My plan here was to see if I could run 4min/km all the way round the course. This was prompted by the fact that I had managed this back at the start of this year on the same run. My thinking process was that I had been doing a lot of running, so why not. In hindsight, what I should have done was look on a running calculator for the marathon time I want and then seen what it said for this distance.
I set off at just under 4min/km pace thinking that I would get some time in the bank for the second lap. This method seemed to be going well and I managed to get round lap 1 pretty much on pace. It was round about the 10 mile mark that things started to fall apart. I would like to blame this on the fact that there simply was not anyone else on the course at that time...there was literally no one ahead of me and I could not see anyone chasing me...it was effectively a very expensive training run. I think the last time I raced, I stuck to someone's feet for all of painful 10 - 16 miles. The headwind at this stage did not help either. Anyway, excuses really, I was just not as fast as I had hoped. Still, the comforting thought is that my time in the end of 1:47 is still in line with a sub-3 marathon run. Who knows, it may have been quicker if I had started out closer to that pace.
Whilst in Manchester recently, we thought it would be a good idea to see if we could find a race to allow us to keep up with the training schedule for Dublin Marathon. The Rivington Pike half seemed a good idea, a hard hlaf marathon with a few hills sounded ideal.
The race itself was in fact a nightmare...right from the start, we had 2k of climbing to contend with, and not just a gentle slope either. This ensured that my HR was through the roof by the time that I got to the top and what followed did nothing to alleviate the situation - think Roman cobbled road not maintained for hundreds of years. The fear of braking an ankle ensured that there was not going to be much making up time on the downhill.
The following 10 miles pretty just continued in the same theme, don't get me wrong, some great scenery but all of it perhaps more enjoyable when the HR is not running at 180 - and that's before you see a bank of 50 steps heading to the clouds in front of you.
Anyway, very hard race with my worst ever half time of 1:48...dreadful really but it was a hard day.
