The road to the Manchester Marathon 2021

In this post, I will cover the lead up to the Manchester Marathon and the event itself, as ever the race calendar was packed and not helpful for an endurance event!

Cowm 5K

To start with the Cowm 5k, effectively a reservoir trail race. This race was included in the RRR championship as the usual 5k track trial was not available. However, annoyingly not long after we signed up, Rochdale Harriers announced the time trial to be on the same night, 21st September!

So rocking up to the start with my legs a little sore after the Sandman Duathlon but warmed up and got to the start line, ready to go. The route is used many times in the year for different races; however, it is common for people to be annoyed that it is always a little short of 5k. 

We started much further back on the road and felt more confident it would be the full distance!

I got myself somewhere near the front; the start of the race is a narrow road that bends to the right; at the end, it is a sharp left and an uphill to the reservoir. So I went off quickly and tried to keep with the fast guys until we got to the water. Ordinarily, you try not to burn out so soon, but this course has narrow paths, gates and a bridge to navigate, so clear air is a bonus.

Keeping the fast pace proved challenging, but I got into a rhythm, back and forth with some of the racers for most of the race. It is two laps of the reservoir, and as I exited the trail back to the road, it was literally downhill from there. I opened up my stride to take advantage and overtook two of my clubmates. Unfortunately, one saved himself for the upcoming marathon, the other struggled with an Achilles injury and hobbling a little. 

I crossed the line 11th in a time of 19:14, the race still a little short at 4.99K bah!

Flying round to lap 2

Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon

My next race was another duathlon, the TeamGB "Age Group" European Qualifiers, a chance to get into the team for next year's European Championship in Bilboa, Spain. 

The race was held at Oulton Park, a motor racecourse, so closed off to traffic and a chance to compete with speedy people!

It was a 4.2km run, 20km bike, 4.2km run; the transition being in the pits was excellent, as you finish the lap, you peel into the pits, grab your bike and run to the mount line at the far end.

You do 5 laps of the course on the bike and peel back into the pits, rack your bike and run like hell for a final lap of the course. Sounds straightforward? Sort of!

It was a mass start that I failed to get near the front; during the race brief, I found that I should have unclipped my helmet on the floor. This was new to me so I dashed back into transition to sort it, this left no time to fight my way to the front.

It was a scramble off the line, one chap caught the back of my foot, I had nowhere to go, unfortunately, he tumbled to the floor. On retrospect, I went too quickly and cleared the 1st kilometre in 3:34, the next 3 were more like 4 minutes each.

Run 1 

I quickly located my bike, stuck my helmet on and took what felt ages to change into bike shoes. I also took a gel; this added time and lessons must be learned to minimise time spent in transition.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has updated the rules on Age Grade "Sprint" deeming drafting (where you stay close to a rider to get aero benefit) legal, this meant that any aero packages like disc back wheels and tri bars were banned. As my bike has none of these features, it levelled the playing fields a bit.

I pushed hard on the first 2 laps, but could not for the life of me draft behind anyone; the elites were in packs of 5 or so and went whizzing by 😡

All by myself

Finally, a bit of draft

Laps 3,4 and 5 were tough going, the wind had picked up, my HR significantly ramped up and struggled to keep the speed up. I was glad to see the pit entry and prepared to dismount.

No drama like at the Sandman duathlon where I slid off my saddle and landed on the crossbar with an ouch! This time feet out of the peddle and running over the line with the bike.

Off the bike into transition

My wife was watching me from the pits and captured this great side shot.

Whizzing into transition

I struggled to rack up as 203 had put his bike in my spot; this cost me time as I had to think about what to do. I used his spot and went to recover my trainers, so time was lost all over again.

I ran as fast I could go out of transition and my legs were as heavy as lead!

Heading out of the pits

The second lap was 1 minute 30 slower than my first but I pushed as hard as possible.

My watch and official times differ a little, officially I crossed the finish in 01:19:06

Finish at last

Splits

I am pleased with my time and effort, with focusing on the marathon and RRR races meant cycling took a back seat. However, I have a lot to learn, more time to spend cycling and next season to look forward to.

