Brighton Marathon 2013

Having trained hard all last week, I had the Brighton Marathon on Sunday to test the fitness/speed, but with slightly tired legs. Now, this is not to say I did not want to post a good time, but as GUCR is my main focus I wanted to use Brighton as a stepping stone on the journey to being prepared for GUCR, hence the zero taper and normal mileage/training in the week leading upto Brighton.
Spent the day in Brighton on the Saturday with my family, walked miles around the lanes and picked up my race pack, and with a White Number, I was in the sub 3:15 start, which is directly behind the Elite start at a seperate point from the mass start. This would ensure a clear run for the whole race, can safely say I would be one of the slowest from the sub 3:15 start (PB is 3:12.50).
Fast forward to Sunday morning, and a simple drive down to Brighton to Withdean Park (Elite + Sub 3:15 Start), and found a parking space only 50yards from the starting area, which was a result.

Me looking a bit pensive/tired at the Elite / Sub 3:15 start point

Usual queue for the toilets, but with only about 250 people going from this start, only 3minute wait, which made a nice change. Met one of the guys (Christopher Howe) from the Torq Trail Team assessment day at the start and we had a bit of a chat, he was aiming for sub 3hrs, while I was aiming (hoping) to run under 3:15, so with a call to the start I lined up about 8 metres behind a load of amazingly fast Elite Marathoners, I made sure I was at least halfway down in the 3:15 area, as the guys at the front were aiming for sub 2:45etc, so no reason at all for me to be up with them. 3,2,1 and we were off.
The idea was to head off at 3:10 pace and see what happened, so that's what I did, as there was a 3hr Pacer from this start, I just ensured he was going away from me slightly for the first few miles, but with a 6:46 first mile and the 3hr pacer still moving away (6:52 is 3hr Pace), I assume he was banking a bit of time, or was also a bit carried away on the first few miles. Having been the 4hr Pacer here in 2011, I thought I knew the course profile, but the climb around 5miles and the two hills between 10k and 9miles were much longer and steeper than I remember, I suppose that is the difference between pacing at a very comfortable pace, and racing at your max pace for a PB.
Had the usual chat with another couple of runners on the way round who were also aiming for 3:10 / 3:15, and I was on target at 10k and also at Half way, but could feel my legs complaining and the pace dropping a little between miles 15 - 18 which was reflected in my time at 30k (avg mile pace from 25K to 30K was slower than 3:10 schedule, but still just on schedule overall).

The sun had really come out by now which was nice, and I was so glad I had put a bit of sun cream on my neck and arms before the start. The crowds around 18 - 24miles were very sporadic, with next to no-one around the power station, which was fine, less people to see me trudging past at a now less than impressive pace. The final 4miles from the power station had the wind firmly against you, which was not ideal, but everyone had to contend with it, so can't complain. Certainly felt the weeks training in my quads for the last 8miles, my 2miles of hill reps on Thursday evening might have been the culprit :-)

During this last section I recognised a few runners ahead of me who had gone ahead earlier on who were also now struggling a little/lot like me, I offered a couple of words of encouragement as I speeded past (read, painfully slowly moved ahead), but I don't think it helped. It is plain to see from my mile splits that I lost any chance of a 3:10 in the last 5-6miles, and just about managed sub 8min miles for the last 4miles, so I was glad to see the 800m to go sign and managed to rustle up a 6:45pace last section for a 3:14:18 finish (238th of 9067 finishers).

I bumbed into Chris Howe as I was at the baggage collection area, and he had managed a fantastcic sub3 and a new PB, which I congratulated him on, he was very happy, and so he should be. I was happy once I had time to collect my thoughts (and my clothes, haha), as this was my 2nd fastest Marathon time, and I had trained hard in the week leading up to the race, so there is definitely a bit more to come in terms of faster times. I just need to put a bit more specific Marathon Pace work into my schedule and maybe have a bit of a taper (or at least an easy week) in the lead up to my next road mara. Watch this space as they say.

The Long Road

It is easy to see that my blogging has been non-existent for a few months.
Sometimes it takes a while to get back into the swing of things when major life events occur, and certain things have to go on the back burner, and the blog was one such thing. So very briefly, I will try and bring everything up to date from end of 2012 to current date:

December 2012
Ran Portsmouth Coastal Mara as per usual with my mate Ed as a training run for his 1st Ultra, we ran 2 to 3 miles before the Mara and then cruised the Mara in just over 4hrs. I was pretty whacked, as had done pretty much diddly mileage from end of October to beg Dec.

