Manchester Marathon Oct 2021

Thank you, I genuinely feel so bad for you but I won't go on about it. Let it digest then see what you decide to do next. As always I will look forward to following whatever it is🤗

Don't post a lot here but I've been following the thread and the logs of those running for a few months so said I'd put up a report.

Ran yesterday, second marathon after a 2.57 in Dublin 2019. There was a lot more training went into this one though!

Conditions were perfect, no wind, dry, flat course, couldn't have been better although I think some people found it too warm.

The goal was sub 2.45 although I'd have been happy enough with anything under 2.50.

Went off a bit too fast, GPS was very inconsistent inthe city centre so didn't really realise what pace I was doing until I was a minute up at mile 8. Was feeling good and a bit of a group had formed so stuck at the pace regardless.

Went through half in 1.21.05, felt great the whole way to 20 miles. Felt too good at mile 20, so decided to pick up the pace a bit and did my only 2 sub 6 minute miles at 21 and 22. Took the last gel at 22 which unfortunately due to the increased effort didn't sit well, got a bad stomach cramp, slowed up a bit which the legs didn't like and ended up doing the last 4 miles at aroun 6.23, could have been much worse but definitely shouldn't have picked it up at 20!

Crossed the line in 2.42.32 for a 15 minute PB, although this one was vaporfly assisted.

Manchester was my debut marathon. It was an amazing experience and the crowds and volunteers were universally brilliant. I had it in my head that the course was very flat so imagine my surprise at mile 17 going through Altrincham! Anyway, long story short. My target was sub 4 and my optimistic plan was 3.45. I was on course for that until mile 20 where I stupidly thought I might be able to push on and do better. By mile 23 I had completely abandoned that idea and getting to the finish was my only goal. Still managed 3.44 so I am very pleased with that indeed. I've never had a harder last 3 miles. The wheels came off completely and I needed a good sit down afterwards. Well done to all the competitors. I think I learned a little about myself yesterday.

Splits were 8.20/8.38/8.39/8.38 for 10k/HM/30k/Finish

Ran a 4:24 in Galway Bay last week and was hoping for around the same yesterday. Landed on Fri and met up with my son and went out for dinner. Felt really unwell afterwards and was up all night Fri and sick all day Sat too. Couldn't eat, thought it was food poisoning. Rang home, whole place is sick from a bug. Can plan for a lot of things but not something like this. Was going to pull out altogether but said I'd wait until Sun morning to see if I was any better. Woke up fairly ok and just set a plan to start out slow and just complete it. Came in at 4:43, happy with that all things considered. Loved the course and support on route, great to be back in a big city marathon again. Will definitely be back

Excellent run, I ran a 2:58 in DCM 19 myself just wondering what plan you did ? I ran 2:59 at weekend wasn’t really pushing so I’d like to see how fast I can go.

Didn't really follow a plan first time, Dublin 2019, I wasn't in a club and basically just ran easy miles during the week and a long run at the weekend for a few months with occasional tempo runs. Had a good base going in to it though.

This time around I was in club and followed the sessions set by the club coach. To be honest a lot of the time he just set sessions that were fairly generic for whatever the mood of the club was in at the time, e.g. I spent half the summer doing 200 and 400m reps cos a good few lads were training for 1500m races. I got the long run in every week and a tempo or longer interval run every week though, and probably averaged about 60miles per week for 9 of the last 11 weeks ( holidays and taper meant there were 2 much lower weeks in there).

Yep, I'm in. Havnt run a marathon since Dublin 2019 and have had a string of injuries during the lockdowns. Started the Hanson 18 week plan on 29/11 and after 3 weeks I had to take 2 weeks off after a spinal injection so playing catchup at the minute. I'm using Manchester as a test to see if this old (67 year old) body will stand up to the training, have no particular goal just going with whatever the day brings.

I'm in the middle of my block for this race, very excited.

Dublin 2019 was my first Marathon and with great thanks to the Boards novice plan for that year I finished in 3.59. I complete the 2020 Virtual during covid in 3.56 and covered the distance other times(one at 3.46) since to keep busy during the lockdowns.

I'm aiming for a sub 3.30 and depending on the weather and how the last 8 or 9 weeks of the training goes maybe a bit faster.

This week my main thought are on what shoes to wear for the race. Currently I have the Saucony speed, Saucony pro and Nike Vaporlys in my rotation for racing/running fast/sessions. The Saucony are fab but the Nike are just a bit special but the pair I have are a very very snug fit which is no problem for short runs and intervals but the marathon is known for foot swelling so this is also making me think about buying a pair of Alphafly as these are marathon specific and I can probably do with a 1/2 size up. Have to decide this week as I will need to put them through at least 50 mile and a long run to know for sure.

Good luck to you guys as well

In for it myself too, training was interrupted by covid and I lost about 7 weeks as a result. Won't make that up as I'm probably only running properly about 2 weeks but I'll head over and dog it out. Use it as training for lap of the gap in May

I'm in for April. Another sub 3 attempt so saying nothing more till after the race to avoid putting a pox on it

Last year I didnt get my wave details by email, I sent them a quick DM on twitter and they sent me my wave details. I picked up the race number at the expo, I dont think they sent this beforehand.

Is the expo in the same venue as last year ? Have gotten no info off them whatsoever