Manchester Marathon

 

This event was only my second ever competitive marathon, my first was in London 2012, even since then I have been hooked on competing in much longer distance events.

Most my training is aimed at ultra distance events and there is not a great deal of speed work involved  but over the winter months I have been doing at lot more speed work session as I wanted to improve my times in the first section of my ultras as this was always the hardest and slowest part for me, you see I seemed to get a lot stronger after the 50 mile point in all of my 100 milers and clock a quicker time for the second 50 compared to the first..

So this event was pretty much a test event to see where i was at with regards to timing and it was also part part of a standard training week in which I had already done 29 miles consisting hill reps, easy runs and a 8 and 10 miler so I was not 100 % rested as as most people would be for this event.

So the prep for this race was pretty standard, shoes,socks, shorts,shirt, bodyglide and gels, the most simplest kit check I have done in while.

So I got the train from London Euston To Manchester and headed for the YHA which was £30 for the night and was very good for that and very secure too.Once there I checked in sorted my things for race day and when down to sort my dinner out as it was about 8pm and I needed to get to bed pretty soon for a early start.

So race morning I made breakfast and was surprised how much I ate, you see I normally nervous before races but I seemed to be ok for this one.

While I was having breakfast I met a lady called Sonja and she mentioned that this was going to be her first ever marathon and she was really nervous.

I spoke to her gave what advice I thought would be good and she seemed to be ok after we got to the race village.

So arrived at the race village and may the last min bits of prep and give my bag in for collection afterwards.

I made my way to the race section that I was in after getting a foil cover as I was a bit chilly.

So the race got underway and I was aiming to go the the distance at best pace and see how long I could hold it for.

It was pretty good for the majority of the race, by about mile 20 I felt a bit of tightness in my quad muscle and had I stop a few times to stretch it out, I had done a stretching routine before hand as I do with all of my races, But it just one of those things.

I was drinking little and often as it was quite a warm day and I was popping my gels at good distances apart, so I was happy with that, All in all it was a good solid performance and I was happy with the time

 

 

Race stats:

Runners: 12000+

Placing: 1678

Time: 3:24:54