Chester Marathon

This tapering lark before a marathon really didn't work for me, it made me feel slow and  i just kept thinking i was coming down with the cold. Stevie said this was the tapering effect well it felt like the cold. The wrong thing to do in the lead up to the marathon is to keep running you should be easing back a little  but i kept running in the hope the legs would start to feel better. The legs by Saturday morning felt better but the lungs, i was struggling to breath. Hey who needs to breath when you can still run.

The trip down to Chester was fine in the fact i got on all the right trains and only got lost trying to find my b+b. Thank you to the drunk man outside the pub who pointed me in the right direction.
Pre marathon tea was in a pub, burger washed down with pint of the flying scotsman. I felt i should drink this as it could be a good sign for tomorrow.
I really didn't have a good sleep as I spent most of the night waking up, so i was glad when the alarm went off to get up for the marathon.

The actual race day i didn't feel great but i had felt worse during the week so at least that was a good sign. Once the gun went off all thoughts of the cold disappeared. The pace felt ok but according to the garmin i was running too fast. This was the first time i have ever raced with the garmin, but i did what i felt right and carried on.
The miles ticked by and i was feeling alright until around mile 22, not bad considering i was running at a pace that i don't normally run at. Head down and i felt like i was working but the pace was slipping but i didn't feel like i was losing too much time.
I started to cramp up in the last mile, and as i hit the race course my legs just went. It felt like i was in a cross country race, i was looking for the racing line and attempting to miss all the mud. As soon i attempted to sprint for the line the cramp kicked in even more and stopped any thoughts of a final sprint, and i sort of fell over the line. Then the first aiders kept wanting to put me in a wheelchair, they kept pushing the bloody thing behind me offering me it several times. I kept telling them it was just cramp and i was fine.

Looking back at the race I am pleased with the fact i ran a pb! But am angry at myself for not doing the correct training. If i want to go faster and run near that 3 hours then i need to apply myself to the correct training. The distance is not the problem but the speed that i want to run the marathon at is. The Marathon training started well but then i got into ultra mode and started running the miles at no real pace. What speed work I did do was not often enough to have an effect, so i have only myself to blame.
I know i can go faster as i feel that i tired like you would do in any race but my pace only dropped a little. So with some longer paced runs and more of the dreaded speed work that faster time will come. Roll on the London marathon in April.