Marathon Running

So...17 miles completed. (27.4 km)

I feel much better than I did last time, although I did go quite slowly. It took me 2 hours and 50 minutes. That's 4 hour 25 minutes pace over the full marathon distance.

A boost to confidence though.

Excellent! And the pace is great, they don't call LSD-training that for the free body-generated drugs, but for the long, slow distance you run, right? That said, I wouldn't call this slow, either

18 miles today in 3 hours exactly.

Taking next weekend off and doing my final long run the following week. Then it's a three week taper before the big day.

It's probably a good sign that my 10km midweek run is seeming very easy by now. Looking back to the first page of this thread, that used to constitute my long run, and I found it challenging.

I officially entered the marathon yesterday. Just have to get the sponsorship forms, I'm going to raise some money for Cancer Research.

Cancer research? Can we donate online? Give me details please. I either donate money or drink it away, so I might as well donate.

I'll probably have a link set up in the next few days, will post it then. Donations appreciated obviously.

20 miles done. I'm in a world of pain, but happy to have the last long run behind me.

Cool! Congrats on that, hope the recovery was quick! Now you'll slowly start tapering?

Are you planning on dying at the end of it? 'cause, you know, that's the only proper way to run a marathon....

Recovery took about 48 hours. I'm planning a shorter long run (maybe 11-12 miles) this weekend. Otherwise until the marathon it will be 3 shorter runs per week. With loads of carb loading and some physio in the final week.

The online sponsorship has been set up. As well as myself running the marathon, my girlfriend and one of her friends are walking a half marathon, so we're all three collecting sponsorship for Cancer Research together.

Anyone who would like to donate, PM me for the link. All contributions gratefully appreciated.

I have no idea how to PM on this forum. I PM on other forums, but they are set up differently. Hurry up before I spend all my money on nasty vices.

5 MORE DAYS! Nervous yet?

Where is that donation information? My money is burning a hole in my pocket.

I sent you the link. I'll send again.

A little. Doing some light runs this week, a lot of stretching and pool work, and of course, carb loading.

I finally figured out how to check PM's - I saw the link, but I cannot open it from work. No big deal, I'll check it out at home & donate there. Anyway I hope heat isn't a factor! I don't know how hot it gets there, but it's in the low 90's here in the late afternoon with high humidity. So here's hoping you have cool weather for the marathon!

If the predictions are correct, it will be 24 celcius with strong winds... if that's true, I'd forget any schedule or time-based goal and just aim on finishing without dying

p.s. oh and with that temperature - see if you can get some kind of camelback thingy, and dump a couple of icecubes in the water. Keeps your back cool and gives you cool water. Never tried it, but sounds good to me in theory..

The weather forecast is 11 celcius with patchy rain.

That's awesome, actually No clue why I found 24. Must be blind. I'm also on a sugar-and-holiday high. EEEEEEK!

Oh... wait.... my forecast was for Newry, Maine.

Newry Maine? How in the........well whatever. BTW it gets 75 degrees in Maine in May? Screw that, the whole East Coast is getting hotter every year. I might as well stay in Georgia where it's supposed to be hot in the summer.

4 hours 2 minutes. I feel like I've been hit by a train. Rest now.

Awesome time, big congratulations!

Sincere thanks to those who sponsored me. It's not all totaled up yet but it looks like we raised something approaching €2000 including the various online and offline sources, which is far more than I thought we would.

On the race:
There is nothing I've ever experienced that is like the last miles. Utter agony, your body screaming at you to stop. My left hamstring was beginning to cramp so I did stop a few times to stretch, and I did slow down a lot. I definitely couldn't have done it without the gel packs, water and things that I was being handed. That part was thanks to my parents, who followed me all around the course meeting me every few miles - the stuff the official people were giving out wasn't as good or as often.

As I said earlier, my target was 4 hours, and although I fell just short of that, I'm not really disappointed because I gave it everything I could.

My friend who I did some of the training with went at the same pace as me for the first few miles but pulled away after that and managed 3:39. He's a fucking machine. He plays football and because of that didn't do a lot of the long runs.

Not sure if I have an appetite for another one, I'll think about that after I learn how to walk again, since I'm fucked right now. Maybe a half marathon next, to try to beat the 1:52:00 that I logged in the first half this time. Or some 10km's.

Here's a summary of my 1km splits for anyone who's interested. You can see that I slipped to well over 6 minutes for the last 14km (9 miles) other than a small uptick at the very end. The start was obviously slow as well because of the crowd. And the one that went under 5 minutes was partly downhill. (There were some hills in the second quarter.)

That's a tremendous accomplishment.

Keep running and you'll be in good shape for the future.

Sorry for the late response, been busy coming to the US of A, but: CONGRATULATIONS!
4:02 is an amazing time! So you did do a positive split after all - 1:52 is great for a half marathon! Did you have the feeling you gave too much in that first half, and that it would have been easier running a more 'flat' race (every km as close to the 5:44 average)? Now you ran 25 of the 42km under the average. Or would you build up your next marathon the same way?
Looking at the splits, they seem to prove what everyone says: the marathon begins at about 30km, the 'uncharted territory' that you don't train (much).

How is the recovery coming along? Been able to do a bit of crosstraining yet? No severe injuries? Again, congrats, great achievement!

Cheers. I don't think I'd do anything differently to be honest. If I hadn't run the first half quite quickly I think I would have still slowed down significantly.

No injuries but it took me a few days to recover. I haven't been doing any more training since, but will probably go for an easy run on Wednesday or so this week.
I do intend to keep running so as not to lose the fitness I've built up, but I'll give it a while before deciding on any further goals.

My brother-in-law ran the New York Marathon in 2013, then for more than a year, his Nike+ profile said "last run: 26.3 miles." Then he started occasional short runs again, and last week started training for a 50K. I really can't picture doing much more than 25K. The Spartan Beast was just over that, but so much of it was on steep hills or involved stopping to do non-running challenges, that I don't really consider it to be the same type of experience, and certainly the training was different.

Okay - it's been a while! What's next?