Manchester Marathon 2021

After a year of expectation, the day finally came to lace up the trainers and head into Manchester for the biggest challenge. If you recall I have Pulmonary Sarcoidosis that I keep under control with exercise, others suffer terribly and this was a chance to raise awareness and some funds for the charity SarcodosisUK; please visit my fundraising page if you can help them out.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

This year course has improved from the last few, no longer does it have Carrington (Manchester United's training ground) which was a complaint from runners boring and lacking supporters.

Now it has a loop of the City Centre in its place, much better! There was a half marathon at 8:30am, which means marathon runners had to set off nearer to 10:45, which means you are running in the midday heat right when you would rather not!

There were three colour waves, each had 3 groups, so Red A,B,C etc. this was to help keep us safe from Covid... but as the pens were packed and outdoors, I still don't get it.

The start is near to Manchester United "Old Trafford", the finish is outside Old Trafford Cricket ground. The irony is that things are often billed as Manchester when they are actually Trafford or Salford Now, with the city centre loop, they are being faithful to the name!

After a lot of waiting around, my group lined, once the group before had disappeared, the gun went off. I tried to keep my speed down; for once I sort of did, checking my watch and letting the runners in the front head off rather than chasing them!

The loop around the city centre was okay, some crowds giving support which sounds like a cliche but it really helps. Wearing my club vest, I get "Well done Royton" often as well as "Mark" as your name is on the number.

Deansgate

This was taken on the way in, you can see runners heading the other way back up to Trafford.

You do a sort of loop of Old Trafford before heading up through Sale towards Altrincham, this picture shows me still doing well and a gel getting warm in my hand. It was around here I saw clubmates from Rochdale Triathlon on their bikes. They were offering support; unfortunately, my request for one of their bikes was refused 😜

Still feeling strong

Going through Timperley and Altrincham was great, the crowds were very supportive. It was also where some hills appeared, annoyingly the sun had really come out. Passing through 25Km I started to suffer, no matter how much water or gels I could feel my energy-sapping, my hips were grinding and I really had to focus on my breathing as my lungs were burning.

I was so glad to see Mile 24 as RRR were manning the water station, grabbing a bottle from Tracey, one of our group leaders (In my first couch to 5k cohorts 10 years ago if I recall correctly). The club cheered me on, it lifted me; my 3:15 time had slipped with no chance of recovery; soon after, Oldham and Royton Harriers (My club of old and as a child) had a cheer station double bubble, I gritted my teeth and pushed on.

Coming to the end of a marathon, every part of your body is screaming, your mind can go a bit wonky. You can see the finish from a mile away, it doesn't ever seem to get close.

A bit busy, see the person cramping to the right

Thinning out

Push for the line, flying!

In the last 10k I may have been slowing down but according to the records I made up 194 places.

I will never ever run a marathon again, I promise

Happy Running everyone

Mark

Sandman Sprint Duathlon

 Saturday 18th September was the date that had been in my diary for most of the year, my first full-on Duathlon. 

It was a weekend dedicated to Triathlon (Swim, Bike, Run), the Saturday being "Sprint",  Sunday was "Standard" and "Legend". They also put on Duathlon's (Run, Bike, Run), which is my current forte due to my shoulder issue, this puts me out of swimming for now.

I camped out the night before, sadly the tent behind had loud snoring folks. Some parents cannot clearly control children, who thought it was fun to pull up the guy ropes at times in the evening, not the best race prep.

We all used the same transition (the area where your bike is stored), and after registration, I "racked" up my bike and tried to settle.

You get a tiny area to store your kit, enough space for shoes and a towel (if swimming). There are many rules in triathlon, mostly it seems in transition when you wheel your bike in, you must be wearing your helmet. Rack your bike, then you can take it off! So officials were telling people all time. When you come in from the swim or first run, you must put your helmet on before taking the bike off the rack, so it is drilled into you! 

Penalty points and disqualifications are easily picked up!

The sprint duathletes lined up to the start, the race director informing us we would get underway at 8:30am and go at the same time as the swimmers, so he had his radio turned up.

Even though I was staying local, I still had a 5 o'clock wake up, so I was glad to finally get underway, the first leg for us was a 2.4km run; turning right, we had to run up the hill, which we would later ride up, not a fantastic start to a race. 

This section was tarmac, I had been told many times it was a trail shoe event because of the beach and woodland paths we would use... in hindsight, most of the routes on both runs were easy for a road shoe, the beach sand was so soft, it made no difference I think. 

