From being fairly relaxed on the morning, as soon as I reached the green start I stopped being relaxed. Announcements said we must put our baggage on the lorries now, or else, and as soon as I'd done that I joined an incredibly long queue for the toilets. The green start being smaller than the others seemed the worst provisioned- I never had an issue going to the toilet on the blue or red starts in previous years. In the queue, my friend Hannah caught up with me and we were waiting together for about 20 minutes, and getting closer to the toilet, but not close enough. At 5 to 10 we gave up and found somewhere to go discretely. This was awful for me... I'm terrible at peeing when people can see me, no matter how much I want to go, and as a result, I don't think I fully emptied my bladder.
Nonetheless we walked over to pen 3 to get ready to start. Hannah put her headphones in, we hugged each other and wished each other luck. This experience in the start area really seemed to bother me. I was annoyed that I had been on my feet for almost 2 hours - usually pre-marathon I sit down as much as possible and stay calm. When we got going I was surprised that I still felt my pace was being held up by the crowds, especially when the green and blue starts merged. It certainly warmed up with the greater volume of people. I knew mile 3 and 4 were supposed to be a bit quicker as they are net downhill, so was looking forward to them to stretch out a bit. Some people still seemed to brake a bit on the downhills, and then others were using them like me, so still a bit of a feeling of congestion, however, I was pretty pleased that I went through 5k in 24:12, a little quick, but if I kept it up 3:25 would be possible.
I thought once the congestion eased I would start to feel better, but around 8 miles, my left quads started to tighten. Not quite as severe as cramp, but I had to kick up to my butt a few times and hit my thigh with my hand to ease it. I wondered about stopping to stretch it, but thought that would start a dangerous downward spiral, so pushed through. I eased my pace to a sensible 7:55, and tried to hold it here. Every time the crowds were loud, this spurred me on quite a bit, and I pushed too hard at these times, only to ease off when it was quieter. Between miles 9 and 11 I looked out for Malcs with his infamous Swiss flag but didn't spot him. I already knew that today was not a great day for my marathon, so it disappointed me that I didn't get to see him as I could have done with the boost.
I really enjoyed going across tower bridge and shortly before half way I saw a friend, who called out my name! This was brilliant, as I really didn't think I would spot anyone on the course at all now I'd missed Malcs. I crossed halfway in 1:43, so a couple of minutes quicker than target pace, but I thought that was just about enough time in hand to account for the inevitable slow down in the later stages of the race. The band was playing YMCA and I joined in with the arm movements... Every time I did, the twinge in my thigh came back again, and I knew that I would have to play it safe for the rest of the race, keep a strong mind and make sure I was on top of my fuelling for the rest of the race.
Mile 15 and Sarah, David and Bernadette gave me a cheer- again a lovely surprise as I didn't know where they were going to be. There seemed to be less support than usual around the docklands and the route change was a bit more direct, but I wasn't a fan of the uphill ramp at mile 19. Despite the little niggele in my thigh I started to feel a bit more confident that this was going to be ok, then bang, my right calf cramped, such that it totally messed up my gait. It was like those videos you see of people getting cramp toward the end of the marathon, and I was only on mile 19. Time wise I was right on target with 7.2 miles to complete in an hour to get 3:30, however, I had already done 0.2 miles more than the markers at this point. I didn't factor this into my calculations and I was sure that even if I maintained a 9 minute mile from here, I was still on target. Herein lies the risk of trying to do these calculations during a marathon, as I was clearly wrong!
The calf didn't feel right. I felt strong enough to push on, but each time I did my calf cramped up, sometimes for 4-5 steps and I had to consciously point my toes up to stop it so that I could keep on running. At 21 miles I made the decision to stop and give it a proper stretch. I didn't want to wallow for too long, but figured this would give me an opportunity to continue. In truth it didn't last and I couldn't run much quicker than 8:30 without the calf cramping up. I was so disappointed as I knew that I was fit enough to go a bit faster but because I haven't been doing strength work recently, my calf just couldn't handle the full marathon yesterday.
I knew I was still on target for 3:30 (and in my mind could slow to 9mm still), but the calf cramp was coming more frequently and more severe, such that I might fall over from a strong cramp. Just after mile 24, I heard my sister call out, I was so glad that she and my husband, brother in law and new nephew had come out to watch and I waved at them but knew if I stopped, this could be it, so I just kept running. One foot in front of the other. When they saw me later they said I didn't look good.
I was quite surprised when the blue 3:30 pacer passed me just past Big Ben, and I tried to keep up with him. At this stage, I had lost the fight and looking at my pace on the watch I still thought I was on for a sub 3:30. With 400 metres to go my watch said 3:29 and I thought I was just going to make it, but as I passed under the 385 yards to go sign the time flicked over to 3:30. I was crushed! I had just missed it. I could have stopped right there, I was so disappointed.
When I crossed the finish line, I was a bit numb. I had really battled during those last 7 miles and in fact no part of that race felt easy. I had gotten my BQ, but I had not got my gold or silver goals.
It took my talking to a few friends after to see the positive in this result. The fact that I have indeed got a Boston Qualifier, and a 9 minute marathon pb. I know that a few things could have really made a difference on the day, and I will remember these for future goals:
- strength training- I backed off this mid feb in favour of more long runs, but I think more resistance training in the legs was more important than some midweek easy long runs
- trainers- my trainers were really due replacement, and I wonder whether the wear on them caused a bit too much work for my calves
- on the day, I should have gotten to the start earlier and sat down- kept off my legs
- also the Friday and Saturday I spent a lot of time on my feet which I wouldn't usually in the run up to the marathon
Maybe I'll have more to add in the next few days, but for now... I DID IT! I achieved my goal and got my Boston Qualifier. Above, I've been quite critical of myself, but that's exactly how I got the BQ, a belief that I am in control of my results and belief that I could get better. When I started this blog I had run 2 marathons with a pb of 4:33:57. Now my pb is 3:30:47 and it only took 2.5 years to get here
Next stop, A half iron triathlon in August, and Of course, Boston next year!
And here are the splits, as you can see, my pace was sub 3:30 pace, I just ran a bit further than a marathon though:
Well done Angela! Great running! Many congrats on the BQ!! x
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