2012 Marathon thread

Tek- Brilliant, Well  done and enjoy the beers. Well deserved!!

Fiona,

That's encouraging.  Have they said if it will stay the same?

Tek,

Awesome.  Well done.

Well done Jason

Tek-twas only a matter of time before you smashed it fella and today you smashed it in style.Enjoy getting pished mate

Didn't get round to watching Snowdonia coverage last night as the beer got the better of me  so watching ot now as i've a day off work.

What a beautiful marathon Snowdonia looks, absolutely stunning in places.

Think i've seen jason a couple of times as well assuming he has the same colours on as his profile pic ????

mace- yep, blue and white TROTS vest, distinctive green shorts, blue shoes. It is a cracking race- tough as nails, but great atmosphere and scenery. Back for number 5 next year

I can't walk very well today.... 

Tek - Brilliant stuff mate Hope the hangover isn't too nasty today!

----

9.75 miles @ 10.01 for me today. Felt pretty tough going. Fitness has dropped a lot in the past few weeks I think. Which actually gives me pretty of cause for optimism.

Frankfurt 2012

I reached the start-line this time with a feeling of anticipation and confidence, rather than the usual dread and sense of impending doom.  It was cold – it had snowed a little on Saturday, and although the day was bright and sunny, it was no higher than 2C.  I joined the bins with a sweater on top of my MacMillans vest, and stood shivering for twenty minutes, surrounded by everyone else in jackets, snoods, and leggings.  I was going to throw the sweater at the start, but I knew it would get pretty cramped so with ten minutes to go I lobbed it over the fence, and seconds later started to shake uncontrollably.   A lot of guys were laughing at me, until someone asked where I was from. I shouted my reply in my best Gerrard Butler voice – “Spar-ta!”

I had given myself a long talking to the night before, and decided 8.35mm pace was going to risk a blow-up, so decided on the 8.45mm pace band.  I took one last long stare at it as we marched up to the start-line, and then we were off.  Predictably I had to weave around a load of runners who had picked the wrong bin, and when I passed the first 5k marker I swore – the Garmin read 3.26m, and I spent a fair amount of the next few miles extrapolating the extra 0.15m, with Berlin’s “extra” 0.75m fresh in my mind.  “Stick to the blue line” I kept saying.

I went through the next few 5k markers at fairly even splits, the average pace box on the Garmin settling around the 8.38mm mark for most of the first half. As I went through I checked the HR – it had just nudged 80%max, so I knew I had plenty left in the tank.

In my head I kept repeating two mantras – “lift, lift, lift” to get my feet off the ground quickly (a tip from the triathlon camp), and “core, core, core”, to make sure I wasn’t slouching, and keeping upright to breathe as deeply as possible (Gobi tip).

I concentrated hard to maintain pace and hit mile 20 in under 2h55, and a smile spread across my face – as AGF had predicted – I knew I had bagged a sub 4. I resisted the temptation to up the pace, all the time telling myself “next mile” – it was easy to be patient, as by this time I was ghosting past hordes of fading runners. 

By now I was recognising signs of glycogen depletion – mental maths conversion of km / m was slowing down, and I felt dizzy – so I took sip of gel from my bottle every kilometre, swilling it around my mouth (I had reached stomach overload point so I couldn’t take more).

At mile 24 I latched onto the back of one of the relay runners – they were doing 10.55k each – but after a few hundred metres my left calf was twitching, so I gave up on him and eased off. Finally the Messe Tower came into view, with about a mile and a half to go, and it dawned on me that I could just break 3h50 – cue an 8.10mm finish, ending with flashing lights and a red carpet inside the Festhalle.  

3h49m40s.     Small negative split 1h55/1h54.

Sore knee to match the sore head today!

Thanks everyone for your congratulations.

Here's the splits for mace et al.

1) - 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) - 153bpm avge - 165bpm max -   (72%)

2) - 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) - 155bpm avge - 160bpm max -   (73%)

3) - 1m - 8:25(8:25/m) - 156bpm avge - 163bpm max -   (74%)

4) - 1m - 8:15(8:15/m) - 158bpm avge - 163bpm max -   (75%)

5) - 1m - 9:30(9:31/m) - 159bpm avge - 166bpm max -   (75%)  don't remember going to sleep here...GPS glitch I think

6) - 1m - 8:51(8:51/m) - 161bpm avge - 166bpm max -   (76%)

7) - 1m - 8:34(8:34/m) - 164bpm avge - 170bpm max -   (77%)

8) - 1m - 8:22(8:22/m) - 164bpm avge - 170bpm max -   (77%)

9) - 1m - 8:32(8:33/m) - 164bpm avge - 174bpm max -   (77%)

10) - 1m - 8:42(8:42/m) - 165bpm avge - 170bpm max - (78%)

11) - 1m - 9:22(9:22/m) - 166bpm avge - 177bpm max - (78%) P stop

12) - 1m - 8:36(8:36/m) - 169bpm avge - 177bpm max - (80%)

13) - 1m - 8:44(8:44/m) - 170bpm avge - 178bpm max - (80%)

14) - 1m - 8:37(8:37/m) - 172bpm avge - 177bpm max - (81%)

15) - 1m - 8:46(8:46/m) - 173bpm avge - 179bpm max - (82%)

16) - 1m - 8:44(8:44/m) - 174bpm avge - 180bpm max - (82%)

17) - 1m - 8:50(8:50/m) - 177bpm avge - 181bpm max - (83%)

18) - 1m - 8:46(8:47/m) - 176bpm avge - 181bpm max - (83%)

19) - 1m - 8:51(8:51/m) - 178bpm avge - 182bpm max - (84%)

20) - 1m - 8:40(8:41/m) - 181bpm avge - 185bpm max - (85%)

21) - 1m - 8:45(8:45/m) - 181bpm avge - 185bpm max - (85%)

22) - 1m - 8:55(8:55/m) - 181bpm avge - 185bpm max - (85%)

23) - 1m - 8:54(8:54/m) - 182bpm avge - 187bpm max - (86%)

24) - 1m - 8:32(8:32/m) - 184bpm avge - 188bpm max - (87%) 

25) - 1m - 8:55(8:55/m) - 183bpm avge - 186bpm max - (86%) 

26) - 1m - 8:09(8:10/m) - 187bpm avge - 195bpm max - (88%)

27) - 0.41m - 3:23(8:11/m) - 191bpm avge - 199bpm max (90% to 94%)

Tek - average 80% ?

would you run it differently with the benefit of hindsight ?

so didn't you look at HR at all before half way ?

Thanks Jason - great run in Snod!

mace - 81%, although I'm not sure it's a useful number over 26 miles. I did look at the HR all the way (although I had decided to ignore it if it was "bad") - ran to pace, not HR, the fact that it stayed under control was a confidence booster.  In hindsight I think I could have nudged 3.45, but with the way my knee is right now, I'm glad I didn't try.

Great run Teknik. My average marathon HR is about 172 - 175 so probably much the same. Would you recommend Frankfurt marathon then? What sort of course is it?

Glad I'm not doing New York, worrying about a hurricane is on a whole different level!

HM4 no word but I guess it just stays the same or goes away!

F

Nice report Tek. In my first marathon hitting 20 miles in good shape and under 3 hours was a better feeling for me than actually crossing the finishing line because that was the point I knew I was going to finish and get sub 4 hours.

Tek,

Well done & great report.

(((Fiona))),

Hope it does go away.