Ironman Mark

I started near the front and ran the first mile quite quickly as it was mostly downhill.  I had set a “virtual partner” on my Garmin and was 75m ahead at the mile marker.  By the second mile marker I was 95m ahead, at the third 115m ahead.  I was doing well.  At one stage it got to 135m ahead and then the wheels fell off.  Not literally – it is a running races.  And they didn’t really fall off, I just started seeing my advantage disappearing.  At one stage I think I “lost” 50m going up a hill around mile 5.   Just before this, I noticed the start of a stitch but it soon disappeared.  Just after this, I thought I was going to see my breakfast disappear too – or more accurately re-appear.

The second half saw my virtual partner catch me and then overtake me.  And it wasn’t just virtual people, there was a slow but steady stream of people overtaking me too.  I hadn’t overtaken anyone since about mile 2.  After a while, it was about 80m ahead of me which translates to about 20 seconds or so.  Or at least that is what my mental maths told me.  I didn’t look at the pace on the gps, just the metres.

I knew I had done 1:12 in 2007 and that I had got quicker since so I thought I would get there with about 1:10:30 or so.  Still quicker, but I was disappointed.  I’d obviously lost fitness over the last two years but I didn’t think that I’d be only 2 mins quicker though.

I went past the half mile to go marker and was going well but at around 600m to go I went for it.  I overtook lots of people, perhaps 10 or so, in the next 450m or so.  Then I saw the clock at the finish line say “1:07″.  I went harder and even overtook someone in the finishing chute to come in at around 1:07:20-something.

So what went wrong with my maths?  Why was I three minutes quicker than I thought?   When I set my “virtual partner” I had planned to enter “1:10″ but thinking about 7 min per mile I put in 1:07 instead.

So, how does that compare with a 1:30-something half-marathon two years ago (or in other words, what does it mean for the Reading half-marathon in four weeks time)?  Well, 1:07:27 gives a VDOT of 51.  That equates to a half-marathon time of 1:30:02 – around 20 seconds quicker than what I did two years ago.  Obviously, the course is different in that Reading’s hills are a bit longer but it’s not a huge difference though.  With more practice over the next month, I reckon I have a good chance of getting below 1:30.  Now that would be nice!

Edited: race results are now available.  I did it in 1:07:29 and came 46th out of 473 finishers – inside the top 10% – I am chuffed

I have entered the Bramley 10 mile run again.  It’s been a while since I did it but I thought it would give me an idea of what pace to run at for the Reading Half-Marathon.  It’s 10 miles, on road, on a quiet course that’s not particularly hilly.

In 2007, it looks like I did it in 1:12:34.  If I was as fit as I was two years ago, I should be aiming to do it in around 1:08 or so.  I think 1:10 would be a good target this year though.