26.2 x 6:29.9...

Seeing as I didn't manage to post a London Marathon race report last week I thought I'd fill you in this week...

As I've mentioned loads of times before my target of 9.25 at Ironman Germany (11 weeks today!) is partly based on a marathon time of three hours and 25 minutes. An extremely approximate rule of thumb states that if you can get within 30 minutes of your 'stand-alone' marathon time in the final leg of an Ironman you're doing pretty well, so there I was stood on the start line of this year's London Marathon with the seemingly ambitious task of breaking 2.55 and breaking my existing pb by around five minutes. Last year I'd run at about 67 kilos but had struggled maintaining strength at anything below about 68 (in 2006 I ran at 72) and my legs stopped playing rather suddenly at around 24 miles... this year I was 65 on the Friday morning but felt sure that consistent strength training over the last six months complimented with an increase in protein in my diet would give my legs the extra strength to hold on through the tough final 10k. Although I'd been struggling with a slight knee injury in the three weeks leading up to the race (long story...dodgy shoes) I was confident that my excellent training block, extra long runs and determination to step out of my marathon comfort zone would see me sneak my desired time... although I was even more sure that it would a) really hurt and b) would be very close...

I'm a great believer in increasing your goals little by little in order to achieve great long term gains and as such, in spite of running significantly better in training, was only looking to go through halfway 30 seconds faster than I had last year... 1:27:00 v 1:27:30... working out at an average mile split of 6:38 or 5k of 20:34....

Now, accurate pacing is normally my strength and although an opening 5k of 19:41 sounded a little quick I wasn't too concerned as the first three miles are pretty much downhill... going through 10k in 39:50, a full 1:18 ahead of schedule however (a seemingly ambitious schedule at that) did start a few alarm bells ringing? Was I following all the other marathon 'lemmings' to a messy end somewhere between 18-20 miles? We've all been there, although several years ago I still have vivid memories of going through halfway in the Lausanne marathon in 1:30 only to blow up spectacularly at mile 20, cry my way through the final 10k, collapse over the line, lose all movement in my legs for several hours and the ability to walk unaided for at least 24! Unfortunately marathon running is a bit like drinking spirits on a night out... by the time you find out you've bitten off a bit more than you should have it's too late to do anything about it and you're lying by the side of the road in a drunken/exhausted mess!!

By the time I reached 13.1 miles I'd managed to slow myself down a little and although still way ahead of target had only gained another 22 seconds. At 1:25:20 I was still over two minutes ahead of my previous fastest at this point in a marathon though and knew that all the serious work was still to come with the 'true' marathon halfway point being closer to the 20 mile mark. I've heard the marathon described as 20 miles of hope followed by 6 miles of reality and with typically the final 10k taking as much physical and mental effort as the rest of the race and all your training put together this tends to ring true. At this point the clock was telling me that I'd gone off way to hard and I was having to ask myself to serious questions...

My answers though were encouraging and with 11 marathons and two Ironman events in my athletic experience bank I felt like I was at a more than sustainable intensity... my heart rate was somewhere around the mid-150s and at approximately 10 beats less than last year was confirming my feeling that this was the best I'd felt in a marathon for a long time, maybe ever.

Goal 'creep' is a dangerous thing in endurance sport... all too often people snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when, on the verge of achieving their initial goal they get a little greedy and blow it all in search of previously unconsidered boundaries... 1.25 through half-way though... I could do 2.50 here...? I really had to calm myself down at this point, I was running at nearly 20 seconds faster than the fastest I'd ever run a marathon and needed to be more concerned about keeping within myself than dreaming of finish line glory and post-race celebrations. I promised then that I would try and keep to 6.30 somethings, no matter how easy it felt, and not even think about breaking 2:50 until mile 20 and even then not allow myself to change my pace strategy (which I seemed to be ignoring anyway) until mile 22. Running through 14 I saw Liz giving it everything through 22 (the elite women went off 45 minutes before us). Knowing that she was running to a slot in the Beijing Olympics I promised myself that once I was at that same point although I had no chance of matching her 5:40 miles I would match her work rate... especially if 2:49 was on! 14-20 were pretty uneventful and positively flew by, with every step I took I knew that at some point I was going to revisit a quote I posted on here right at the beginning of our journey...

There will come a point in the race, when you alone will need to decide.
You will need to make a choice.
Do you really want it?
You will need to decide.

At that point you will begin to suffer.
It's a small piece of your life, but one you'll remember.
Make it count.
Rolf Arands

Going through 20 in 2:10:10 I was only ten seconds down on breaking 2:50 and although still not confident enough to take it on there and then I knew that a couple of 6:30 miles would lead to the inevitable question... did I really want it? At this point in a race it's common to look for excuses to not have to hurt yourself, for example 'I could take it easy from here and still pb so why put myself through unnecessary suffering for the odd meaningless second'... so in an odd way I was disappointed that a 6.33 and 6.34 got me to 22 within striking distance of 2:49 and achieving a marathon time which only that morning I believed beyond me... ever!

Time to make this small piece of my life really count...

From 35k to 40k, although still holding something back for the final 2.2k, I applied a little pressure and loving every second of imagining my own Olympic marathon covered the 5k in 19:54 at an average mile split of 6:25... all around me people were dropping like flies, and passing someone every couple of seconds I felt like I was really moving... position is nothing more than a measure of other people though and they were slowing down more than I was speeding up.. time is what it's all about and with memories of my 80 minutes and 1 second in the Brass Monkey earlier in the year and knowing it was going to come down to a couple of seconds either way, I was determined not to miss out again...

Feeling great, it was time to empty the tank and push through every single heartbeat... flying up the Mall I could see the clock ticking 2.49.50, 2.49.51....... then suddenly it was over, looking down at my watch I saw 2:50:00... surely not? surely I hadn't managed to miss out by less than a second over nearly three hours of racing??? Desperate to find out my official time but without any means to do so I dived in to my race bag and stuffing anything and everything that was edible in to my mouth began the nervous wait to see first if Ian had broken three hours (which he had, with time to spare) and if H had done what I thought she would (which she had, in yet another seemingly effortless pb of 3.20)... between those two my mate Ben Woodhouse crossed his first ever marathon finish line in 3.11.... a massive well done to all.

Back at the bus I'd had a few texts saying well done on a great pb... but not the detail I so needed. I knew I'd pb'd by miles and would have been happy either way but when my mum confirmed over the phone that my official time was 2.49.57 I can't describe how great I felt...

Sometimes life gets a little too predictable (especially for a statto like me) and although on one hand we are achieving our goals, we are at the same time creating limits by not looking past those goals at what we might achieve by simply doing the best we can... When I first broke three hours I was conscious that I'd done something I never thought possible, which in turn made me think about what other 'impossible' achievements were within me... quite a liberating thought! Over time that had all faded away though and I'd gone back to living up to expectations, but nothing more... not wanting to turn this in to an epic I'll hold that thought... but will return to 'goal setting in relation to creating boundaries' when it's a little clearer in my thoughts.

Suffice to say, I'm back believing 'impossible is nothing'...

Today's photo was taken at mile 22 in the 2004 London marathon when having not yet broken three hours my time of 3:00:20 was a harsh reminder that there are no such thing as 'meaningless seconds'...

See you next week after a much needed return to training and racing,

Thanks again,

T ;)