This was the big one, its just another race and I have been racing every week to keep race fit and confident.  Except its not just another race, its got 40,000 runners in it and 800,000 people cheering the runners on, everyone get nervous and has doubts.  On Saturday I felt well and injury free and we had a great time eating and drinking and visiting the Expo.

At midnight my phone went off and I jumped out of bed to turn it off.  I instantly got cramp in my left calf and I could feel a strain.  Not good, feeling very tight when I got up at 7am.  Put some gel on it and used Janet’s massage stick.  Had a bowl of cereal and a banana.

We all made our own way to the start, I walked which was 1.7 miles.  I could feel the calf but it was not bad, but would it hold out for 26.2 miles?  Of course it would but you never know.

I entered the fast good for age start for the 3rd time (and hopefully the last time for a few years if I could achieve by target).

I decided to run at 6:05 minute miles for as long as I could, this would have got me around 2:40.  I went through half way in 1:19:40 – bang on pace.  I have only ever run 1 half marathon faster than this.  I got to 20 miles in about 2:02 / 2:03 which was about a 5 minute PB for this distance.  The Garmin was totally messed up by now, reading at least half a mile out, the tall buildings and tunnels always screw mine up at London.

My 5km splits follow, I was holding it together until about 20 miles, I lost about 5 minutes in the second half, many people passed me in the last 6 miles, nothing I could do but I was constantly checking I was running sub 2:45 and I was confident I was.  I ran over a minute PB for 30km (3 x 37:56 10km):

• 5km 18:51
• 10km 18:50
• 15km 18:54
• 20km 19:00
• 25km 18:54
• 30km 19:21
• 35km 20:18
• 40km 21:01

My finish time was 2:44:35 which should secure me a Championship place for 2018, my place was 510th

Yorkshire 2:43 to 2:45 crew

I wrote a 18 week training plan, which I loosely followed.  If I had to miss a run this was no big deal and I would not try to catch up.  I based this plan on the book Advanced Marathoning and it was set up to train me to run a 2:45 marathon.  It was low mileage, I ran the following mileage totals:

• January – 176
• February  – 186
• March – 195

My taper started on 21 March so been easing it back for a month and I ran a massive total of 9 miles in the 6 days before the race.

My recovery runs were steady, typically between 7:30 and 8:15 minute miles and never any longer than 6 miles, usually 4 or 5 miles (they are recovery runs to get me ready for my next run, not long runs).  I only do a recovery run after a hard session so did not do many.

My steady long runs were run at between 7:30 and 6:50 minute miles and usually progressive carrying 1.5l water and very few gels.  Where I can I run with friends, Darren Wood, Richard Chandler and Chris Lawson all joined me on long runs.

All my target marathon pace runs were run in races (East Hull 20 and Stamford 30k).

My biggest long run was a 3 hour run where I see how far I can run easy for 3 hours.  I set off with the intention of running 7:30 minute miles and speeding up through the run but I felt very good and ended up running 26.2 miles in 3:04, this was brilliant.

All my interval training was on the running track, with a couple of runs on the hills.

I always try to train with the Doncaster AC group on Tuesdays and Thursdays, doing interval training in a group makes it easier and we have a lovely track to bang out the reps on.

6th marathon, my 6th consecutive PB and 6th Sub 3 hour marathon.  I am hopeful I have a lot more to come in the coming years.

My progress so far

The fun stuff

We travelled down on Friday on the train and went straight to the Expo to collect our numbers and then to our rented house.  This year the party consisted of me and Rose, Janet and Luke, Mazza and Tony.  We went out and got some larger and wine, then went out for a curry.  We then watched gogglebox.

Saturday, Rose, Marie and Tony did a local parkrun.  We then went back to Expo for most of the day, it was totally rammed.  Every free sample we could find we ate and drank from ale, beetroot juice to samples of various nutritional supplements.  We bumped in to Carl and Tracy as well as lots of other runners from Doncaster and South Yorkshire.  Luke kindly cooked a chicken, mushroom and pasta dinner for us (fuel for the big day) while we planned transport for the big day.  We then sat down to watch Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

The support on the race was fantastic with so many people travelling down, it is not an easy job getting about to spot the runners and it was fantastic to see you all.  After the race we enjoyed our free ale.

Kit – Mizuno Wave Inspire 11 shoes (£45 imported from America / had to pay import tax), Ronhill shorts, Garmin Fenix 3, DAC Vest, Gel belt.

More classic trance from the golden era, the 90’s

On 10 May 2006, This race was my first ever race for Doncaster AC, my former colleague and friend Max McNally told me to arrive and he introduced me to Dave Grayson who asked if I was any good, I finished the race in 35:15.

Back to today – a few days before this race I pulled my right calf which forced a rest – I even missed a parkrun, I was limping for a couple of days but decided to do my first bike ride of the year as this did not hurt, only 6 miles but I wanted to do something.  I also did some rowing on my rowing machine.

I had a check up with Eddie Fletcher and he worked on my calf and hamstrings.  My previous best time at this race was 30:47, given the hilly nature of the race I thought I would be pleased to break 30 minutes, so I was delighted to finish in 29:13.  I finished 11th overall so an improvement on the last race where I finished in 18th place.

I am in close competition with Barnsley Harrier, Alan Ford in the V40 competition.  We both ran the London Marathon so we will have to see how well we can recover in 3 days.

A tune from the 90’s, belting hard trance.