Chester marathon

As a wise fellow 10 in 10-er pointed out to me, it's inevitable that you have ups and downs in marathon running and, setting aside the TiT, my last few races had all gone very very well. I was really looking forward to running the Chester marathon: it's my first mara after the 10 in 10 and I think 14 days later was the right timing. All my niggles healed very quickly and I'd had a lot of rest (all motivation to train had disappeared with no big event to target) plus I was itching to run a marathon again. Unfortunately, it was probably always going to be a bit difficult emotionally.

I missed the routine that had evolved at the 10 in 10, the small group of runners who knew each other really well and could support each other, whether that was with words, a hug or merely the tacit awareness that we were all going through the same thing. I missed the physios, sure, the physical attention, but also their unswerving enthusiasm and cheerfulness. Selfishly, I missed being one of only 12 and it all being about us, though of course you can't expect that to continue. And I missed the route. Each mile of Windermere has its own character and the atmosphere develops and changes along the way. Chester is an out and back along a fairly straight cycle route that used to be a railway line and is very flat. I'm not criticising it, it's great for PBs, it just wasn't "my" marathon.

My rested legs had developed a lot more strength over 263 miles over a hilly course in 10 days (can someone explain to me how on earth I clocked it 0.1 mile long every single blinking day? I couldn't have cut any more corners without getting in the lake) and decided to set off way too fast. Sadly, those 262 miles were done a lot more slowly than my recent marathon pace and the cardio couldn't keep up. It would appear that I'm not very fit any more. Endurance. Tick. More strength. Tick. Improved obstinacy. Tick. Aerobic capacity. Fail. 

I got through the first half in 1'50, my standard first half split but it had felt too hard, so I decided to take the third quarter easy with the hope of picking it up again from 20 miles. Incredibly, things were hurting too - my lower back was killing me, then my right glute went followed by my right ITB. It was very disappointing that things were hurting on a single race when I'd got through several in the 10 in 10 before niggles arose. Still, what it tells me is that I need to strengthen my lower back, do more stretching, and get back into interval training. 

3'54 is a reasonable time, however, given my pre 10 in 10 times, it ought to have been 15 minutes faster. I made a comment a while ago about having to accept responsibility for your races. This was not about a lack of rest or training, or race conditions, or the route, or poor preparation, it was my own lack of fitness. At least that's provided renewed motivation.

PS. Today's highlight has got to be walking through the wrong door of the rugby club, turning my head to the right to see a tall, dark and handsome man, stark naked, walking towards me through a cloud of steam. So there was hot water in the men's showers then.