Ed: Even the best of the bunch have their tough periods as Paul from Worthing reports:
After running this marathon last year I knew exactly what to expect & tailored my training accordingly. That said since running it last year i have had countless knee problems since doing it & only decided to actually run (although i had bought a place) in December when my beloved dog Zorba died. I started training in January. The week running up to it as we all knew was rather warm, and the Sunday was no different. I must admit to not sleeping properly for days for fear of not performing well on the day or the heat getting to me. Sunday was a perfect day tho.
I started the race nice & slowly & lots of people went past me but I was just biding my time lol.
My plan was to get to half way fresh, step it up for the next 7miles then see what I had left for the last 6. I went through half way at 1hour 38mins & hoped that I could improve on that for the second half to beat my target of 3hr 20mins. Last year I started pulling cramp at 18miles in the front of my leg & by 22 I was crippled front & back. By 18miles this time I was mentally having to slow myself down as upon looking at my GPS watch I was running 6min 40sec miles. I hit 20miles at 2hrs 25min exactly where I wanted to be. It was really only the last 3miles that hurt but I managed to average 7min 30sec miles for the last 6miles. I finished in 3hours 11mins 07seconds (running the 2nd half in 1hr 33mins) which of course is a new PB for me but far more important than that I managed to help raise just short of £3000 for my charity Greek Animal Rescue 🙂 Me & my partner quickly hopped back on a train home then drove to Ferring beach, where Vesna the founder of GAR was waiting along with around 20 supporters & their Greek rescued dogs 🙂 It was most certainly a day to remember.
Can I make it 3rd time lucky & go sub 3 next year?