I’m terrified about my race.

TheBanaman wrote:

So I ran 1:19:34. My splits were 6:04, 6:02, 6:00, 5:59, 5:57, 6:04, 5:51, 6:14, 6:09, 5:56, 6:10, 6:10, 6:06, 50 seconds.

I’m happy because I still ran under 1:20, even if I reckon I had the potential to go faster.

I came down with a cold like two-three days before the race and I had a bad stomach this morning, but nothing too serious, so I just had a couple of stomach tablets and headed off to the race.

Mile one felt great. It was quite crowded at the beginning, and I was a good few rows back. I ran the first 200-300 meters st like 6:20 pace, and was a bit worried than I was going too slowly. I pick it up to about 6:15 pace and the we headed up the first hill. I ran up the hill steadily, passing lots of people. I passed even more people stretching out down the other side of the hill, making the first mile split quicker than I had planned, a 6:04 mile.

Mile two felt great. I was still passing people and just kept at like 6:05ish pace, I pushed up the hills a little to keep my pace more constant and was happy to see a 6:02 second mile.

Mile three felt great too, I was barely breathing (especially compared to those around me), and was sticking to my plan, a 6:00 mile.

Mile four was up hill, so I knew I’d have to pick it up here. It was also quite windy which was annoying. People were slowing already, probably from starting way too hard, and so I couldn’t really use anyone as a windshield. Anyway, a 5:59 mile right on pace.

Mile five flattened out a bit and I wa starting to catch club runners who didn’t go out too fast and were therefore running a constant pace, which helped. I kept my effort the same and was happy to see a 5:57 mile.

Mile six went into a park with some ups and downs. I kept pushing a little on the uphills and stretching out a little on the downhills, but I took it slightly too easy, a 6:04 mile.

Mile seven had the biggest uphill and the biggest downhill on the course. I made a deliberate effort to work harder on the big uphill and catch a few people in front of me, which I did. I then made an effort to stretch out on the downhill, which I did too. Probably went up the hill a bit too hard, a 5:51 mile.

Mile eight is where things changed. I started to have some serious doubts about whether I would be able to continue running this pace for another 6 miles, and ended up easing up a bit, not entirely deliberately. Two Germans that I passed on the downhill caught up to me and we ran as a 3 for a while. A 6:14 mile.

Mile nine went into another park. I was still going through a bad patch, so kept my foot off the gas peddle. However, about half way through this mile when we went up a slight hill I had a second wind, and put a gap on the Germans, a 6:09 mile.

I felt better again now. We left the park early into the tenth mile, and we started along a long slightly downhill straight road. I deliberately didn’t pick it up too much in case I blew up at the end. A 5:56 mile.

Mile eleven started well, I was holding my pace, kind of. But I soon started feeling too hot (I was wearing a thin wind jacket), and light headed, so I eased off a little. I also lost a good 2-5 seconds by almost running the wrong way, stopping and starting again. A 6:10 mile.

Mile twelve started well, but I started to become very light headed at about 11.3 miles. I was thinking “oh dear, I still have a long way to go”. I checked my watch and saw that I had averaged 6:03 pace up to this point, so knew I would break 1:20:00 even if I slowed a little, so I did to ensure that I didn’t faint or anything. I had basically been passing people the entire race, but people started coming past me now. My Garmin was showing 6:30 pace a points, so although it was a slow mile at 6:10, I was pleasantly surprised.

I was feeling very light headed now in mile thirteen and just wanted to safely finish. More people were passing me (including one of the two Germans) but I tried to keep things consistent. Again, I was expecting a 6:30 mile or something, but was amazed when I saw I ran a 6:06.

I started to pick things up with just over 200m to go, and passed a bunch of people (including that German) for a fast(ish) finish. I felt weak and dizzy when I really picked it up, but crossed the finish line. I saw 1:19:38 on the clock, but the official time was 4 seconds quicker because I started so far back.

I suddenly started to feel unwell on the train home, and after I got home I had really bad dirrahea. I still feel pretty awful now, but I’m on a train back to university. Hopefully I’ll get some sleep on this train.

All in all, I’m happy I achieved my sun 1:20:00 goal, and hope to run much quicker (perhaps sub 1:15) in Paris next March.