Of the 201 finishers of the Clon Marathon on Saturday Caitriona, John and I were among the seven runners who ran the last 13.22 miles at a faster pace than the first 13 miles (by about 1 second per mile - that's a 13 second negative split). The greatest negative split was by about 3:38 or 17 seconds/mile. By comparison the winner (Georgie Waugh in 2:34:01) ran the last 13.22 miles 25 seconds/mile slower than the first 13 giving a positive split of about 5:31. Just shows how challenging the second half of the course was. The greatest positive split was about 1:13:00 or 5:37 per mile - that's a tough way to complete a marathon.
Hanging off the back with 4 miles to go..
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Recovery consisted of 4 x 1 miles @ 6:48 pace with 2 min recoveries at the track this evening and while the effort was manageable and the legs responded well I was conscious of not pushing too hard - not just because of the marathon but due to my general lack of co-ordinated training over the last few months - in particular speedwork. I'll certainly take my time easing back towards the 6:00 to 6:20 miles I was doing at the start of the year.
If what I've learned from MC so far is anything to go by then than 6:00 to 6:20 efforts should be put off until much later in the training process.
ReplyDeleteOr, you do your bit, I do mine and then we compare notes.
I noticed that about the winner's splits. You had a very solid result considering the less than text-book preparation.
ReplyDeleteGot to say, I'm leaning very much towards Thomas in the 'race' to a sub-3 marathon ;)