My Adidas Kanadi's, which serve me well for cross-country, were no better grip than the winners Nike "cheat shoe"... So next year road shoe it will be.

As we return to the event area from the beach, the climb out of the dunes is punishing, I was 3rd all the way through the run and headed into transition, searching for my bike.
TIP: Always rehearse finding your bike in what is a crowded space!

The bike section is my weakest; as you may have guessed, running is my background. However, it seems most triathletes are cyclists that learn to swim and get better at running.  So I have to get better at cycling and modify my bike with "marginal gains". 

The more aerodynamic and light you can make the bike and yourself, the greater the speed potential for the same effort. My Focus Cayo is a bit old but is carbon fibre, so light, more a "Sportive" bike, meant for touring at speed, rather than out and out Time Trial (TT).

The watch I use is the Garmin Forerunner 735XT which is excellent for triathlon as you can quickly change the sport as you transition. I have a Garmin Edge bike computer I set up before the race to be in "Extended Display Mode". As I get near the bike, it pairs up and displays my speed, cadence, distance travelled, the watch is recording, the computer just relaying. This way I can keep my eyes upfront and no need to look at my wrist!

As you can see from the photo above, I am not so aerodynamic, my shoulder pain means I cannot get so low, I have drop handles but my chin should be nearer the handlebars!

I have ordered aero bars now, they should be installed before my next race on the 3rd of October. The hope is I can squeeze out a bit more speed as I transform the bike into a beast, I presume the bars make it look like having horns... hence the beast. 

The wheels I have are good road wheels but not racing, so I will upgrade them and be "bike fitted" later this year, where the bike and I will be tuned to work in harmony.

The sound the beasts make as they whirr past you is fantastic, also annoying as you push like hell and they sail on!

I averaged 29 km/h, which I hope to improve next year; the course has excellent flat sections and a few hills, favouring the beast!

About halfway around, I took a corner too quick, managing to stay upright as I mounted the grass verge, a little scary but non the worse. As the race progressed, bikes were whirring past me, most wearing red race numbers (triathletes) and blue numbers like me, so I slipped to 13th. 

As I approached the mount line, I got the "dismount" wrong and slid off onto the bar, uncomfortable and embarrassing. But, much to the delight of the marshal, as she quoted, "take it easy, it's not a race", haha. 

I did get off the bike before the mount line, so no penalty, but it meant I had to run a little further into transition, rookie mistake.

As I racked the bike, removed my helmet, changed shoes, I knew I had some ground to make up. Run 2 is just over 5k and uses more of the woodland and a more extended section of the beach. I started to pick off runners, some were triathlon, but some I recognised as duathletes, so I felt good I was progressing well. The races were being filmed for S4C, so it was the first time I have had a film crew on a 4 wheeled scrambler in front of me. Technically they were filming the Team GBR woman that would go on to win, so I kept up with her for as long as I could 😆

On the beach, I managed to clear more runners, at least 2 from my race; the sand was hard work, as this picture shows:

One of my shoelaces came undone, again a rookie thing, rising in transition. I decided not to stop and "plough on" in the sand.

Yet again, you have to scramble up a dune to get off the beach and then head for the finish. I was glad to get over the line, not that it shows well on my face:

I finished 7th overall and 3rd M40, a pity they don't do the same as UK Athletics and have MV45 might have won that!

Love Bara Brith (Welsh Fruit Loaf), an excellent reward for a hard day at the office!

My next outing is the Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon in two weeks, 4k run, 30k bike, 4k run. I hope the lessons learned from this event make me faster again!

Keep safe all

Mark

Capesthorne Hall - Cheshire Half Marathon

 As the weeks tick by and the Manchester Marathon looms closer, the races are still coming in thick and fast.

My legs were still rebuilding from the Trimpell 20 mile event a couple weeks ago. York parkrun was a chance to test my speed endurance, so this week was the Cheshire Half marathon. 

All three put in my calendar to test the various distances and intensities that perfect my target marathon pace. 

The long runs I have been doing are now adapting my legs for the stress of 26.2 miles, thankfully Manchester is virtually flat so I don't have hills to put into the equations, so I have avoided hill training, except for the Rochdale 10k.

If you recall, I am running the Manchester Marathon to raise money for my chosen charity SarcoidosisUK, which has been a great help since I was hospitalised and diagnosed with Pulmonary Sarcoidosis back in 2019.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mark-kelly57

I need a bit more to get to my target; throughout the year, I have set myself challenges to help prepare myself, some good and some not so, especially cycling!

