Today was Halstead Marathon as my last long run before tapering for GUCR in 3 weeks. I have run this Marathon a couple of times before with me fastest being about 3:42ish. It is a hilly course but well organised and marshalled and very pretty to run around. It consists of an out run then 1 and 3/4 times round a 10ish mile loop and a run back in which has a short grass section. The rest of the surface is hilly back roads and lanes. Me and Sue travelled up and I registered and collected my number and then as we had a bit of time we wandered around chatting to people we knew from other races and fetcheveryone etc. Sue was supporting at a mini fetchpoint with some others who were not running. The place they would stand is somwhere I would pass 4 times.
I had set no real target for this race as I had already run 74miles this week and knew my legs were tired so was roughly aiming for anywhere between 4 hours and 4:30 depending on how my legs held out. When the race started it only took me less than a minute to cross the start mat and then try to warm my legs up and get into a rhythm. I ran for a short time with Sarah from fetcheveyone who is running GUCR this year too an Steve a 100 marathon club member I have run with before. After a couple of miles it was clear they were going to quick for me and I backed off. Although my legs felt tired I was churning out 8-8:30 minute miles without any discomfort and just went with it but thinking at any point the wheels may fall off. Somehow they stayed on and I trotted round feeling ok and chatting to people.
I went through half way in about 1:52ish and started to think it may be possible to creep under 4 hours even with tired legs. I was still waiting for the wheels to come off but they stayed on and I plodded on, I met up with a Serpentine runner called Jennifer Bradley who is running across america in a few weeks time and we chatted for a bit before I plodded off ahead. Her blog Runningandbaking is worth a look. In the last 5 miles or so I was starting to feel it but kept it up and the support for the runners was great along the route in the warm sunshine, it always seems to be hot on this route when I do it. I ran past Fetchpoint one last time and only had a few miles to go so tried to keep some pace despite having to walk one or two of the sharper hils at this point my average pace was still ok if slowing a bit.
I ran in with the clock saying 3:46:xx but with chip time tha came down to 3:45:01 so I am really pleased with that as its only a bit outside my PB and I was tired to start. Maybe a sub 3:30 attempt next year?
It was great to see lots of fetchies and others we know from racing/ultras/other clubs etc and get support from them.
Another well run and organised race from Halstead Road Runners. Taper time at last.