tough (I was on 7.10 pace up to there, and dropped out to 7.20 afterwards) and the double hill on Sandy Lane is blue murder at a point where most people are hurting like hell anyway. I managed the first hill on Sandy Lane OK but completely popped half-way up the second and went to something like 8 min/mile from there on.
Well, I guess this is sayonara. Tempting to cash what should be a GFA time to enter a big city race next year, but it was very hard training in the tropics for a marathon, and I don't see myself doing it again so long as I'm based out in West Africa. Maybe focus on getting my hm time down a bit. Good luck to all with your marathon or other running ambitions; it's been a fantastic forum and may the road rise up to meet you wherever you go.