For the first time in a while, I was back at Royton Road Runners to lead my group and attend a "leader meeting "afterwards.

We were targeting a 5:00km pace, but as group A and B merged together, it pushed the pace up a little; it gave me some PR's, which was nice.

Cheshire Half race report

It was a great morning for racing, dry, cool and overcast; this being a RRR championship event, there were plenty of clubmates in attendance.

It was a rolling start, in pairs, I set off as usual just a little quick, the red mist comes up but I usually get into a stride, fine for a 5k, not so for a half marathon! I was quickly caught by clubmates (the fast ones) and eventually, my mate Shane pulled up alongside. 

I have never beaten Shane, so I wasn't expecting to see him for long, but the pace he was doing was okay and we got chatting; pretty soon the kilometres were clocking off, we continued to talk throughout the race the course is great and pretty flat, pockets of support around the leafy lanes of Cheshire were welcome and water every 3 miles was welcome.

To quote our chairman Bryan Lawton, "if you like hedgerows and cows to look at, you will love the course."

As we got closer to the finish, we were picking off runners and trying to keep the pace up; the last 1.5km I could not stay with Shane and tried to do my best to push for home, a sprint finish and my last KM was the same as my first 4:04!

I was 7th V45 male on chip time, 1:29:08  so very pleased and confident I could push for a 3:15 marathon, so I will stick with that pace and see what happens!

7th in my age group

The route and splits

Nice and even pacing, thank you Shane

I am now wearing calf supports, working well so far

Finally, over the line and a sprint finish

I was checking my progress on runbritainrankings.com and was surprised I have moved up in my handicap and ladder positions. If you didn't know about it, let me summarise how it works; when you enter races in the UK, they are usually tied to UK athletics. So if you are a club runner, it automatically links your race result (including parkruns) to your profile.

This then tracks your results and uses algorithms to establish how well you did; not all 5k's are the same; some are hilly, twisty etc. it also looks at the weather at the time. It is pretty nifty software, the feature that took my interest is rating me against my age group in my postcode (OL2), which is North Oldham effectively. I have been second for a while to my club captain Carl and, as of this week, have just moved ahead of him, sorry Carl! 

Climbing the ladder

I am 12th overall and 10th male, so I hope to keep on improving, you can see from the graph my rise and disappearance in 2012 as injury stopped my running. Since 2018 I have been gaining fitness, losing weight, a plateau in 2020 as racing was suspended due to covid and my continual climb now things have resumed.

It gives you the 5 best performances that contribute to your score. They are weighted to course difficulty, and more recent races are given more importance to the ranking, so my 2011 London Marathon of 3:09:08 doesn't figure in the computation. In fact, the Ron Hill 7 mile race (hilly) I did recently is my +1 and Trimpell 20 (flat but long) +5 

If you are a club runner, take a look at the website, it is a great tool to compare yourself with others and see how you are progressing.

On Saturday, my next race is the Sandman Duathlon in Angelsey, so I better get my bike ready and maybe a few turbo sessions!

Keep safe and keep running!

Mark

Training weeks

With a couple of weeks off from racing is back to business training for the Manchester Marathon and Oulton Park Duathlon.

After the hard work of Trimpell 20, I got my legs ready for my first track training session in many a year!

The shiny new blister is a peach and protected it with a plaster for a recovery run of 5:00 min/km pace, it was hot and I was glad it was over. My legs were heavy; finally, on the turnaround, they eased off a little to get back on track with the intended pace.

I have returned to the track after many a year, the surface at the local track has just been redone and super fast, a little bouncy but fun. Oldham Community Leisure (OCL) put on a session each week, the coach is John Sweeney, whom I have great respect for and raced against for a few years. Most of the attendees were either Royton Road Runners or Rochdale Tri... of which I am a member of both!

The session was 800's with 2 minutes recovery, my legs were still achy, so I hoped they would work after the warm-up and stretching, which they did, but grumbled at me.

I paused my watch after each 800 and then started again, 6 sets and I was happy to finish the last one (with a sprint).

The watch splits at 1Km intervals, so I can't see the individual efforts unless I use "segments".

