Marathon Consolation Prize...

Earlier in the year, I'd planned on running a spring marathon this past weekend, but after I lost my peak 8 days of training, I bagged that idea. All of which meant that I'm pretty fit right now, though not peaked for a marathon.

As I wrote last week, the goal for this year's Red Rose Run was to beat last year's time of 33:48. I felt I was in sub-33 shape, but not in this course, which is far from easy. Still, I surprised myself.

The plan was to go out with two 6:20 miles and then hold on. Last year, I'd run a 6:55 3rd mile, a 7:21 4th and a 6:59 5th.

This year, I did a 6:18 and a 6:15, but then only slowed down to a 6:47. The true torture mile of this race is mile 4, and I slowed down to a 7:13. Surprisingly, I had a nice 6:32 5th mile, so I came in at 33:04, a real shock.

I'm crediting a good chunk of the time on the weather, which was much milder this year. But I was pretty pleased with coming in 69th out of 1100 (last year I was 71) and 13th out of 140 in my AG. (Last year I was 11th out of 135)

So, I didn't get much faster compared to the competition, but it's still a nice 5 mile PR, and one that tells me I can go under 33 on this course, and perhaps 30-60 seconds faster on an easier one.

Comments

  1. Mike Fraser8:17 AM

    Awesome PR Marcus. Feels good doesn't it. Funny how many times we think we're ready for the race and that's not how things turn out. The one's we question or don't think we're ready for we get the unexpected positive results on. Good job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dan kerr1:22 PM

    Congrats Marcus... You're deserving of a few PRs!

    ReplyDelete

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