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Barcelona marathon 6/3/11
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shotgunmcos wrote: »Macrani? 3:08 is that right?
christyb 3:11 and jackyback 3:13 through 40km respectively? Am I reading these right? It keeps flicking to spanish so not sure
Mac missed his target slightly, but was still looking alive on 41k
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Yea, it was f*ckin deadly,:eek:
, literally:rolleyes: more later - beer talking!
Thanks for the good wishes all the same.
A great run for alot of the Irish today; Boardsies include; Oisin, Meno (aka Daddy:D), Rainbow Kirby, RachelJev, JackyB, tbb, Liamo123, Cunovalas, BriandRunner, Christeb (and Nancy?:p); and me. I'm sure I'm missing other great performances - sorry for that.
Adios, Mac.0 -
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4 stars (good)Just to echo everyone else's comments re barcelona great city, great course, great support and great weather. i would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a spring marathon next year. Entry is already open but they have moved the race back to march 25th next year, so in all probability it is likely to be even warmer next year.
Since i have given up updating my log i thought this would be as good a place as any to put my race report. So here goes. Apologies if this is a bit longwinded
Background
Back in November i started Hal Higdons Advanced Level 2 18 Week Plan (Mistake #1 Running 1 marathon previously does not make you an advanced marathon runner) and enlisted all the technological aids i thought i would require i.e gps watch, heart rate monitor etc. 4 weeks into the plan i found that i was over analysing everything pace,distance, effort,terrain and i was beginning to dread every session and as the end of year deadlines mounted at work and the weather turned to sh#t i was skipping more and more sessions so thought that i could catch up with the training in the new year when i f**ked of to the canaries for the month of january. Again things didn't materialise as planned and with one thing or another spent most of january on the bike with little or no running. I made a decision when i got that as barcelona was already paid for i had to devise a plan to get me through raceday. The new plan consisted of running when i felt like it with no watch or hrm and at a pace i felt comfortable with. i knew i still had to build my long runs so went from 12mile to 22 mile LSR's over the next 5 weeks with on average of two other runs per weeks meaning average weekly mileage went from 25 to 35 miles leaving me with a one week taper.
Raceweek left with a quandary. What was my realistic target time? i had felt better before amsterdam but this time around i had more long runs in the legs so i decided i would be doing well to match amsterdams time of 3.30 all things considered. The final decision was to run without a watch and go by gut feel alone and i assumed there be several clocks on the route that i could gauge how well/bad i was going and grabbed a 3.30 pace band at the expo.
Raceday
Seriously you couldn't make this up.
Didn't get much sleep the night before as there was some sort of carnival going on outside the hotel until two in the morning. Had set the alarm on the phone for seven in the morning but hadn't set the phone for spanish time so queue panic at ten to eight in the morning realising i had 40 minutes to get ready have breakfast and make it up to the start line. Breakfast consisted of a yoghurt drink and two muesli bars and the concierge in the hotel told me that all the other marathon runners had left almost half an hour ago. I make it the start in plenty of time and decide to take my first gel before the race to top up the energy levels due to missed breakfast. I position myself at the back of the sub 3 pen (that was the plan 18 weeks ago) and hit off, i spend the first 2-3km trying to slow down as i was being passed by hundreds of others but know i have to run my own race so finally get into a bit of a rhythm around 5km. First problem during the race rears its head no intermediate clocks at the 5km markers like amsterdam so i will have no idea how fast or slow i am going (Mistake # 2). Seeing i am still being passed by hundreds of runners i formulate a new plan if i keep plodding away at some stage the 3.30 pacers will come past i will tag in behind them and use them to keep pace. i go through 10km and still no sign and the number of runners coming past has began to slow down but still not feeling great, hit 15km and badly need a piss but the stupid marathon is always in the main streets with a crowd watching and the portaloos are few and far between.Spot a small sidestreet coming up and find a discreet spot between two wheely bins feeling much better now and after 19kms we meet the sub 3 crowd going through half way and do some quick arithmetic and realise i am about 10mins behind 3hr pace putting me on course for 3.20 and with the inevitable drop off in pace towards the end would be in with a shout of 3.25 fantastic. keep going on through 25km and nutrition plan going well ( grab whatever you can when you can and an SIS gel every 5 miles). Grab a fistful of nuts of one of the tables and solid foods i nice alternative to gels and water so at the next table around 30km grab another fistful but this time they go down the wrong way and cue a coughing and wheezing fit that goes on for about a km and a half. Eventually the offending almond comes back up through my nose and get back to concentrate on the running. As i hit the 20 mile mark i realise that i must be beginning to slow down and that it is only a matter of time before the big red balloons will come past. i know start counting down the kms to the finish even if i did blow up it would still all be over in an hour at most so head down and plough on. This is were the crowd played their part and i felt a spring in my step for the first time all day, the next five km flew by through place de la catalunya and down la rambla. It was only here that i felt the first onset of cramp, there was a small step on one of the pedestrian streets and i overstretched a little to jump it and the small change in stride caused me to cramp a little but so long as i stayed with my normal stride i was ok. Got to 40km and decided that the only way to get through this was head down and look at the blue line on the road as up ahead all you could see was the long line of runners ahead and the km markers felt further and further apart eventually saw the the last corner before the fira and the finish and contemplated a sprint finish but the legs were having none of it. Got a shout from woddle in the crowd and saw the finish line but still no sign of a clock. Knew the second half was slower but the 3.30 pacers hadn't passed so 3.30 was safe but what about 3.25. Out of the corner of my eye spotted the clock 3.21.48 absolutely delighted with myself.
It was only after collecting the medal and sitting down for a while that the clock would only represent gun time and there surely 2 minutes before i crossed the start line, a possible sub 3.20. Arrived back at hotel to find text message with chip time 3.18.55:D
The most interesting thing i found were my splits without a watch or anybody to pace off i expected them to be all over the shop but the were very consistent. the following were my 5km splits from the website.
00:23:30 5km
00:23:14 10km
00:23:22 15km
00:23:50 20km
00:22:51 25km
00:23:18 30km
00:23:46 35km
00:24:09 40km
00:10:59 42.2km
1st half 1.38.58
2nd half 1.39.58
A special word of thanks & congratulations to all the boardsies who travelled to barcelona who helped take some of the stress and nerves out of the weekend.0 -
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