I did record a 1:16 400m effort, so a modern-day PR, the first set I went out a little fast and that accounts for a 3:20 1k, the other 4 1k's were consistent enough, actually slightly improving each time.

The moving time was 17:43 for 5.2km, now wouldn't it be great to do at parkrun... albeit with a 2 minutes rest every 1k 😛

On Wednesday, I did another recovery run of 5min/km pace my HR a nice easy 145bpm, the blister still being protected but looking better and causing no bother.

Thursday a did a "Sandwich Session" which is run, bike, run... a duathlon practice, 

As I was going on holiday, it would be a week of running, no bike, the kid's bikes took all the spots. So having got into the holiday home and unpacked, I headed out for a 5k at Marathon Pace (MP), which at the moment is 4:40 min/km and managed to stick to it.

4:40 pace spot on

On the first Sunday of the holiday, I tried a swim in the pool, the "lanes" as always... shut, so in the mix with the hordes of kids and holidaymakers, I managed 260 meters, my left shoulder even with breaststroke no good ad painful, so went on the slides for fun instead!

I deferred my Long Slow Run (LSR) to Tuesday and did an "out and back" from Hafen to Porthmadog, a story I recounted to the gardener who had a hard time believing I had done that and just under 3 hours. The trouble with Wales is there are few pavements outside of towns and the holiday park is on the main road. Thankfully there is a pavement on the left all the way to Crieth, as you exit the town, it flips to the right, once I reached Porthmadog, I picked possible the worst choice at the main junction in town and head "up" to Black Rock.

Once I reached "Black Rock Llamas" I turned back, stopping off at a petrol station to refill my water bottle, the weather was cool with some drizzle. However, you need to keep hydrated!

My "Easy" pace is 5:05, I managed to keep it at 5:07, so please forgive 2 seconds a kilometre!

Garmin Fitness

Fo the past few weeks my Garmin watch and companion app have been giving me improvements and as of Friday it is reporting I have reached 59 and that gives you race predictions like this:

I will take the "Fitness age of an Excellent 20-year-old" but the race times are a bit fanciful.

After my dog chewed the last of my shades, I have bought some Ron Hill - Tokyo shades, which will double up for cycling as they give good coverage against the wind.

This photo was taken whilst waiting to go into the "King Arthur's Labyrinth" which if you are in "South-North Wales" you should visit, it takes you under the mountain into an old mine, with the old tunnels and quarry caverns, boat ride and the legend of King Arthur played out to you, magnificent. So that's my Welsh tourist board job done 😁 the shades are great and that's my British Triathlon buff keeping me warm and Covid Safe... 

York parkrun

In a re-arranged holiday to Budapest with the lads, it was a trip to York and the horse racing instead. Any opportunity to be a parkrun tourist, I will take and this was no different! I jogged from the hotel to the racecourse and loosened up with an anti-clockwise walk around the service road which the parkrun uses. They have key markers like the start, finish, KM, etc. painted on the road, making the setup easier!

I chatted with a few of the runners and began to get my legs warmed up again, I got myself up front for the start as I wanted to attack from the start and get the best time I could. 

From the off, I pushed hard, trying to keep my pace under 4:04, which I managed to do, people that had overtaken me in the first few km, I started to catch back up in the last Km, my right calf worryingly a couple of times developed a sharp, stabbing, burning pain which eased off after each attack. Despite this, I kept the pace up and was happy with the time, 19:19, but my GPS states a18:59 5K, I was 16th overall and 2nd M45, which I am super happy with.

Splits and route

A strong start and finish

York is a nice flat course, so the time is good; for context, my fastest parkrun is Cardiff at18:22 which is also flat. So I am getting closer to my times from 10 years ago!

Hopefully, my troublesome calf heals quickly, I will ease off this week and get ready for Sundays Cheshire Half Marathon as best I can.

A good week culminating in the Trimpell 20

 A good week culminating in the Trimpell 20 mile race, I put this in my plan to perfectly time with my incremental increases on the long runs, over the last few weeks going up 17,18,19 miles.

On Monday, I did a turbo session followed by a brick run, I had my right foot strapped up, it felt okay so it gave me the green light to do my 31K (19 Miles) run on Tuesday.

The LSR went well overall, at about 20k into the run, the troublesome right foot started to ache, not in the ankle but on the inside, which is sometimes a bit weak for me. 