Jan 2013
Ran the C2C by Go Beyond which is 43-44mile Ultra from Wendover to Little Venice in Central London with my mate Ed. This was Ed's first official Ultra, official in that he had run 28/29miles with me a couple of times in training, but this was the first time he had run Ultra distance with a Race No pinned to his chest. We set out easy, with Ed letting me dictate the pace, being a bit more experienced at these things than he. Long story short, we ran pretty conservatively to the canal section, and then made pretty good progress, Ed let me go ahead at about 34miles as I was a bit stronger, I ran a 7:27 and Ed a fantastic 7:41. Considering I only just broke 9hrs the first time I ran this race, Ed blew that out of the water and looked strong at the finish. If he decides to do a few more Ultras, I am sure he will do well, hopefully I can keep up!!!!

Feb 2013
Ran the Heartbreak Mara in the New Forest as part of training for TP100. Pretty hilly course, with 2 big climbs up onto the ridge and then 3 loops along the ridge, each loop requiring 3 x pretty hard climbs, and then back the way you came with a mile and a bit of road to the finish. Ran all the hills and kept the pace steady on the flat, managed a 6:45 last mile and came in at 3:34 and 27th (of 130ish runners), winner did 2:43, which is mad fast. Great to see a few familiar faces on the course, especially David Ross, who bangs out Mara's most weekends, a lot of them in the 3hr - 3:05 range, even trail ones!!

March 2013
Well Thamespath 100 was the main event for March, I lined up and started all OK, but the course was changed due to flooding as has been widely noted, so it was an out and back along 38miles of the Thamespath, but this didn't really phase me. The conditions underfoot were awful to really awful along a lot of the sections, really large muddy puddles, sticky slippy mud and a bit of snow and cold weather thrown in for good measure. My choice of using my road shoes might have been a bit wrong, but even my trail shoes wouldn't have coped. In short, I fell over at around 23/24miles and landed on my right side/hip and half in a massive puddle, the runner behind me gave me an 8.9 for the fall!!! This felt OK, but by the time I reached the 38mile CP, I was leaning to my left, and knew that unless I was willing to run myself into proper injury, I would not be finishing, so I made the conscious decision at the 48mile CP (49.7 on Garmin after I missed a turn earlier!) to call it a day and retire. My first ever DNF.
What did I learn from this? Well, on the negative, I suppose you could say I stopped before I needed to or had to. And the injury might not have got worse by continuing. Well, these are valid points, but on the positive or in answer to my self asked questions (3rd person posting!!) I stopped because I have other races coming up that are as/more important to me this year, and having run the last 65+miles last year with a niggle and then being out for 6to7 weeks, I was making a valid decision based on some personal experience.
I was glad I was able to make rational and clear decisions in the middle of a race, and mentally I was switched on for the long haul had I been in a fit condition (in my eyes) to continue. Hopefully I will complete the same amount of races I had up to this DNF before I have another one. (Big thanks to Mrs H for coming to rescue me from the CP and taking me home, I owe her big time, again!!).

Torq Trail Team 2013
A couple of months back Torq (www.torqfitness.co.uk) as fitness consultancy and energy products company asked people to apply to be part of there Trail Team for 2013/2014, and I decided to fill in the rather extensive application form, and send it off. Taking into account the high calibre of runners out there and the likely number of entries I was not holding my breath. So imagine my surprise and excitement when I received the below e-mail:

Dear David,

Thank you for applying to be part of the TORQ Trail Team 2013. Trying to pick from hundreds of talented runners wasn't an easy job - so our sincere congratulations to you for making the selection!

So, on Saturday 30th March, I went over to Parliament Hill for the assessment day, where 30 or so other committed and like minded trail runners were also in attendance. It was great that my friend Gemma and Dave Ross were also part of the invitees, as this made a fun day more so as we caught up and chewed the fat. The day consisted of three great talks/presentations, firstly from Torq on nutrition, there products and race fuelling, then from Stuart Mills on Total Preparation for racing trail Mara's/Ultras (http://ultrastu.blogspot.co.uk/), followed by another great talk on injury prevention and avoidance by a top physio. All of this involved some Q+A as well as getting to chat with each other on racing and the usual runner stuff. Lastly a very easy 4 and a bit mile jog around the park for us to stretch our legs and more chin wagging.

Great to be invited, and it would be absolutely amazing to be involved/selected for the actual Team, but that is not something I can influence. There is a 2nd assessment day in 2weeks time, and I assume we will find our our fate some time after that. So fingers and toes crossed.

Happy Running.

Next blog post will probably be some time in July!!!!!