26 miles 385 yards in 3 hours 59 minutes and 19 seconds

So I did it, I achieved what I set out to do and finished my marathon in 3 hours 59 minutes and 19 seconds. Up until just after the 24 mile point I was doing well, running 9 minute miles and on course for to finish in about 3 hours 49, then the pain in my thighs outweighed my desire to continue running so I walked for a bit and then ran for a bit and then walked for a bit for about a mile and a half before running in the last half mile. I was worried that I was going to be over four hours and then I saw the finish and looked at my watch, I had a minute and a half to cover about 400 metres. I managed to find some energy from somewhere and put on a turn of speed and came in with 41 seconds to spare. I was dead afterwards, I felt emotional and punch-drunk.

In the week leading up to the marathon I had run three gentle 5km so that my legs would be warmed up for the big day and I think that was the right thing to do. I was convinced that I wouldn’t hit ‘the wall’ and in the end I’m not sure that I did, rather there came a point where the pain in my legs was unbearable and I had to walk. I am slightly disappointed about that but I can now say that I completed a marathon in under four hours. A damned fine achievement!

Last night I went for a gentle 5km recovery run and I’m going to try and get a sports massage in the next couple of days.

Well that’s it now, not that many people have read it but it’s a nice record of how I got from my first 10km of the year on the 2nd of Feb to running a marathon on the 8th of May. I think I’ll wait at least until next year before doing my next one…Paris perhaps?

03.0532011

On Saturday I ran 10.3km in 49:35 which is ok considering the route I took involves crossing a number of roads and therefore slowed me down a bit. I decided not to have another long run before the Marathon so I may do 11km tonight and then 5km on alternate days until Sunday when it's M day. A lot of the advice seems to suggest that virtually no running should be done the week of the marathon, however I think that a few gentle 5km to keep the leg muscles warm is definitely the way forward, so I won't time anything but I'll feel better about Sunday if I do them.

April's running stats were as follows:

Training sessions: 18
Total Km run: 214.2
Abington Park Km: 17.5
Racecourse Km: 136.3
Willen Lake Km: 37.5
London Km: 9
Gym Km: 14
Calories burnt: 15907
Longest run 34.1 km

I'm quite pleased with April's performance, it was important that I reigned myself in a bit after pushing it a bit far in March.

Interestingly it turns out that my long run of 33km was actually 34km following the remeasurement of the course this means I actually ran 21 miles which is obviously even better as I would only have had another 4 and a bit to run a complete marathon!

I seriously can't wait for Sunday now!

28.04.2011

In the end I had another day off on Monday rather than run 8.2km, in an effort to taper the training down over the next two weeks. On Tuesday I ran around Willen Lake with a colleague again, 12.5km in 1:01:25 which felt nice and steady and I didn’t have any niggles afterwards which is a good sign. The pain in my hips has gone which I’m pleased about as that was worrying me slightly.

This evening I ran a nice and easy 8.2km in 38:15 and I feel fine now, I think maybe 11km tomorrow then 5km on Saturday before 20ish on Sunday as my last run of any distance. The following week, Monday to Saturday, no more than 20km and definitely a 5km the day before the race as that has always formed part of my pre-race preparations in the past and has always served me well in the past.

25.04.2011

It was with some trepidation that I went out on Tuesday evening for a 12.5km jog with a colleague, I was worried about my calf and had already said that I probably wouldn’t run any faster than I had done the week before. In the end there was no pain at all and no tight feeling either, although I certainly didn’t open the taps as I would have liked to we still finished in 1:00:25. So thirty seconds faster than last time.

On Wednesday I thought a shorter run was in order so I did two laps of the Racecourse Park, 8.2km, in 38:47 which is ok. I wasn’t in any specific pain the next day but there was the faintest hint of a twinge in the calf again. I then had two days off before an un-timed 5km on Saturday morning and then a gentle 17.2km yesterday in 1:26:07 which is bang on 5 minutes per km. For some reason I have developed pain in my hips which I haven’t had for ages. I’m planning a gentle 8.2km today and then tomorrow it’s 12.5km with a colleague from work again. It’s really close to M day now and I’m beginning to get a little nervous about it.

19/04/2011

I haven’t written for a little while for no reason other than I’ve been quite busy with work.

I am slightly worried about a tightness that I’ve been experiencing in my left calf, during my most recent run it felt like it was about to go into cramp. There is no real pain just the tightness and once during the run it twinged. I had the next day off and it feels fine today so we’ll see how tonight’s 12.5km with a colleague goes. I wonder if I’ve been overtraining? In February I ran 147km whereas in March I ran 236km, was this too much of a jump? I’m not sure, I certainly can’t afford to get injured now, it will be curtains for a decent marathon time if I do. So I think I’ll take it easy for the rest of this week and cut out the speedwork. I have read articles indicating that if overpronators like me wear the wrong shoes it can have this effect however, I’ve been wearing the ‘wrong’ shoes for the past 746km with no calf problems so I’m not too sure about this diagnosis.

In terms of running since the last post I have done the following:

Thursday 14/04/2011 – 14km 1:06:56
Sunday 17/04/2011 – 17km 1:23:46

14/04/2011

I went to the gym last night and did the usual 6km of intervals and then 1km of running increasingly fast followed by weights and Powerplate. I’ve had a tightness is my right calf for a few days and I’ve been trying some new stretches to try and loosen it up. This morning I’ve also had shooting pains in my left shin, not all the time and not brought about by a specific action but painful nonetheless. I hope it’s nothing serious, I imagine that it is the increase in mileage beginning to take its toll. I hardly ran at all in December or January and then in February I went straight up to 147km. March was another sizeable jump up to 237km and this month I’ve run 108km so far. I will have to take it easy after the marathon for a bit, although there is the Woburn 10km in June and then the MK half in July but I won’t need to do anywhere near the mileage that I’m doing at the moment for them. I’m also wondering if I might have recovered enough after the marathon to do the Canterbury half which is two weeks later. That might be asking a bit much of myself but then again…

Running is certainly addictive!

13/04/2011

I rechecked the length of my running routes on Monday using a more sophisticated online tool than I had used previously www.gmap-pedometer.com . Interestingly it suggested that the distance from my house to the Racecourse which I thought was 1km was actually 1.2km. Also the circumference of the park is, according to a sign in the park 2.9km however the actual distance of the my route is 3km so in theory I should add 500m to each run of that park. However to allow for measurement inaccuracies I have just added 200m to each one, it has obviously meant that I have a truer reflection of my pace which is encouraging as I’m quicker than I thought!

On Monday evening I ran 11.2km pretty quickly in 51:20 which went well and I could probably have gone a bit faster but I had arranged to run 12.5km the next day with a colleague and I didn’t want to be too tired. The next day I did indeed run around Willen Lake in Milton Keynes with a colleague and although the pace was a little slower than I would have run on my own, we finished in 1:00:55, it was nice to have someone to chat to whilst running and nice to run in some different surroundings.

I’m looking forward to intervals at the gym tonight!