I was not planning to do a Autumn Marathon but it was in the back of my mind. I was thinking maybe Chester to return to the race I first ran a marathon at in 2011 (8 years after I started running).

The opportunity to enter the Yorkshire Marathon with a GFA time came up and this would give me an extra 2 weeks to prepare for it so on 29 August I entered the race to compete in the British Masters Marathon Championships race which was taking place in this open race. I had 7 weeks to train for a marathon. 2:48:00 was the target, that would have qualified me for England last year I think.

Monthly mileage totals below building up to the marathon.

May	June	July	August	September
72.7	110.6	161.5	197.7	180.2

I knew I should already be up to 20 mile long runs but as I had not been marathon training I was up to rare 16 mile runs. I know I was in good shape having won the Round Donny run on 21 July which was around 30k of effort.

On 18 August I had done a 16 mile run at about 6:50 pace.

So I did my first long run on Saturday 31 August, we drove to Pennistone with a few from Doncaster AC, did parkrun and I ran home on the TPT (self supported with drinks and food). This would have actually been 29 miles but by the time I reached 22 miles I was tiring and Rose picked me up from Pastures Lodge. The parkrun was done at 6:21 pace and the run home 7:18 pace.

A few days after this 4 September 2019, Rose wanted to go and run the Grindleford Gallop whilst the kids were at school, so we did 21.5 miles at a nice steady pace of around 10:30 minute miles.

On 17 September I was invited by Chris Ward to run with Wakefield AC and I enjoyed a good run of 20 miles averaging 6:55 pace. Lots of off roading and a bit hilly. Remembered my HRM for a change and this averaged 141 BPM.

On 21 September and 22 September I went with a team from Doncaster AC and we smashed the Equinox 24 hour relay. I ran 6, 10km legs in 41, 42, 41, 45, 47, 46 minutes. So I counted this as a weekend of long runs. I had no more opportunities for long runs.

I recovered very well after this and on Club Tempo Thursday I ran a 10k route in 38 minutes.

I did 3 more races before the marathon, Sewerby parkrun averaging 6:13 pace, Bridlington Half Marathon averaging 6:20 pace (I did not really have a good run, it was wet and windy but I had a good last couple of miles and felt strong and thought yes I could keep this going for a longer race 🙂 ) and the last race was the 1st race in the South Yorkshire Cross Country League. Perhaps a bit of a gamble a week before the marathon but I don’t recall ever getting injured at cross country racing. I ran ok at XC running 6:43 pace on a hilly and slippery course.

The week of the marathon and not a great deal of running:

Had a slight feeling of a head cold all week, not really worried it will be ok on the day. Woke up on the day 5:45 with a sore throat so packed some paracetamol to take an hour before the race. Picked Adam up, drove to York park and ride, caught a bus to the race HQ and milled about for an hour with runners from club.

15 Minutes before headed over to the start and and was a bit dismayed to see a few thousand runners already in the pens, I had left it too late to get near the start but that just meant I would be held back for a while so i would not start too fast.

Race kit was Aldi / Lidl shorts and socks (highly recommended), HiFive gel / tri belt (to carry 4 SIS gels and again fab bit of kit), Mizuno Wave Riders (last years for £60), Fenix 5s Garmin and my beloved club vest which got me a lot of shout outs on the course.

Started, took a minute to get over the start line, 1st mile in 6:31. Target pace was 6:20’s so did not get held back much. Took me a few (2?) miles to catch the 3 hour pacer.

I had not warmed up so good not to start at a very fast pace.

Went through halfway in 1:22. Took a gel every 30 minutes up to 2 hours. Took a sip of water every 3 miles.

5 Mile splits were:

31:26 31:01 30:54 31:51 33:10

2 minute PB for 20 miles, then faded. The course was not as flat as I was expecting, nothing to hilly but the last hill in the last mile was tough. Down hill finish which was good. 2:47:57 finishing time so got my target and ran quicker than London 2019 and my HR was higher than London 2019.

3 days after finishing I am at home with a chesty cough / cold so I guess I was not 100% well on the start line.

Great day for my fellow club runners and I know 3 out of the first 6 to finish overall, all amazing guys.

Full splits and other data below. Data fields in race as always were Time Elapsed, Distance Covered, Pace and Avg Pace.

Laps	Time	Avg HR	Max HR	Cadence	Stride	Oscillation
1	06:31.8	152	172	173	1.41	10.5
2	06:21.5	173	182	172	1.46	10.7
3	06:06.9	157	169	171	1.54	10.9
4	06:12.3	149	152	170	1.55	11
5	06:16.8	149	156	170	1.51	10.8
6	06:12.0	151	153	170	1.54	10.8
7	06:13.5	151	153	169	1.55	10.7
8	06:03.4	154	157	169	1.58	10.8
9	06:14.1	154	157	169	1.49	10.7
10	06:19.3	152	156	170	1.52	10.6
11	06:15.5	151	154	169	1.51	10.6
12	06:01.9	151	153	169	1.47	10.8
13	06:09.4	152	156	169	1.45	10.6
14	06:09.2	153	155	169	1.55	10.8
15	06:20.2	154	157	169	1.52	10.5
16	06:20.7	153	156	169	1.52	10.5
17	06:17.7	155	158	169	1.51	10.5
18	06:13.7	154	156	168	1.53	10.6
19	06:25.6	155	157	169	1.47	10.5
20	06:35.9	155	158	169	1.45	10.5
21	06:25.1	155	157	168	1.49	10.6
22	06:33.9	157	159	168	1.44	10.5
23	06:34.5	157	158	168	1.46	10.6
24	06:49.7	156	157	167	1.42	10.6
25	06:48.7	157	159	167	1.41	10.5
26	07:07.7	158	160	167	1.35	10.4
27	02:16.4	161	162	170	1.44	10.3
Summary	02:47:57	154	182	169	1.49	10.6