Perth Marathon has been run & done, my 10th in a row.
Lead up had been good - I'd run 110-120km/week, with cycling on Saturdays for cross training.
As noted before I focussed on more pace specific workouts in my long runs and long intervals on tuesday nights.
I tapered with 110/80/40km 3, 2 and last 6 days
Unfortunately in the last 2 weeks I devleoped some recurrent pes anserinus bursitis, which I injected with steroid/local anaesthetic but continued to bother me on my last few runs.
After last year's vomiting issue, I decided to stay as I do in training and take water/snakes only.
We moved house in the days leading up to the marathon, with Thurs/Fri night in a hotel and Sat night the first in the new house after a full day of unpacking. The positive of this was no anxious ruminations in the leadup and a good/exhausted night sleep the night before.
Conditions were perfect - about 5 degrees C and a light-medium easterly building during the day. Due to path works, the course changed this year with 2 laps and a total of 4 crossings of the Narrows Bridge the only hill.
No warmup, and I realised at the start line I'd forgot my IPod - was probably a good thing to focus more on the run. Took things out at a bit faster than MP - felt comfortable without being overly fast.
10k splits 38:42/39:40/39:45. I found a pretty good rhythm and km splits though the middle 25k were extremely even.
The medial knee/pes anserine pain was there in the first 10k and last 2k, but not the rest of the race and never really affected my gait.
A downside of the increasing popularity was that this year they didn't even try to find/give you your personalised drink, so I stuck with water and my snakes - taking a snake every 3k or so after 15k. Much better stomach wise than other recent marathons
Turning with 10.5k to go we hit a bit of a headwind, and the pace slowed just a touch with a 4:06 and a couple of 4:00s. I think I was lulled into a false sense of security - my gamin was now 400m behind the marked and despite saying 3:56 average pace i was back to 4:00s in reality.
Coming into the last 5k i was feeling OK. I hadn't needed to draw into the well of pain yet, and from past experience I know I can sustain 20 min of pain before starting to wilt. I perhaps left it just a little too long to break away from my group of 3 and speed up for the finish. 4:02/3:58 and 700m at 3:45 pace saw me passing under the finish line in just a hair under 2;49 - although my official time was 2:49:00.
So about 12 seconds from my goal pace, but I can't complain. I felt my usual post race nausea despite immediately taking ondansetron and gastrostop, and I didn't have it in me to last until the presentations.
My 10th Perth Marathon was definitely the best - not just in time but execution, and I'm now happily at a point where i'd be comfortable to finish my marathon running career with this as a PB.
Lead up had been good - I'd run 110-120km/week, with cycling on Saturdays for cross training.
As noted before I focussed on more pace specific workouts in my long runs and long intervals on tuesday nights.
I tapered with 110/80/40km 3, 2 and last 6 days
Unfortunately in the last 2 weeks I devleoped some recurrent pes anserinus bursitis, which I injected with steroid/local anaesthetic but continued to bother me on my last few runs.
After last year's vomiting issue, I decided to stay as I do in training and take water/snakes only.
We moved house in the days leading up to the marathon, with Thurs/Fri night in a hotel and Sat night the first in the new house after a full day of unpacking. The positive of this was no anxious ruminations in the leadup and a good/exhausted night sleep the night before.
Conditions were perfect - about 5 degrees C and a light-medium easterly building during the day. Due to path works, the course changed this year with 2 laps and a total of 4 crossings of the Narrows Bridge the only hill.
No warmup, and I realised at the start line I'd forgot my IPod - was probably a good thing to focus more on the run. Took things out at a bit faster than MP - felt comfortable without being overly fast.
10k splits 38:42/39:40/39:45. I found a pretty good rhythm and km splits though the middle 25k were extremely even.
The medial knee/pes anserine pain was there in the first 10k and last 2k, but not the rest of the race and never really affected my gait.
A downside of the increasing popularity was that this year they didn't even try to find/give you your personalised drink, so I stuck with water and my snakes - taking a snake every 3k or so after 15k. Much better stomach wise than other recent marathons
Turning with 10.5k to go we hit a bit of a headwind, and the pace slowed just a touch with a 4:06 and a couple of 4:00s. I think I was lulled into a false sense of security - my gamin was now 400m behind the marked and despite saying 3:56 average pace i was back to 4:00s in reality.
Coming into the last 5k i was feeling OK. I hadn't needed to draw into the well of pain yet, and from past experience I know I can sustain 20 min of pain before starting to wilt. I perhaps left it just a little too long to break away from my group of 3 and speed up for the finish. 4:02/3:58 and 700m at 3:45 pace saw me passing under the finish line in just a hair under 2;49 - although my official time was 2:49:00.
So about 12 seconds from my goal pace, but I can't complain. I felt my usual post race nausea despite immediately taking ondansetron and gastrostop, and I didn't have it in me to last until the presentations.
My 10th Perth Marathon was definitely the best - not just in time but execution, and I'm now happily at a point where i'd be comfortable to finish my marathon running career with this as a PB.
