Did you run in this event? How did your race day go? Well
I was more than happy that the disastrous weather London was having in the lead
up to race day miraculously disappeared on the day itself and the usual London
Marathon support was out in full force. I especially love the huge drums under
the motorway at Westcombe Park and Brazilian Latino drums at Canary Wharf where
I 'm guaranteed to slow my pace down to observe this atmosphere. at Like me I'm
sure your race consisted of high's and low's, positives and negatives which
affected the outcome of you race. Reflecting back what would you have changed
or done differently? Did you reach your goal or did your time you hoped to
finish the marathon by slip away out of your grasp? I again fell for the same
old trick! I pumped myself up for weeks telling myself do not!
under any circumstances submit to the voice in my head
telling me to slow down, give up or.... It hurts! Fight back Brooksy! Think
positive thoughts come on you can do it! Push through to the end << what
a load of nonsense! Explain later
With me, My aim (one day) is to run a sub three hour
marathon which means running a pace under seven minutes per mile for 26 miles.
Quite a challenge! and today just wasn't going to be that day. My next aim
which I thought I may just sneak was to run under 3:09:59 and obtain a Good For
Age Marathon time [and easy entry into the 2013 London Marathon]...
Oh I tried for this and even instructed my Garmin virtual
partner to pace me. At one point I was 770 metres up on this time but by mile
19, I knew I had to dig in deeper, my pace slowed and my hard work I had put
in, in the early miles I found myself slowing and my initial advantage was
getting eaten in too. Re paragraph above: Fight back those voices of doubt! I
totally forgot my pre race plan and promptly crumbled submitting to the voices
of pain and was now running on auto pilot without any passion or drive. I knew
if I didn't up my pace, would be a close finish. Alas like Tottenham Hotspurs
2011/2012 season the wheels came off my wagon and as I left parliament Square
my Garmin bleeped like mad at me saying 03:09:59 time I wanted was now up! I
plodded around that last 3/4 mile finishing 3:16:35. Crossing the line I was in
so much pain, agony that I hadn't felt in my other three marathons and I was
even rather cross with myself that the after marathon pictures clearly show a
false smile. I stropped around a little saying "That's IT!" ....
I'm not running this event again because my pride was a
little damaged but most of all my body was screaming at me in *pain*. Seriously
checking my heart rate which looked normal... My heart actually was
hurting..... woah! Don't go there! I hoped!!
Being a #geek two days later I have printed off my Garmin
stats and observed my pace mile for mile. I've also printed off my last two
years VLM times and side by side on my desk I'm comparing my times mile by
mile! If you can do that I'm sure you'll have a surprise and if you are upset
with your performance I bet doing this you'll say to yourself hang on.....
Firstly compared to other years I may have set off too fast.
Quite noticeably I had quite quick miles (by my
standards) which puts me miles up the road compared to previous years. This
year I even had mile paces within a second of each other which tells me my pace
was steady and consistent. Even when I "thought" the wheels had come
off late in the marathon, WoW the times we still perhaps slightly quicker than
the same miles in previous years which justified my quickest PB time for 2012.
2011 3hrs:25mins, 2010 3hrs:45mins
I'm sure in all our races there are moments we're not
happy with or the race or our body throw in a surprise we're not expecting that
never happened in all our months of training! Stitch, blisters unexplained
pace. The more competitive runners (I try to be) we can beat ourselves up about
it like taking on Mike Tyson for 12 rounds but I'm sure! By stepping back and
re evaluating the situation I bet you didn't do to bad after all and can more
than easily see the positives in your executed race plan
I've come too far to give up now and you shouldn't either! Onwards and upwards
