I've been running marathons for 2 and a half years now (this is my 5th) and I've now reached a point where it's getting harder and harder to get a pb. of the nature of the course I knew beating my Sunderland time of 3:04 was out of the question so my A goal was to try and beat last years time of 3-24.
I think I'm pretty much in the same shape as last year, although I haven't managed to get in as many long runs as I would have liked and haven't managed to get over 18 miles in training. Apart from my first marathon in Edinburgh I felt as least prepared as I ever have for a marathon so my confidence wasn't great going into the race.
I decided my race strategy was to try and sustain 7:30 to 7:40 mileing which would take me to around a 3-20 finish, and see how I felt later on in the race.
My mate Jonny was also doing the race this year too - his 3rd marathon and first time at kielder so I picked him up and we drove up together.
The weather was ideal for running - pretty nippy at first but clear skies all day and not a hint of wind - different story to last year. As we drove up towards Bellingham there was a stunning mist inversion covering the valleys below us, something that I remember from the first year I did the race.
As we set off the first mile was slow as ever - a combination of a hill right on the start line, and the difficulty of overtaking people on the narrow track. After around 5 miles or so though I had settled into a steady pace and was deliberately slowing myself down to keep close to my target pace.
Once I got up to around 7 miles I started to feel tired, but didn't want to take a gel so early as I had only brought 4 so I just kept going. The mental battle that normally kicks in later in the race had started already and the questions were floating round my head.
Why was I feeling so tired so early in the race?
If I was feeling this tired now, how would I feel later in the race?
Should I slow down and take it easy for a while? If so then it would be almost impossible to beat last years time.
I the end I decided to keep going at the pace I was running at for as long as I still could and hope I could sustain it till the end.
I took finally took my first gel after 11 miles, which didn't really help much but at least I was t feeling any worse and I went through halfway in 1-38.
I felt pretty much the same until around mile 15 when something bizarre happened. I took an energy drink from a feed station and it was like a kick start. All of a sudden the lethargy had gone and I felt really good.
I thought that the feeling wouldn't last long, maybe I mile or so and I would need another kick but by mile 17 I was still feeling great and started to push on and overtake people. I had another gel at mile 18 even though I felt like I didn't really need it and up until around mile 21 I still felt pretty good. I felt really confident of finishing now with a decent time and although the inevitable muscle soreness and fatigue started to kick in by mile 22 I was still able to sustain a decent pace. Thankfully the cramp that plagued me last year also stayed away.
The last few miles were pretty hard, and I had to dig deep to get through them, but it was a marked contrast to Sunderland where I was really suffering from around mile 14 and I was able to push on and overtake a few more people (including Jim from Saltwell who was suffering from cramp) .
My final time was 3:20:26 and I came 44th and Jonny did really well to finish in 4:19.
I got some massive pluses out of this race, firstly how well I was able to run considering the quality of my pre race preparation. I ended up taking all my gels but felt like I didn't need then all and could get away with less in the future.
Secondly I was happy at how consistent my pace was- although I didn't manage a negative split it is the closest I've ever came to one and I didn't implode in the second half of the race like I did in Sunderland. More than ever I feel like my best strategy is to pick a realistic finish time and try and stick to a constant pace all the way round, as opposed to starting faster to try and offset slowing down later in the race.
It is a massive psychological boost to speed up and overtake people in the latter stages of a marathon and something I am defiantly going to work on next year.
I've signed up for Sunderland again next year and my goal is to break 3 hours. For now though I'm going to have some much needed R&R and reflect on a great running year do far.
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