Didn't risk the NB RC130s. Not going to blame the shoes, or the weather or anything else. Took a high risk strategy (5:40s from the off with HH, Coro and a few others) and ultimately it backfired. Fine to halfway in 5:40s, managed 5:50s to 18 with increasing difficulty - the the wheels well and truly came off. I'd be surprised if my last mile was inside 7. I haven't really done ANY reps in the build up this year - plenty of aerobic running - the high volume 3 weeks at altitude - and some tempo work - but the pace was just too close to the HM shape I'm in and my legs couldn't deal with the lactic. 74:04 / 81:21 for 2:35:25 - my slowest ever Mar RACE (did Luton in 2:35:46 as a training race as my debut). In hindsight I ****ed up big time, because I honestly believe if I hadn't shot for the unrealistic sub 2:30 (or PB!) I could have run 2:32 without too much difficulty - been the club's third man home - and won the team prize / AAAs gold medals which our scoring three (me not included) lost to Tipton by 16 seconds. I'm not saying I won't do London next year - but I think my next marathon needs to be somewhere different - I've had a disappointing race in 2009, and pretty awful today - so would probably benefit from a change of scene. Well done to those of you who survived better / ran pbs, and to the others who had bad days..... I now know how it feels to have the wheels come off completely. | 
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MikeB
