Wales Half Marathon - Hard As Nails
As races go it was possibly the hardest race I've ever done! The Long Course Weekend, the official Ironman training weekend.
I started the race at a cracking pace, the normal pace I have been doing my runs at but at mile 8-9 i hit a very large wall which completely knocked my off my stride and destroyed the chances of me doing a PB. There were alot of up hills and down hills on this route, which made it very difficult to get a rhythm and set a normal stride, but that's what im guessing make the difference between a "standard" runner and a Ironman. Pushing past that pain and getting to a place when your able to keep on going to the maximum and keep that all important rhythm up hill and down hill. I ran three quarters of the race with the same chap and as I an with a bottle of Lucozade sport I offered it to him on a number of occasions as it was bloody boiling on there and he didn't have anything with him.
Although the filling stations were only 3-4 miles apart they were well equipped ranging from bananas, sweets, water and energy gels a well organised part of the course to make sure no one went without. One of the highlights of the course was the amazing views of the Pembrokeshire coast line something once you see you will never forget, I just hope in September when the Ironman comes to town its warm and clear otherwise some people may get lost! Also another highlight of the day was a bloke in Manorbier, he was spectating all the people running past his house and he could see they were all hot, so he got out his garden hose and let runners pass through the water jets to get them cool. Something I thought was amazing to see as I didn't know the bloke from Adam but he was willing to help so many people out!
It was always great to see a fuelling station, its a shame they weren't every mile, and I definitely could have done with seeing one after mile 9. This is where things turned bad for me, I dont know if it was down to the heat or just the time of day, I ate my breakfast at 9am and I think my "tank" was empty come 1pm and I just didn't have enough fuel to keep my starting pace up. I had my Lucozade sport and my Maximuscle Viper gel but this wasn't enough for me, I slowly sipped the Lucozade throughout the route and that was finished at mile 8 and the gel I used at mile 10. They were giving out gels at the filling stations but I didn't want to chance taking one as it could have given me a dodgy tummy and ended my race completely. I ploughed on and go slower, even thought my heart rate got slower too.
Although I didn't get that personal best, I was really happy with my race I'm defiantly a long way away from becoming that Ironman, but it has giving me drive to complete a Iron one day soon, and fingers crossed I can pluck up enough courage to do a half Ironman next year. Damn you Celtic Tri!
Now its a rest day for me today so unfortunately Juneathlon is out the window which is a shame as I really enjoyed Janathon, but my triathlons are more important to me at the moment. Even if I could get out there my legs are very stiff today im hoping to get out tomorrow for a swim, it may be an open water swim or just a simple pool swim.
UPDATED 09/06/11 - The official results are out and I came 128th out of 351 - I'm very happy with that and my times can only get better for a very hard half marathon.
Todays Session
Duration 02 00 07
Distance 13.24 Miles
Calories 1827
Max HR 190BPM
Average HR 177BPM
Well done sounds a real toughy
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it was positive overall, and good experience for the future.
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