April 18th, Easter Monday, the day has finally arrived, the work is done and I feel in the shape of my life, no niggles, no illnesses. The night before I got all my kit ready, gels, and bag, I remember waking up about 5:45 for breakfast, porridge oats with honey and a mug of coffee. I felt remarkably calm, but full of anticipation, Anna was coming with me on the day which was great. Now Boston was only a 20 min drive from me so no over night stays where needed, Anna also drove on the day which was really helpful. We arrived at the warm up area in the local park in the town, so I did an easy mile warm up to the start area, and few stride’s. The weather was perfect really, the race was set off in waves , we was called to the start area which I saw a friend of mine Mark, and I knew he was going for the same time of sub 3 hours, so I thought I’d run with him and see how these early miles went.. Gun sounds and we where off.

We soon left the town and was out into the countryside, there wasn’t any wind and the temperature in the early part of the race soon picked up. My plan was to take a gel every 5 miles which I practiced in training…

The first few miles flew by, the pace was a little quicker than i would have liked, so in the first few miles I was pulling back the pace and trying to relax into a rhythm,

I made sure to take on some water as the temperature started to heat up and I was unexpectedly sweating 😓, but everything seemed fine and relaxed , all being a little quick still, but I stuck with it.. I hit the half marathon mark in 1h 26 , my target was 1:27 but I was still going good and I was coming to a part of the course I knew pretty well, the last 12 miles of the course I ran in training… Sadly I hit mile 15 and my race was grounded to a halt ! I had to stop to be sick !! 🤮 a gel I’d taken disagreed with me , all my energy stores had gone and was on the floor in front of me !!! I was gutted, but got going again and kept pace for the next two miles, but after that it was hard going 😞 I had to adopt a run walk strategy! I felt awful, I was getting dehydrated , I was cramping up in my legs, especially my abductors and hamstrings, was get painful. Hit 20 miles in 2h16 mins

My average pace was still on target for sub 3 but it was so tough going now, my mind wasn’t focused on the time and I knew I wanted to finish, mile 23 came and my sub 3 time had gone !!! So I just needed to finish, peoples encouragement was helping and I was trying so hard to keep running as much as possible. Boston came into sight and I could see the turn into the finishing straight, so I tried to muster enough energy to run to the line and I did, and crossed the line in 3h09 mins. I was disappointed on the day, and felt bloody awful. Anna came to help me recover and gave me the biggest hug which I really needed. God it was so painful to walk back to the car 😆. But we got home and to aid recovery I filled up a bin with cold water and ice and got in !! This really helped me…

I did manage to get the Boston US QT which was something. Would I do another Marathon, I think I would, cause I know I can do better than that ! But I’ve recovered now, and looking forward to getting back into full training again after a week of very easy runs and relaxing.. What’s next !? We shall see !!!! 😉

It’s the start of the new year, and I’ve booked my marathon place, Boston Marathon Easter Monday April 18th. I was really looking forward to getting stuck into training block, I knew the volume was gonna increase and the long runs to, but I wanted to give this my best shot to see what I could do at the distance, so staying heathy and injury free was key.

Looking now at my training log and trying to remember my journey over the past 17 weeks, it’s incredible really, cause if you’d told me at the beginning of this block the long runs I had to do and the pace I had to do them at as well as doing the weeks volume, I wouldn’t have believed you 😆..

My training basically included a Monday long run ( the race was on a Monday so we decided to change long run day to get the body use to running longer on a Monday) these started at 15 miles all the way up to 23 miles, these where also split between easy pace and marathon pace, so half of the run could have been done at target pace ( which was 6:50 m/m) when I did target pace I always ran them a little quicker, so 6:40-6:35, just to give myself a little buffer. A mid week long run was included into training these where between 8-14 miles, and these where done at target marathon pace, then one session per week, the rest of my runs around those where done at easy comfortable pace….. Volume wise, now my body over the years has been use to running a lot of volume consistently throughout the year, so my marathon block started at 70 miles and built throughout, peaking at just over 100 miles for a week, I had two races in the build up, a 10k at Scunthorpe and a 20 miler at Bedford, i tapered slightly down for each of these races. 10k I managed a pb, 38:12 was so delighted with that and in Bedford I managed a 2:14 first time I raced a 20 miler! ….. The only issues I had throughout the block was , I had two illnesses which wiped me for 24-28 hours at a time, joys of having kids 😆 🤦🏻‍♂️and obviously training throughout the winter months ❄️ the winds where awful! I remember doing one long run and the last few miles was supposed to be marathon pace but I was being pushed backwards by a ridicules headwind !! It zaps your energy so much and you have just throughout any idea of a pace out the window and just work through it !!! I did however mix my training up, which really helped keep my body in one piece, my main runs where the 3 I mentioned, so what I meant by mixing them up was, surface, I have a good treadmill in my garage so this enabled me to do any runs on there if my body was feeling tired, or if the conditions outside where just bad, or if life just gets in the way and I have kids, they need attention first, so it could be a late evening run…..

Marathon race report to come. !!!!