Seen it, done it, ticked it...

Well that's it done - Blackpool Marathon is over and I can get back to riding my bicycle and running shorter races.  And it was bloody fantastic!

I got picked up at silly o'clock by the bus at Skipton bus station and after an uneventful journey to Blackpool we were deposited behind the Hilton with lots of runners milling about.  No need for a warm up before a marathon, so I wandered about saying hello to a few people I've chatted with on the RW forum, including a couple of guys I was maybe going to run with.

We were away bang on time, and despite trying to start steady as the plan dictated, I went through mile 1 in 6:52 (that'll be sub-3 pace then...).  By this time I'd met up with Helen, a fellow Harrier doing the half, and I ran with her for a couple of miles, dropping the pace back to the schedule of 7:15ish (7:12 and 7:17 to be precise...).  On the way we caught Keith W who'd gone out a bit quickly, and then I hooked up with one of my RW chums, Woody from Horwich.  We kept the pace nice and steady around 7:15 until a slight climb up past the Tower, where Woody dropped back and I accelerated slightly.  My HR was comfortably down below 150, and I was feeling good, so I thought there was no harm in speeding up a bit.

Just past the start again the plan was for The Afterburner to hand me a bottle of energy drink, and it worked perfectly - Paul and a host of noisy Ilkley supporters were there, and handed me a bottle of drink with a gel fastened to the side.  This was a great boost both physically and mentally, as I now knew I'd be getting my fuel in properly.

The northern loop is the same as the GNW Half where I damaged my calf in February, so the route was familiar.  I started to pass a few people here, and went through 10 miles in 71:38, with the pace averaging 7:10 exactly.  On the way back along the lower walk I caught a couple more Harriers, Richard and Adey and we had a brief chat and ran together for a mile or so.  Very quickly we were back at the start area and the half marathoners turned off to their finish.

I'd wondered how I'd feel at this point, seeing so many others with their day nearly finished and the hard work about to start for me - and I must say I felt pretty good.  I knew I'd run within myself, as my HR was only just creeping over 150, my support team were there with more bottles and I was confident that as long as I didn't go silly then I would at least get to within spitting distance of my 3:15 target.  The half marathon point was reached in 1:33:54, almost bang on 7:10 pace.

The pace back down the promenade was down near 7 min pace for a good 6 miles, only slowing when we climbed back up past the Tower again.  My HR was climbing as well, but seemed to be stabilising around the 155 mark, which is my half-marathon HR, so with under 10 miles to go I was reasonably comfortable I'd survive.  I'd set the "virtual partner" on my Garmin to run at 7:20 pace and I had the reassuring sight of being 4 mins and over half a mile "ahead".  As I passed the 18 and 19 mile markers I realised I was within an hour or so of finishing, and that I could afford to slow fairly significantly and still hit my 3:15 target.  Back past the support team for the last time with 20 miles done and under 10k to go.  By now I was passing a lot of people, many of whom had been a long way ahead.  The benefits of a conservative start were clear to see, as there were some very tired looking runners out there.

At about 22.5 miles I started to feel the effects of not having run my long runs, but I now knew I could slow dramatically and still hit my target.  I was still miling at about 7:10 pace, but as we turned for home for the last time with 5k to go for the first time I started to wish it was over.  I passed lots of runners on this last section, many of whom looked in quite bad shape, with several walking.  I also passed a few people still on their first lap, which shows an amazing amount of resilience if not athletic ability!

I was now down to about 7:25 pace, which whilst a lot slower than the average pace for the rest of the run is still about 3:15 marathon pace.  Around the corner with about half a mile to go I saw the ramp leading back up to the middle walk and the finish.  A last wave to the Ilkley supporters and a sprint finish to make sure I finished ahead of the woman I'd been running behind for most of the last mile stopped the clock on 3:07:19 - job done.  28th place out of 621 finishers is also very pleasing, but I think the best thing about the race was the way I started conservatively and picked it up later - it would have been so tempting to try and blast it from the start, but the boost you get from passing people when you're tiring is immense - must remember that next time...

Do I have a sub-3 in me?  I think so, with a full training programme and a following wind - it's only just over 15 seconds a mile quicker than I ran yesterday, and I've missed 4 of the highest mileage weeks.  Will I have a go at sub-3 at Chester in 7 weeks' time?  Will I bollocks!  Bike time now...