A lunchtime run today of just over 4 miles, at 11.02 a mile.
I said some time ago that I’d take more notice of times and speed once the race was within 6 weeks. That’s now. It can’t hurt to be more conscious of pace, but I don’t think it’s a wise move to translate this into a target time for the race itself. Almost everything you read says that the goal for a first marathon should be to finish the race. You then have some benchmark against which to aim if and when a second marathon comes along. It sounds right. After all, having (by definition) never run the distance before, the novice’s target can only ever be a fairly arbitrary choice. A stab in the dark.
The times you produce in training give some idea of potential pace for the first half of a marathon. But it’s the second half that’s the unknown quantity. If I could run 11.02 for the entire marathon I’d be very happy. This would produce a time of around 4 hours 50 minutes – fine for someone like me. But I don’t think I could maintain that pace for 26 miles. Not at my current level of fitness and stamina.
The risk with a time goal is that it could force me to run faster than I want to, and push me into the discomfort zone sooner than necessary. This in turn would almost certainly put paid to the goal in any case, so I’d lose on both counts. I’ve thought about this a lot, and I believe that my target should be to run the distance, and nothing else.
The Reading Half on Sunday is different. I know I can complete the race because I’ve run the distance 4 times now. My target time is 2:30 – slow by most standards but this is of no importance to me. It will give me something to aim at in the Fleet Half which comes a week later.
I finished Julie Welch’s 26.2 this morning. A good read for all London marathoners. Unlike most running books, written by expert runners trying their hand at writing, 26.2 comes from an established writer who wants to talk about her inexpert running. It makes a refreshing change, not just because the writing has more colour and vitality than usual, but because its perspective has more resonance for the ordinary runner.
Today’s run was a bit achey, as Tuesdays tend to be. A hangover I guess from Sunday’s long run. Good weather. Perhaps too good: it reminded me that all my running has been done in the winter months. The cold weather is grim for running, but warmth and sunshine present different problems.
I spent today’s run thinking about how to approach the running of the marathon. I did say some time ago that I didn’t need a race strategy, but this was wrong. I need to split the race up into manageable chunks, and deal with it piece by piece. I’ve been struck by the annoying indivisibility of the number 26. Perhaps experienced runners can think of it as 2 half marathons. After Sunday’s three 6 mile circuits, I’m thinking I could divide it into 3 x 6 then 2 x 4.
Leave it with me…
