Hmmm... not sure whether I should put the optimistic or pessimistic spin on this one - both have been through my mind today.
Preparation went OK - Mon, Wed, Fri 8k runs at some speed, flew in Friday night, slight delay on the plane (flew with the Dockers - Pav and Sandi go 1st class, the rest economy!)
Pasta dinner the night before, slept OK, no toilet issues like last year. Started near the front after being stuck back last year - actually front line (?first mistake). It was cool although there was a nasty wind at times.
No excuses - I simply went too fast and was cooked at 27k. I then had a decision to struggle on, drop to a 3:10 finish and have beaten up legs needing long recovery, or cut my losses and pull out, with the ability to slip straight back into training. I stopped once, changed my mind, ran on another km, stopped again, changed my mind, ran on another km, then decided to stop for good.
Walking back I was rueing the decision - 5 road and 2 off road marathons in the past and I have always finished, family here, should I have pushed on?
Splits -
5k 20:19
10k 40:53 (20:34)
15k 61:48 (20:55)
20k 82:48 (21:00)
(HM 87:XX)
25k 104:07 (21:19)
stopped about 28k.
Felt pretty embarrassed talking to the family afterwards, especially as I felt physically fine. I think Tiff was more upset than I was as she has seen the 16 weeks of training I've put in. I walked about 8k over the rest of the day sightseeing (as there were 5 of us I refused to take the taxi and walked from place to place as self imposed punishment)
I think I suffered today from setting my sights too high (perhaps falsely buoyed by the HM result), and being too rigid in my goal.
Oh well - only a running race!
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6 comments:
Sorry to hear this. I was following the Canberra live split this morning and knew that you withdrew from the race.
Agree with your assessment that you went out too fast. Your first 10k split was 2h:53m marathon pace and the HM split was 2h:56 pace.
Certainly a tough decision to make. On one hand, you can jog at 5min/k pace and still get a 5mins PB. On the other hand, there is a benefit of cutting your loses, ie short post-race recovery time.
I can see that you'll get that sub-3 at your home turf in July !
Good on you to post so quickly.
The result site had you as withdrawn in the morning and I've been wondering all day.
I think you know yourself that although you are beating yourself up you made the right decision.
After so many marathons, you do know your limitations.
Just think, there is Perth, City to Surf and Rotto still to run this year!
Sorry to hear about this morning.
Agree it was a tough decision to have to make but I know the sub 3 is the main goal.
Go and enjoy your holiday and then you can get straight back into the training.
Sorry to hear this - horrible decision to have to make and I'm sure you made the right one. I know you're probably feeling pretty low right now, but as you say, it's only a running race. Better to learn from the experience and put the effort into the next one.
Well done on posting so soon...Sensational split times...that half split looks like about 2.54-2.55 pace, which with a bit more work will maybe be a realistic goal. Sometimes its tough when you are pushing the limits, and its hard to get pace right, and agree its a bit twilight zoneish decisionwise, but hey hopefully you learn from this, and nail sub 3 or at least sub 3.10 next time...
IMO you should have gutsed it out and hung in for a PB. PB opportunities in marathons dont come along often. Its soft to DNF when you know you can PB IMO, especially in the marathon, and recovery probably wouldn't be much different either way IMO, except for maybe the first 48 hours...
Hope you enjoy some well deserved time off, and build on this. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Champions get there because they learn from their mistakes, and find the positives to build on afterwards.
Even though I am a Dockers supporter...they are soft at the moment, not impressed with them lately...pretty cool that you saw them on the plane though, wish I'd been there.
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