The Aftermath

Official race results are up and I came in 233rd place out of 6,681 finishers at 3:06:13. There were about 11,000 full marathon entrants, so they ended up with over 4,000 either as no-shows or people who didn’t finish. I am very happy being in the top 2%.

My time for the first half was 1:32:45 (7:04 pace) vs a plan of 1:35:36 – so 2:51 ahead of pace. Time for second half was slightly slower than the first at 1:33:28, but still 0:56 faster than the plan of 1:34:24.

Analysis shows that the headwind did not slow me down as much as I had planned (30 seconds per mile) or speed me up as much (15 seconds mile). Fastest mile was mile 19 at 6:48, which was when we first left the wind and ran thru a country park, with a slight downhill. Slowest miles were 7, 15 and 16, at 7:21 which were all very windy. Overall the pacing was good, with only one mile more than 10 seconds slower than plan. I really think that the high mileage training boosted my strength so that the windy miles weren’t that big a deal. I passed a lot of people during miles 11-15 (the windiest section), when I gained 1:41 against the plan.

I didn’t run Monday or Tuesday but did go out for a run in Poole on Wednesday. It was raining but not cold or windy, so pretty nice conditions for a run. Ran out to the beach which has a good hill about mile 3. Started at 8ish pace but was feeling good – could feel a little tightness in the quads but they loosened up pretty quickly and soon got down to 7:20ish. Kept it up over hill and went out to the beach and ran along the front. On the way back I hit the hill hard and got down to 7:00 on the way up, and down around 6:00 on the way down. Overall 8.35 miles at 7:20 pace and all the muscles felt good.

Travel day yesterday (Thursday) so no running. Today I’ll do an easy 5-6, same on Saturday and probably an easy 10 miler Sunday.

Bizarrely, I think I may have broken my foot during the race. I remember a sharp pain across the top of my right foot about mile 21 but didn’t pay much attention to it at the time. By Monday I could feel it when I walked on it, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. It isn’t swollen, so perhaps it’s not broken, but just a bruise. Once I get running it’s OK as the weight goes forward to the toes and this is in the back half of the foot. If it doesn’t sort itself out by Monday I’ll go get it checked out. I guess you have to expect something like that if you run a marathon in the lightweight shoes. Hopefully it’s not a real problem.