Since the last post I have completed the Paris Marathon and then supported my sister in her success at the London Marathon. Whilst spectating is less physically demanding, it is quite stressful trying to secure a good viewing spot and mentally draining trying to pick your runner out of the masses.
On Sunday 15th, I completed the Paris Marathon in 4 hours 23 minutes , which is obviously a lot slower than my target time of 3:30. Looking at my splits, I was on track until mile 9, with an average pace of 8 minute miles, but from that point the gap between my average pace and the 8 minute mile target widened, widened and widened. By mile 22 I was shot and completion became my sole goal. The last four miles became a death march with each one taking 13 minutes. As I managed to keep an 8 minute mile pace up until 16 miles and I also did 1:42 at my most recent half marathon I had a suspicion that my time to fall short of 3:30 but I didn't see 4:23 coming. I think I learned a valuable lesson that it is "a marathon not a sprint."
It is quite good that I waited a week to post this blog as if I had updated it close the race it would have been as dark as a Tim Burton adaptation. Sunday, and most of the week, was spent being a bit introspective and looking over reasons that I didn't meet my pre-race expectations. I think it was a mixture of a bad day, not eating enough over breakfast and over optimism when transferring my half marathon time to the full distance.
I didn't really stick to my usual pre-race breakfast and only had a few eggs plus a couple of pastries. I think that might have contributed to the legs fading. In addition, I think 3:45 might have been a more realistic target as doubling my recent half marathon time and adding 10% would have come out at 3:47, but never mind. In hindsight I would still have given it a go and will have another crack at a future race :-)
Still, I would recommend the Paris Marathon as I had a great weekend in Paris with friends (well done Tina for a great time), it is another marathon under my belt and I raised £320 for Mencap through the sweep stake. Alina Tomziak won first prize of £30 with Jules Nugent and Nigel Rodford picking up £10 each for finishing second and third respectively. It seems strangely poetic that when Alina pulled number 100 out of the hat first I dismissed her chances of winning, almost out of hand. Oh marathon running you cruel mistress. See below picture of Tina and myself proudly displaying our medals:
One word of advice I would have for anyone doing a marathon sweep stake for charity would be to have a narrower range of tickets. I went with 30 second ranges but I would maybe go for 20 seconds which would mean you have a reduced spread between your fastest and slowest time. I would also have a reduced number of times faster than your PB too.
Still the main positives to take out of the race is that, as mentioned above, I have completed another marathon and I haven't been forced to reassess my opinions of France. If I had done a PB I would have begrudgingly been forced to upgrade from sporting hatred to mild contempt.
The start of the week was spent recovering. I didn't do anything for the first three days but then got back in the pool on Thursday and Friday to start the preparation for the 10k on 27th May. I also was looking forward to Becs coming back to London for a few days from Saturday.
As mentioned above I spent Sunday watching my sister doing the London Marathon. It was amazing and I was very proud to see my sister realise one of her lifetime goals. She also proved to be a great inspiration as she had a bit of a wobbly bit between mile 9 and 18 but then got back in the game and amazinly got stronger with each passing mile. She went over the line in 5:15 and looked great in the picture I took at 25 miles:
One thing that was striking about the marathon was that the Parisians haven't taken it to their hearts in the same way as Londoners feel about it's own one. Not only was the number of spectators quite low (estimated only 220,000 people in Paris versus over a million in London) but there were quite a few examples that prove that they find the whole thing a bit of a nuisance to them. As there was no barriers on the route there was countless cyclists and people on roller blades on the route. There was loads of people crossing the route. I saw a family crossing with suitcases and Tina saw some crossing walking their dog. There was were even a couple of drivers sitting in the cars waiting for a gap to pull out none of the route was one spectators. In addition the lack of barriers proved too much temptation to some competitors, as a friend who watched his wife and me said there was a middle age man staggering through the 16 mile mark on a few minutes behind the elite men.
Next week: Depending on how my right foot feels I might get out for a run but primarily it will be swimming, swimming and more swimming. I also have my next fundraiser, five a side football tournament on Tuesday, which I am hoping will raise an additional £500 for Mencap.
TTFN...
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