Thanks for that @jeffb
I’ve not run a fresh marathon in seven years. Entered quite a few but always ended up getting injured and not making it to the start line.
I’ve learned along the way – two bad results in Wales, a DNS in 2017 after I crashed in the rain and a lacklustre performance in 2018 after I overtrain and during the whole Covid thing - that the end result isn’t what I sign up for. The objective for Seville was sub 2.45, but my real aim was to give myself some structure and motivation to train over the winter.
More than anything I just knew I needed to stay injury free as I’ve had countless lower leg injuries over the years. Things had been going pretty well up until three weeks ago when I tore something in my hip. This was a new injury for me and took me by surprise. It meant no running at all in the final couple of weeks apart from a few 6 mile jogs the week before the race.
It was great just to be back on a marathon start Line and the plan was to run to heart rate and let the pace be whatever it would be.
I started about 20 m behind the 2.45 pacer and stayed exactly that distance for the first 4 miles. My heart rate was right where I needed to be and so I decided to put in a bit of an effort to get into the 2.45 bus that was sitting just behind the pacer. This immediately made things feel easier and felt like a good decision.
By mile six, I could feel the hip starting to niggle again so I had the ibuprofen that I’d brought with me and that seemed to settle things down pretty quickly.
After that everything settled into a perfect rhythm. The heart rate was exactly where I wanted it to be. I was family in that 2.45 range and to be honest at that point, it felt easy.
We were ticking off the Miles and it was at mile 17 that I felt my hip tear again. I thought that was going to bring an end to my race, but within half a mile or so I knew I’d be able to keep on running. Although it was pretty uncomfortable I was staying on the pace and it didn’t seem to be affecting me too much.
I really thought that sub 2.45 was on the cards and having played at patient game thus far I was even imagining being able to pull away from the 2.45 pacer in the final 10Km. How wrong I was.
It was almost exactly at the 20 mile mark that rather than pulling away the lights went completely out. I had started to feel the effort in my quads from about mile 19, but I had no idea that the going would get that tough that quickly.
The next 10k were some of the most painful Miles I’ve ever ran. I’d previously been running around 6.14 per mile. The last six were 6.29, 6.41, 6.47, 6.47, 7.01, 7.26 (! Ouch). I haemorrhaged about four minutes. In those final 6 miles. I had it clocked slightly long at 26.5 miles, and my God, did that final 0.3 of a mile feel like a long way. I crossed the line in 2.49.36, a fairway off where I had hoped to be just 40 minutes earlier, but still knocked about two minutes off my previous personal best set in London back in 2017. I’m 47 now so whilst I didn’t get exactly what I came here looking for I’ll take that any day of the week and nice to dip under 2.50.
My hip is properly buggered again now and can’t see me doing much running at all for the next three weeks, but all in all it was a pretty good experience, Seville is a great place. It’s proper shorts and T-shirt with here in the afternoon, but almost perfect running conditions first day in the morning. Tends to match up with half term too so not impossible I might end up here again in the future.
on or on the old site here is a brief race report.
