Early April and I’m now at the peak of my Brathay 10 marathons in 10 days training before I taper for the event starting on 10th May. I had planned to do a block of 160 miles in 10 days from 31st March. After the first 7 days leading up to the Blackpool marathon I had managed 100 miles with plenty of hills in it.
Day 8 was the Blackpool marathon and there was no way you could call my legs fresh as I went into the race. My block of training was going well, my joints were creaking a bit but my muscles seemed to be holding up well. Conditions were very close to perfect, calm, dry and sunny. Possibly the only criticism I could have was that it was very cold during the first hour of the run. The course, along Blackpool front, was nice and flat and was certainly a fast course as there wasn’t a sea breeze.
I think I’m going to blame Tony Hooper for how the day went as I saw him ahead of me early on in the race and decided to catch him for a natter. This got me running at a pace I hadn’t planned on but I found fairly comfortable so even when Tony had run off ahead I continued at this unplanned faster pace. Running friend Caroline kept me company past half way, which I did in 1 hour 36 minutes.
I was expecting my energy levels not to be up to running at this pace for a whole marathon so was surprised as I got into the second half and was actually able to slightly increase the pace. I passed 20 miles in 2 hours 26 minutes and realised I was inside 3:15 the good for age time for London.
I continued to keep the pressure on the pace and came in to the finish at Blackpool Football club in 3 hours 8 minutes 44 seconds. My fastest time since Rotterdam in 2001!
Interesting how I have got such a good time when I hadn’t aimed for it. The whole thing goes against anything coaches and books would say. I had no taper, in fact one of my hardest weeks running ever. I’ve also done no speed work, albeit I have done quite a lot of hill work in preparation for running round Windermere but this training certainly wasn’t required for the flat Blackpool course. Maybe this all goes to show that when it comes to running marathons all the training schedules are not the only way to run fast marathons. Lots of factors and conditions need to be right. I would go as far to say my 10 in 10 training which has included many long runs is particularly important and a necessity to running a good marathon.
As for the next 2 days of my planned block of training, I think I will take them a little easier than planned. Not getting injured is significantly more important than an extra 2 days running at this late stage in my 10in10 preparation.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention in all this excitement, that’s my 99th marathon run. So I’m on track for my 100th at the Greater Manchester Marathon on 28th April. I can’t wait to reach this milestone which I’ve been working towards for so many years.
“1 to go!”
