Foolishly I was convinced that running would give me the heat I needed and set out without the warm tights and jacket that I HAD brought with me. Stupid stupid stupid.
I had planed to run at my new long distance favorite pace 7 min/km. Which would mean that I finally would go below 5 hours for a marathon. With me was a good colleague doing her first marathon! She had signed up for a half marathon but last weekends success and me gently pushing her made her taking the jump for full distance ;)
10 meters after the start my right compression sock went for the foot and I had to stop to fix it. My running partner continued and it took me 3 km to catch up with her again. I had to run pace 6:20 since she got caught in the vacuum of the faster running main group. I have made the same mistake often but these days I'm fine with starting last and overtake my way through the race at the targeted pace.
The first 25 km went great at a steady pace. I had expected that my hips would give me some pain from 14 km and up till about 30 km but they didn't. Guess that fitness training on the side is paying of :) After 25 km I started getting cold. My colleague on the other hand was looking great! When I stopped to have a drink at a water post and she weren't a 'split decision' was made. I would continue in my targeted pace and she would continue in the pace that she felt was right for her (6:40-6:50 at that point). She was clearly in better shape than me today. I couldn't help smiling, this was the girl that a little more than a week ago didn't think that she could run more than 25 km.
The next 10 km was really really cold to the point where I was thinking about stopping. The thing stopping me from taking the decision was that I was able to keep my pace and I didn't wanna stop with a PR insight. I had placed a half a little coca cola bottle as a treat for myself at the last water post before the finishing line and it gave me a welcomed boost. The last 5 km I was calculating as a mad mad to try to make sure that I was reaching the finish line in just less than 5 hours. I didn't feel that I had enough energy to just go full throttle and I knew that I was cutting it tight. With 2 km to go I felt confident that I was gonna make it plus my legs felt good. With 1 km (based on my GPS watch) left I knew I was gonna make it. Then 400 meters later I meet the official 1 km left sign and my heart dropped. Shit, I had made the fundamental error in trusting a device with an known error margin. For some time I prayed that the sign had been wrong but as I crossed the 42.2 km on my watch in 4:49 I still had the 400 meters to go. I gave it all I had was running pace 4:?? at the end but it wasn't enough. My finishing time was 5:01:03 which is still a PR but sadly a tiny bit slower than I had aimed for 1:04 slower in fact ;) I had made a plan which I had followed and I should be really happy .. but I really wanted to be just that tiny bit faster ;)
I received a fine medal but all I really wanted at that point was a blanket. Man was I cold. Luckily my colleague brought me some hot chocolate :) She had been smart enough to run in winter tights and hadn't been freezing like me but it seemed that a lot of the slower marathon runners had had freezing issues. Brr. She had finished in 4:55 which she understandably was very proud of. I too was/am VERY proud on her behalf.
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| New PR :) |
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