Last weekend was the Oslo marathon. My wife (who was running the 10k) and I went out there, without the kids!
The weather was good to us, which is a good job really, since everything was so expensive at least the weather was free!
It was a really tough marathon, and i missed my target time by 11 minutes. There were many reasons for this, some of which were out of my control like the hills (!!) and the wind, which always seemed to be blowing into my face no matter in which direction i was running, and the fact that i was still recovering from a hamstring injury.
The thing that was definitely controllable was the pace at which i was running. It’s a well known fact that starting off too quickly in a long race like a marathon means that you will inevitably burn out in the last few miles.
I knew all this, and yet i still started out too quickly (by about 30 seconds per mile). I remember thinking to myself that i should not be doing this, but that ‘hey’ i was feeling so good i was sure i could keep up the pace, and even if i couldn’t keep up the pace i’d be so far ahead of my target time it wouldn’t really matter.
How wrong i was! At about 18 miles my pace suddenly dropped to way below my target. I was fairly ok at this point, as i thought that i had enough minutes under my belt to finish in time even if i slowed down a lot. At about 22 miles a sudden tsunami of people passed me, including a little helium balloon with 3:45 scribbled on it! I remember crying out ‘Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!’ and a norwegian bloke looking at me wwith a quizzical look as he passed me – no doubt wondering what i was complaining about.
I did think about stopping at this point, but the feeling was fleeting as i resigned myself to missing my target this time.
Moral of the story is: No matter how fantastic you are feeling, reign back the pace, otherwise you will definitely lose out later on. I have promised myself never ever to speed off again!
We’ll see!
best wishes
Gavin
