So today was always going to be tough. The anniversary of my father's death, and the night before I spent the night with him in the hospital. So. Of course I had a fairly sleepless night. Didn't help that the hotel was full of what seemed to be teenagers running up and down the corridors.
I figured one bad night wouldn't hurt the race and I really wanted to try for a pb, even though the sensible people on the forum had suggested marathon pace.
When I got to the park, there was an almighty queue. I couldn't believe this! This was for baggage drop. Having done VLM I didn't think bag drop was supposed to be a hard thing. Took half an hour to drop mine off. The guys behind me were doing the 10k that started 10 minutes earlier. They were still queuing when the gun went off!
I managed to just about drop my bag off before the start- 8:40, the same pronounced time of death for dad. I needed the loo, but there was a great big q at the portapotties too- often when I need to pee befor a race it's nerves and goes away, so thought I'd chance it, but I had consumed about a litre of fluid in the 90 mins before, so probably would be wise to go.
The race started late! According to my garmin 8:54 is when I crossed the line.
So, by the time I crossed the line I was already grumpy that I'd queued and got cold to drop my bag, I didn't go to the loo, the race started late, meaning I would be late to meet my family for lunch, and didn't have a chance for a warm up.
I started off at what u thought was a conservative pace, but when I looked down it was in the low 8s... I slowed through the course of the first mile, but was still significantly faster than marathon pace, so I thought why not take this at half marathon pace and see if I can get a good time, after all its a pretty flat course. Mile 2 and I was even faster... Mile 3 and the clouds went away, wow, I was getting hot, but luckily there was a water station. Well there were tables with packs of water bottles piled up behind and no marshals to be seen 'you've gotta be f***ing kidding!, I decided to help the other runners by lifting a case onto the table so at least they didn't ALL have to crouch down. This was the last straw in my mental resolve to go at half marathon pace, as I lost a bit of time again, so I decided I would drop down to mara pace. Miles 4-5 and I was feeling liquid sloshing around- I had to stop to pee- got to the second set of portaloos on the course and stopped to wait- thought it odd with a relatively small field that there would be a queue. A girl standing there said she hadn't seen anyone come out of them- someone else was asking the marshal and we quickly deduced they were all LOCKED! Seriously, could anything else go wrong with this race?
I decided that I would hold it in a bit longer and hopefully I would be able to go when I passed on the way back. Luckily I could, and well, there was a lot of liquid, so glad I did go, and I don't think it lost me too much time.
Aft this I got a new wind and thought I would do another 3 miles at half pace, but it got so hot I just couldn't cope at that speed, and to add insult to injury, or to add injury to a crappy mental state, I started to get chaffing between my legs. I thought I'd seen St. John's ambulance, my next focus was to find Vaseline.... Clearly I had been spoilt by London marathon again, expecting this... Alas it was nowhere to be seen. The pain of the chafe brought me to a walk several times- important lesson, no matter how warm it is I always need Lycra on my upper legs- this has happened to a lesser extent before, and I wouldn't want this to happen at all during the marathon.
As time went on, the pain seemed to ease, and by about 18km I thought I can deal with this to the end and ought to speed up a bit, I did want to go at marathon pace but I didn't want my second slowest half marathon time because of it! Should speed up here. I decided I would set myself some medal challenges, given we had a brief glimpse of the Olympic park. Bronze was to pass 10 runners, silver to pass 20 and gold to pass 30. Rules: people who stopped to walk didn't count, and if someone overtook me that didn't mean a negative. This seemed to work as I didn't stop to walk again and gave me a focus aside from the chaffing.
I managed to pass 30 With still half a mile to go. I don't remember if I managed to pass anyone else.
Crossed the finish in 2:05:33 according to the results. Got my medal and a mini bottle of water and a banana, and YAY another 30 minute queue for my bag! Nightmare!
Anyway here are the splits:
Mile 1: 9:08
Mile 2: 8:45
Mile 3: 8:55
Mile 4: 9:15
Mile 5: 9:17
Mile 6: 11:08 (maybe this was toilet break)
Mile 7: 9:16
Mile 8: 9:18
Mile 9: 9:56
Mile 10: 10:17 (ow chaffing hurts)
Mile 11: 10:04
Mile 12: 8:58
Mile 13: 8:58
Mile 13.2 well not a mile but pace: 8:54
Average pace 9:29mm
As you can see my pacing was really erratic. Secretly happy that I managed that many sub 9mm a week after my 20 mile run, but I don't think I used this race the right way, though I guess I did test myself in the heat.
No comments:
Post a Comment