Ironman Mark

I did this on Sunday and finished in 1:30:22.  A fantastic result, an improvement of 4:36 from last year.  The course and conditions were the same as last year and last year I thought I did incredibly well.  So I am chuffed.

It was a very cold morning and I got a bit cold waiting around.  But when the sun came out it felt really nice and warm.  The plan had been to run with the 1:30 pace maker but I couldn’t find him at the start.  Then a minute before the start I saw him pick up his flag and run to the start.  But he was about 30 metres behind me.  So I ran my own pace to start with and after nearly two miles he caught me.  I then ran with him for the next mile and a bit but decided to increase the pace a little.  By the half way mark, I was about 30s or so ahead of 1:30 pace and feeling comfortable. 

At about mile 9 I noticed that more people were going past me and that I had slowed a little.  Mile 10 was the same.  I then heard the 1:30 pace maker coming up behind me so I pushed the effort a bit more and stayed ahead until just before mile 13.  He went past me at the turn out of Green Park into the stadium.  I couldn’t keep up with him going up the hill and there was no sprint in me as I got towards the stadium.  So I finished in 1:30:22.  A very good result.  In fact it is better than very good.  I ran 13 miles at a sub-7 min mile pace.  Wow!

Some other notes for next time: After about 9 miles, my forefoot hurt.  My legs were my limiting factor, not my heart.  I did a 2hr40 bike/20 min run the day before.  My calves feel very tight!