Kingston 16 Mile

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.