I ought to also mention that I ran the first half with a guy I made contact with on this website, he and I seemed to be of a similar standard. I paced him well for the first half before I started to slow down a bit.
Moving on to the 2nd half of the run, at 25km I took an extended drinks break, I thought a bit of a walk would be no harm. I also took on an energy shot that was handed out. I then pushed on for a couple more kms, but found myself starting to struggle. My legs were starting to get tired, and I felt like walking a bit, so I did. Then 28.5km in, done in 2hrs 57.5 (17.7miles) I started to walk a bit more, (15metre incline). I was not alone in walking and was not sure whether I should try some more gels, my stomach was a bit upset and there were a few people throwing up by the side of the road that I passed. I was also not sure whether to drink anymore. I was tired of the orange energy drinks by then too. So, I walked as positively as I could.
The spectators in the villages were great, they called out my name and offered encouragement, jelly babies and even chocolate biscuits (perhaps I should have taken that up - I'm sure I could have digested that!). Coming into the city the hills up which in normal circumstances would have been inconsequential became a bit of a battle. I kept calculating my predicted finishing time ( I like doing the maths).
At 15.1m in 2hrs 27 I was on course for 4hrs 20mins. I'd done 17.6m in 2hrs 56 – still on course for 4hrs 30, but then I was walking more. With 6miles to go, done in 3hrs 30, a fast 6miles for 4hrs 30, with 3 miles to go a 30 minute pace would have given me 4hrs 42, but it was a very different experience to the HM I did in July, where the countdown spurred me on to run faster and made me think, only a 10k left, only a 5k left etc and I was able to speed up. Here I just shrugged, jogged a couple of hundred metres and then resigned myself to walking some more. I did realise that I was at risk of missing a 5hr finishing total so I put in a bit of an effort to jog on the downhill bits. Then with 600m to go I ran all of the way to the finish (a slow jog first and then the last 150 metres with the finish line in sight, and my family (wife, my 3 kids, mother and father) cheering me on I overtook a fellow runner and crossed the line with relief and pride.
After picking up my T-shirt the guy I'd overtaken congratulated me and shook my hand. That was a very nice touch. I have many personal memories, of the fellow runners who I walked/jogged with after about 18miles, a lot of them seemed to be struggling more than me but kept at it, The volunteers at all of the feeding stations, many of them children/young adults were so cheery and made me feel a lot more cheery. I lost count of the number of people shouting my name en-route.
After the race, my recovery seems to be going well. I've had so many congratulations – from Facebook, my work colleagues, this forum and my family. The fact that it was so difficult and challenging has made the achievement all the more satisfying for me, and I have even more admiration for my fellow runners/walkers/joggers who have managed this distance.
In terms of future plans, I realise that I was under-trained for this distance, I need to run more longer and harder runs to give myself a chance of getting through a marathon at a pace I can sustain. My immediate plans are to rest, lose some weight, and then consider whether to work on speed and/or stamina. I'm also considering joining my local running club. I'm going to continue running parkrun, which I really like.
