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| One of the three beautiful natural springs in the park |
My blister had me very worried, but by race time, the adrenilin in me had me all but forgetting about it. I planned to run a 6:00 pace and hoped to take a good amount of time off my last HM, considering this was a flat course and I had that much more training under my belt.
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| The starter pistol was probably real! |
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| I'm in this crowd somewhere. I felt absolutely dwarfed by all this big guys! |
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| Blue & White! |
I went out a little fast, but don't feel like I over did it at all. Much of the first 14 km I ran anywhere from 5:32 to 5:55. I felt like I hit a stride that I was very comfortable with. However, there was not much shade and the heat of the day started to set in. I think 9:30 is a bit late to start and by the half way mark, I was feeling the effects of the heat. At 14.5 km the climb through the local town started, and even though I had a good time through the climb (5:40, 5:55, 5:58) it seemed to sap the life out of me. By 18 km I was already having to convince myself that I was not going to walk - just keep it going and stay focused. By this time my last 3 km were (6:04, 6:13, 6:12) but no way was I slowing down.
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| My official time was 2:04:54 but the clock was only reading the last digits... |
But - woohoo! I set a new PR! 2:04:54 with an average pace of 5:53. Faster than the 6:00 pace I thought I'd run. Everyone that finished with me seemed drained by the heat - and when I came through the gate I was so exhausted. (I think I drank a litre of water within the first 15 minutes!) I was so looking forward to my frozen Gatorade, but darn it if it wasn't still frozen solid!
All in all, a great time and a thrill to run amoungst so many!
This coming week I have my last long run (32 km) and then the week after starts my taper. I am getting so excited about the upcoming Marathon - I think my cup runnith over with adrenilin already!
Have a good one,
Jenny
Nice job. Congrats on your PR.
ReplyDeleteSuper! Nailed it!
ReplyDeleteWhat was the temp that day? 2:05 in heat means that you could probably get under 2 hrs if it was cool.
My favorite does-it-all calculator here:
http://www.runworks.com/calculator.html
sez that if you were running at 32C, then you could run just under 2 hours if you were at a cool temp (< 16C)!
Do you have a pace in mind for your marathon..what temps do you expect?
@Paul - the average temp for Tiberius in January is 45 - 68F however, last year was a major heat wave and the temps were like summer. Several people in my running group ended up in hospital because of dehydration!
ReplyDeleteI think I will try a pace of 6:15 and see where that gets me. I'm worried about going out too fast. My average pace for my long runs has been 6:17 so I think this might work. It's all very new to me so I hope I've run enough to pull it off!
Hi RB,
ReplyDeleteYour pace (matching your long run pace) is right about what I did on my first...it's the easy pace for me too and it worked really well to just do that on race day.
Of course I did not have the threat of a hot day..if you get a hotter day than your training runs you'll want to start slower (30s added to pace per km per 2-3C over your usual training temps?)
I did not hit the wall until the last mile or so in my first marathon (10:08/mile)...just a taste ;)
Oh yes, one more thing.
ReplyDeleteIf you've run *three* 32km (20mile) runs, you are really well prepared. Some people only run one!