Dark O'Clock X-C

Dark O'Clock X-C
Early morning cross country run from Flitwick to Luton

Monday 8 October 2012

Chester marathon

Day 281 Sunday 7th October 26.2 miles miles : miles to date 1866.6 After 16 weeks of the Voldemort schedule, the main race of the year arrived in the form of Chester marathon. The Voldemort plan was so scary, I couldn't say it out loud at the start as it was a 3 hour one. Having ripped apart all my PB's in the last few months, I was hopeful of beating my best marathon time of 3.25 as well. I knew that a sub three was beyond me this time and when the Flying Scotsman George Arbuckle said he was going to run at 7 minute mile pace, that made up my mind to go with him. I had been considering 7.10 pace and aiming for around 3.08, but the schedule gave me confidence to go that bit quicker. The first half just wizzed by. It was quite staggering how we hit almost every single mile marker almost spot on at 7 minute pace, going through halfway in 1.32.04. I made the mistake of thinking to myself at mile 17 that I felt strong and might even me able to pick it up. Needless to say, not long after I felt the opposite and struggled to eat a jelly baby. It took me three attempts and some minutes to do so. At mile 20, we clocked exactly 2.20.00 which was inch perfect 7 minute pace. A lot of it was down to George. We were able to chat a lot of the way. Apart from when I was trying to eat, my breathing wasn't laboured at all with the main issue always going to be leg strength. We had been warned about a hill at 23 miles, which wasn't at all bad. Never the less, it was around that point that negative thoughts appeared and my inane banter froze up. We had caught John McBurney and for the first time George just looked and clearly was a lot stronger than me. Instead of thinking in miles, I concentrated on the minutes left which I could easily work out as we were still sticking to the pace. The blooming organisers then stuck in the worst hill on the course at 25 miles and for the first time all race, George opened up a gap and I knew I would not be able to catch him. John and I both struggled up it and it probably cost me around 40 seconds, with my pace dropping to near 8 minutes going up. At the top, I was able to get back to the pace but by then my right foot was hurting a lot on the ball, with every step being painful. Our names were on the race bibs and there were shouts for Paul, John and George (and as John remarked, all we needed was a Ringo and the Fab four were back in town). John eased away coming in at 3.04.07 and I hung on for 3.04.15 and 108th place out of 2070 runners, which at the start of the race I would have taken in a heart beat. If it wasn't for that blooming hill, I would have had a negative split which I missed out on by 8 seconds! Still, it was a massive PB for me by 21 minutes and I am on cloud nine right now. George played a huge part in it, both from faster long distance training runs and the race itself. He also pulled out a new PB of 3.03.28 which is just fantastic. The club had 15 people running and almost everyone picked up a PB. There were fantastic achievements all around, right for the Beare up front with an amazing 2.55.07 (PB) down to Terry McHugh with a brilliant 4.20.51, despite several pints of larger Saturday night. I was so pleased and excited for everyone. Most of us stayed and went for several beers and a curry in Chester, where we spent the entire night getting drunk, eating spicy food and talking about running. A fantastic weekend was had by one and all and one that is going to have to be repeated next year. For the record, our club times were Martin Beare 02.55.07 George Arbuckle 03.03.28 Paul Owen 03.04.15 Richard Jones 03.22.43 Steven Pritchard 03.28.46 Phil Clarke 03.31.02 Claire Fisher 03.32.29 David Cook 03.33.16 David Coker 03.34.47 Ron Armstrong 03.38.16 Philip Horan 03.38.33 Nicola Bowerman 03.53.48 Julie Pritchett 03.55.16 Rebecca Fleckney 04.09.59 Terry McHugh 04.20.51

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