Well, I really enjoyed Liverpool Marathon :o) It has been
‘ages’ since I’ve done a marathon and I haven’t done a really big city marathon
for much much longer. I love smaller, quirky and off-road events, but every once
in a while it’s really great to do a big event with lots of people. It takes me
back to when I first started running and the huge array of different runners
and different abilities; it’s always nice to see someone finish their first
marathon and there are always lots of them at these events. Also, I haven’t been
doing as many events this year due to money and logistics and the last few
months have been especially sparse on the race front. Therefore, I was
interested in seeing what my running time would be like for this marathon. I
have been training again…well, running on my own throughout the week a number
of times. When I was knocking out marathons every weekend I very often didn’t train
during the week at all and just used it as down time.
Having missed out on Chester, Liverpool is the next closest
race to me and it feels like my ‘home race’ just as much as Chester does. I
know Liverpool well and I love the city and the architecture. The view over the
water in the first half was stunning. If I hadn’t have been running well for
once and in some sort of rhythm, I would have stopped to take a picture ;-) The
skyline just looked lovely in the morning misty sun and you could see the radio
city tower nestled amongst the Liver Buildings. Running towards the Liver Building
once through the tunnel was great. They really are fantastic buildings. And the
support was so heart-warming around this bit. You have to love the enthusiasm
of scousers ;)
I had a really strong first 14 miles and I didn’t stop once
and I liked my pace. Then at around 15 miles I really needed the loo. Then I
had a bit of an energy dive and took a gel. I have really gotten out of the
habit of taking gels. Also, I was feeling all shivery at this point. You know
that disorientated feeling you get when it’s a slightly breezy day, but you
wear a vest because you know you’ll warm up too quickly otherwise…so you wear a
vest, sweat a lot, sweat dries on your skin and then you end up feeling both
warm and chilly at the same time? Well, I was feeling a bit like that. Does
that make any sense at all? Also, I lost a bit of focus around the 15-17 mile
point as it was a long straight stretch with faster runners coming back around
the other side and a bit off-putting.
The support was fantastic at this race. Coming out of the
tunnel was a very memorable moment. There was a huge band of drummers and the
noise and atmosphere put a huge smile on everyone’s face. I also really liked
running through the tunnel. I have driven through it countless times but I’ve
never before run through it; I’ve never fancied the Tunnel 10k. It was an
interesting experience.
I made a point of not looking at my Garmin yesterday. I started it a few minutes before we even
made it to the front of the crowd of runners and past the start line and then I
left it in the zipped pocket of my waist pack. I didn’t look at it until mile
20, when I hoped I might be able to pace myself for a ‘not too bad’ time. I
never used to bother with watches. For the first year and a bit of me doing events
I didn’t own a Garmin. My times were quicker because I didn’t do so much and
trained smarter, but I know I am also guilty of checking my Garmin far too much
instead of listening to my body and feeling how I run.
Yesterday I felt good in
places and ran strong with how I felt at the time. I went with it. I didn’t
rely on my Garmin to tell me what pace I might be running. It felt like enough
at that moment. I will definitely try this tactic a lot more. Don’t get me
wrong, I love my Garmin, but I think it can distract me a lot in races. Mainly
I find it useful for training purposes, crazy off-road events where you don’t necessarily
always have a clue how much mileage you are supposed to have done and also, I
just like being a geek and uploading the maps and data afterwards. It’s
interesting.
I’m going to say that my running was great to start with.
Then I lost focus. Then my quads became an issue. I stupidly decided to do some
kettle bell squats earlier in the week. These were not even strenuous at the time.
Yet, somehow they have left me with DOMS for days. So, going into this marathon
I knew my legs were not 100% and I would probably feel that later on and I did.
So weighing up the facts, I definitely had the potential to be faster
yesterday. I have been faster in the past. However, I have been nowhere near
this fast any time in recent memory. It wasn’t super speedy but, for where I
have been in the last few years, it felt great to finish in 04:30:33 :O) I’m
getting some of my speed back, slowly… woooo!
I’m really quite pleased with that time. It gives me a bit
of hope that I’m moving in the right direction. So, afterwards, we hit a lovely pub we discovered a
few months back at Matthew St. festival and I had 3 recovery Guinness’s = happy
Sunday. We got chatting to another runner and his wife; they were such lovely
people. It was really nice to hear stories about the marathons they have done
all over the world. And he was drinking Guinness too… its catching on ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment