Yesterday allybea and I were up at Loch Ness forthe 5k and marathon respectively. I don't have a lot of time to blog at the moment so I've jotted down the main points:
1. Allybea achieved her target by finishing the 5k without walking. More details are here http://whwracebackup.blogspot.com/2009/10/inverness-5k.html
2. I had the perfect pre race marathon breakfast: sausages, bacon, egg, haggis, mushrooms and potato scone, with some toast and coffee. Allybea went for the more conventional option of porridge and toast.
3. The marathon race start was delayed for almost an hour because of problems with the buses. Given my breakfast (see 2 above) I was quite pleased by the delay as it gave me an hour longer to digest it. I suspect I was in a very small minority, however - it is normally a complete pain if you have planned to start running at 10 but don't actually start till 11, and I felt sorry for those whose plans were thrown into disarray. I also felt sorry for the guy who was panicking because he had a flight to catch mid afternoon, and thought he might be struggling to make it. He will just have had to run a bit faster than he originally planned...
4. As I am doing the 24 hour race in 2 weeks, I had decided to treat this as a long training run and not worry about my time or pace. It worked very well. I reached the half way point in 1.42.17, feeling comfortable, and then ran an almost identical time for the second half (1.42.04) to finish in 3.24.21. I reckon I passed about 100 people over the last 10 miles, most of them going up the hill after Dores.
5. As I was feeling good I had time to look around and just enjoy the whole event. We were really fortunate to have almost perfect running weather, particularly after the rain and wind the day before. Once again I was left with the view that Loch Ness is a fantastic marathon. It is well organised (apart from the blip with the buses), has a great atmosphere, and the scenery is brilliant. It is definitely my favourite road marathon, and one I would highly recommend.
6. I felt pretty good at the end of the race and my legs feel fine today, so hopefully I haven't done myself any damage before the 24 hour. I suppose I'll find out soon enough.
8 comments:
It sounds like you are in really great form for Tooting Bec. I'll be there to cheer you on.
Have a good rest / taper till then.
Mate....cracking run for both Mr and Mrs Beattie. I'm looking forward to Tooting BIG TIME. Brian will be there too running or otherwise, maybe Richie running too. Lee will be added to the mix. WHW family outing. Bring it on!!
Good solid run Ian. Looks like you are in great shape for the 24hrs. I'll need to add a few laps onto my guess!
I'm going to get all of team Kynaston to have a guess as well so watch out for an influx.
John
Ian,
superb result. And a negative split! You seem to be in great shape. I hope it goes well and according to plan in 2 weeks for the 24 hrs!
Great run, Ian. You still whipped my PB with your "taking it easy".
Nice one Ian. Sounds like you are in good shape for the 24 hour madness!!
Its interesting to reflect back to last year when you struggled through to a time 10min slower yet this year you can canter a marathon shortly after a 41m training run.
Enjoy that feeling of being on top form.
If I could do 3:24 as an easy day at the office I'd be over the moon! Sounds like your 24hr race is going to be a good one, all the best. Andy
Congratulations on your great time for Loch Ness. It was a fantastic day (I'm still on a high from it...) I'm in awe that you can achieve 3hrs 24 minutes on a "training" run ... guess I have a lot more plodding to do before I'm there!!
Christine.
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