On Wednesday I picked my mate Steve up and headed down to Wales to do what we thought would be a "pan flat" route from Pensarn to Llandudno and back, then head north to Rhyl and back., about 60km all in all.

A strong headwind greeted us as I had brought my mountain bike shoes (they look similar to my road shoes). Unfortunately, I had to make do and use trainers, so I lost all the advantages of "locked-in feet."

Not all went to plan as there are roadworks on the route, we got a bit lost and when we hit 15Km, it was time to turn back. Somehow we did not pick up the cycle path and head back on the main road,  which was not so bad as the cycle route was busy with dog walkers and bimblers. 

Steve is getting back into training so it was a shame the "pan flat" route turned into a hill session at about 22km. Steve had done well but there was no need to push more and we decided that once we got back to the car at Pensarn, we would throw my bike into the car for a quick transition and do my brick run. 

Steve coached me from his bike and I bolted onto the promenade to do 1.5km out and back; annoyingly, the headwind was still there, so I pushed hard with the deafening wind in my ears. Steve did a great job shouting out the pace, encouraging me, pushing me to keep the 3k under 12 minutes. Which I managed to do, coming in at 11:41, given I did 19 miles at 5:10 pace the day before, the legs felt good and my chest not too bad.

As I was racing at the weekend, I tapered down to get my form spot on, so minimal running and a sprint brick session.

Trimpell 20 Race Report

The weekend had been predicted to be a wet one, the drive up to Lancaster was full of low clouds, rain and sunshine. There were 3 accidents on the motorways between home and the race, but timing and apple maps meant we missed most of the delays and rocked up with plenty of time.

I started my warm-up and realised

a) Had not started my watch

b) forget to put on my HR strap

So trotted back to sort it out, my wife took this amusing photo

Adjusting the strap

It was a mass start, I positioned myself near the front with the hope of getting some free air and was happy for folks to overtake me as they went. At the same time, there was also the Golden Ball 10 mile mixed in, so you had people going a bit quicker than us 20 milers!

The first few kilometres, I was a little giddy and the target pace of 4:50 min/km was not going to happen, I was doing 4:04,4:14,4:24 and so on. The course was all on the cycle path that runs along the River Lune and relatively flat, it consisted of a short 5k loop to the south, with a dead man turn and back to the start/finish, then a big loop to the north.

500 meters into the race

The tarmac was still wet at this stage, and as you can see from the photo above, the expectation was for a wet race, which is far better than hot... you can't have everything in life...it was a hot one. I always wear shades if I can as we have glaucoma in the family, to reduce the risk, I protect my eyes as much as I can, it was a bonus being sunny; I didn't see many other people doing the same? 

The course then starts to climb it is subtle enough on the first lap and at 9KM reaches a plateau, on the second lap, it felt more and lapping always is tough to do as you know what is coming! 

There was plenty of water on the course and with the sun being out it was a case of drink, water over my head, drink, water over my head! 

At about 11Km you leave the cycle path, head out onto the road for about 1km, and then loop back onto the path and back to the start/finish. If you are a 10 miler, this is heaven, for us doing 20 is a realisation of what you have to do again. As you meet back up to the path you have crisscross with the runners about to go on the road, a bit of synchronised passing is required!

Up till about 21km, I felt strong. The pace had been manageable somewhere around 4:30 - 4:40 pace, gradually I slowed down, a blister was coming through, and the pain all over was worsening. Typically at 18 miles, your body and mind can "Hit the wall" it was getting close to that, I hated every step, people started to stride past me. But, I soldiered on and clocked the kilometres down, safe in the knowledge my 2hr 35 minutes target could be achieved. I was surprised that I actually came in 45th and 2:28:43.

Could I have run another 10k in 45 minutes to complete a marathon of 3:15, no but 55 minutes probably? However, I did the first 10k in 44 minutes, which was my peak speed a year ago, so to repeat that at the end of this race... not likely! 

I have a few more weeks to practice and perfect my pace and race strategy but I should be on track for 3:25 at Manchester.. hopefully.

Not a negative split as the textbook says but I don't think I have done that; for my 2011 London Marathon, I was running a fairly consistent pace and achieved 3:09:08, so if I am a bit slower at the end, then so be it!

No sprint finish this time, the legs just wouldn't cope but did the last 200 meters in 4:11 pace.

Keep safe!

Mark