This one went to plan, pretty much flawlessly.
It was a nice sunny day, a little warm (up to 15°C) but a moderate cool breeze which was more help than hinderance. Very dry underfoot.
[Toast in the morning, bagel on the way there and banana 30mins before. Gel on the start line.]
I started mid-field so got held up a little at the start but not too much, eased into my target pace gently as I moved through the crowds. Pretty busy (~450 doing the half, ~140 doing the full) but luckily the open roads were not too busy at all. I was probably going a little under target pace for the first few kms but I didn’t get worried as I knew the first couple of hills were coming up so didn’t want to push until after hitting them. The quite steep hill was also a bit long but manageable, I just changed gears and eased up it fine. Trail section followed – this was nice but as it was so dry it wasn’t great for grip (gravel and dry mud/dust). Got snagged behind some cars on very narrow lanes for a few hundred meters, unfortunately one decided to wash their windscreen with me right behind them so I got a face full of screenwash! Not cool.
I was very strict on my gel taking – had the “eating kms” written on my race number so I wasn’t faffing around trying to work out anything on the fly. Each one was taken at exactly the right point. I had 500ml of hydration drink and 2 x 175ml of water bottles – this did me exactly as I only just ran out 500m from the end. I sipped both throughout, despite it being warm I didn’t overheat once.
Half loop finishes with a nice downhill section – I didn’t smash this on the first go round, but at halfway I was on a 4:36 average pace, half marathon time of 1:37:00 ish. Systems check told me all was good – no niggles. I pushed a bit to catch the guy in front who happened to be someone I knew, so we had a few kms of chatting away – I left him when we started a gentle ascent as my pace had dropped and I was feeling like I could easily go quicker. Seeing him actually gave me a nice boost so I was able to push a bit harder than the first loop. On the flats I was perhaps 5s quicker per km, at some points I was dipping into the 4:20s. It all felt good and I felt pretty strong. 2nd big hill slowed me down a bit more than loop 1 , but only by 5s – I nursed myself up without slowing too much, overtook 2 people on it ;-)
I asked the marshalls just before the trail section how many people in front as I had no idea my position – I was happy to hear “5 or 6”. Nice! I flew through that trail section feeling pretty good, much quicker than loop 1. Continued this trend (picked off P6, P5 & P4 with ease) until taking the last gel at 37km – the hill just after this point was the first time I felt a bit rough and like I was starting to flag… but I knew the section after was flat/downhill so tried to keep myself positive despite feeling knackered.
I spotted P3 on the very last downhill section, he looked tired from a distance so I opened up down the hill – he noticed me when he crossed the road and sped up – the marshalls at the site entrance saw what was happening and starting cheering and yelling, it was great fun. A small climb up to the finish line saw me go 100% effort into a sprint and I managed to catch him just at the line so our gun times were identical, therefore joint 3rd place.
But.. I started 25s after him so my chip time shows a strong 3rd place finish. Nice. He was trashed, I carried on around the site making it up to 42.2km as it was about 400m short! I was surprised my legs had that explosive power left in them, but as you say, we all have about 10s of “BOOM” despite how tired were are – it’s very true! I think the marshalls and spectators liked the dramatic finish, shame there isn’t a photo of us both – just a closeup of the other guy and he looks like he’s about to burst! We fist bumped.
All in all, a perfectly executed effort – hydration, nutrition and pace management was on point. Shoes were great although I got very sore toes (noticeable in the race too annoyingly)- they struggled in the loose trail dust but were great everywhere else.
It was a tough effort, but I was pretty chatty most of the way round so I knew I wasn’t pushing too hard. It all felt pretty easy up until ~37/38km. I could have gone a bit faster I reckon, but I didn’t need to.
I also had my average pace targets written on my race number (all upside down of course) so I was checking myself against each one – there was PB pace, slow target pace (for a 3:20), good target pace (for a 3:15) then “beat Joe” target pace for a 3:13. I found this very helpful and will do it again, no thinking, just checking.
