Sunday was a good day. A very good day. I had been preparing for my first Marathon for months, and at the back of my mind there was always the worry that something would go wrong which would put all of my good work to waste. However, ultimately the Marathon went even better than I had hoped for, something that has made the aching legs much easier to deal with since.
The first unknown was the course. I had studied the route map and it seemed like a very flat course, with the marketing for the event stressing that it was a perfect course for anyone chasing a new PB. Yet whilst I liked the course a lot, it still surprised me. Preciously little of the course is flat, and twice you cover a stretch of road which is around 4 miles and almost constantly uphill. Yet crucially the gradient is never particularly steep, certainly not to the point where you have to alter your running stride. Also for the most part the course is a long drag uphill/downhill rather than undulating, meaning that you can maintain the same tempo for as long as you have the stamina. In essence the course was two loops of the half Marathon course (other than a few differences near to the start/finish area), which I felt was perfect. Having covered almost all of the course, I knew what to expect on lap 2, which made gauging my efforts in the latter miles easier, yet things never got too repetitive. Overall I’d concur with the marketing, if you’re looking for a fast time this is a good course to run.
Something which will always be an unknown until the day itself is the weather. The forecast changed several times during the week leading up to the Marathon and when I arrived in Blackpool on Saturday I was greeted by cold temperatures, rain and relatively strong winds. However, the Sunday was actually filled with glorious sunshine, but those winds remained. They were blowing WNW, and made the conditions difficult to prepare for. Running south (which was also largely downhill), the wind was behind me and the temperature felt very hot. However, when I ran uphill, the cold winds were very noticeable. I started the run in a long-sleeve baselayer and running jacket, along with tights and shorts. That was perfect for the uphill, northerly sections of the course but insufferable on the downhill, southerly sections. When I passed my parents for the final time at around 20 miles, I knew I only had 2 more miles running into the wind, so changed my top and baselayer for a T-Shirt. That took up a couple of minutes due mainly to my race number, but it was time well spent. Marathons are exhausting enough on their own, you don’t need heat exhaustion on top of that.
The final ‘unknowns’ were factors I hoped wouldn’t actually be unknowns – pacing and stamina. I set out with the intent of running to a 8 to 8 minute 20 second per mile pace, depending on how good I felt on the day. That is the pace I have been training at, and I hoped that running at that pace would be instinctual. The first mile was pretty hectic as I tried to find gaps in the road to overtake slower runners ahead of me and I actually missed the first mile marker. By the second mile marker things had spread out a bit more and I was able to run at my own pace. I felt like I’d made a slow start, so I was very surprised to see 15.19 on my watch as I passed through 2 miles. I tried to slow down, but passed through 3 miles in around 23 minutes. The problem was that the first 3.5 miles were all downhill, so I was running quicker than I intended without exerting any extra effort.
Running quicker without putting in extra effort sounds perfect, but there are potential pitfalls. If you’ve been running for 20 minutes or more at a steady tempo, it can be pretty hard to then consciously slow down because your body prefers to maintain a certain rhythm. In theory I should have slowed my pace when I started running uphill, into the wind, but I just couldn’t do it. Mile after mile was completed in less than 8 minutes right the way through to the half Marathon marker, the only exception being the 8th mile when I stopped to go to the toilet. After about 6 miles I decided I wouldn’t worry about whether my pace was too quick, and instead simply try to maintain it for as long as possible.
I felt like I was noticeably slowing for the first time at around 15 miles, which was slightly earlier than I expected and probably a consequence of the quicker pace. That said, it might just have been the fact that the route started going uphill again at around that point. Yet my splits stayed pretty good until 20 miles, and I knew I was on for a good time if I didn’t hit the wall too badly. In retrospect, I’m not sure I ever did hit the wall, but between 20 and 22 miles were pretty tough. However, once I turned just after 22 miles, I had the wind behind me and flattest section of the course ahead of me. I used some visualisation techniques to help me make the distance seem shorter, imagining I was running along the Thames Path towards my house and checking off the markers as I got closer to home. It seemed to work as I settled into a steady pace, even catching a few people, before making the final turn towards the finish. Despite some confusion over the direction of the course during the last mile costing me around 30 seconds, I finished in 3 hours, 33 minutes and 2 seconds.
Even though completing my first Marathon was much more important than the time, I was very pleased with the time I achieved. The only problem is that I’ve now set myself a target which won’t be easy to beat! On that note, I now have to find the next challenge. I’ve resolved to give myself a bit of time off before deciding on anything, but I found that the Marathon gave great focus to my training and I need something similar to ensure I don’t drop off over the coming months. But given how much I enjoyed my first Marathon, don’t be surprised if I commit to another soon!
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