Running

finally back from paris. my first of three has gone ok. having missed the lion share of training since the end of feb I was coming into the race feeling totally unprepared to cover 26.2 at all and was fully expecting a nice long chat with the wall as I limped the last 5 miles.

instead I managed 'ok', the first 3 miles I had weird shin splints (same as london last year. wtf) but they disappeared, I'd eaten a little too late the night before for my final carb-loading snack, so hadnt managed to fully clear the deck before the race so a pitstop at a portaloo at mile 9 saw me running significantly lighter after and about 30secs faster per mile.

things went well for the next 4 or 5 miles but as we hit the stretch along the seine we had to go up and down loads of underpasses as we went under bridges crossing the river and the such and the slight inclines coming out of them really started to take its toll on my pace and I began to drop my speed slightly.

at mile 18 the bastards put up a big graphic either side of the road of a brick wall with 30k on one side and 20 written on the other so my run-addled brain thought for a split second i was 2 miles further than i thought which was a bit crushing when i checked the watch and knew i wasnt. why they think it's a good idea to remind people they're probably about to hit 'the wall' i do not know, particularly as they killed our people's princess using one in the same city #4evarinrharts

the last 6 miles of the paris course take you off into a big park which is hilly as fuck and sparsely populated with people cheering aka it's a bit shit sandwich to run through after you've done 20 miles already, there was also a seemingly massive gap between water stations at this point and given the hot temperatures everyone seemed to be gasping for water. by some miracle though as i felt the last drops of moisture leech from my body through my sweat glands some wonderful little french child held up a full bottle of water (with sealed cap) for someone to pass by. i'm not ashamed to admit I sprinted over and snatched it like an american at a black friday sale, that little kid probably saved my race at that point as it was just enough for me to make the final push (i even skipped the final water station a mile or so later as by this point I was pushed for time).

speaking of time, not having finished my training and being ill for 50% of the last 2 months i had no clue what time I'd be posting, I thought I'd set my virtual pacer on my watch for 8:25 min/mile and see how I got on, I was doing ok and hitting about 8:35 avg up until about mile 16 but the lack of miles began to show and i steadily dropped pace for the rest of the race, my bronze goal and the time i feel i had to beat to 'save face' from myself at least was 4 hours so while I wasn't particularly pleased as my plans went to shit for the sub 3:30 i wanted I was not too disappointed when I crossed the line at 3:58:00 on my garmin (3:57:55 chip time).

it's five and half minutes slower than london last year but conservatively I'm missing over 200 training miles and I stopped for a poo.

I think london next week is going to go better, I'm confident I can avoid the wall and my kit, fuelling (pre and during the race) and recovery all were pretty much spot on. just need to work on keeping a more even pace.

i'm hoping to go sub 3:50 in london as the course is flatter, i'm in a decent start pen (3:30) and i think paris's run will work as a good training run.

then all things going well I'll aim for sub 3:40 in copenhagen in 5 weeks.