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.
1 comment:
Congratulations!!!!!!!!!! Spartan, 2.49.00 PB!!! What a fantastic way to get the 10th year on the board. Welcome to the club. Enjoyed seeing the journey develop. Well deserved result for training put in. Good to hear the snakes/water mix worked. All the best with the new place and the future!!!!!
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