The weather was fine and there was no wind, so hopes were high for a good pace and time of around 3hrs, but having never run beyond 21k previously, there were some reservations about what would happen after 2 hours.
Things looked good after the first 10k, where I felt relaxed after the two loops around the golf course. My lower legs felt a little tight, but nothing to be concerned about.
The pace slowed down a little between 10k and 15k, when I was running against a slight headwind going towards Warwick. It's at this stage where I felt perhaps my first 10k had been too fast. A check on the watch revealed that I was on course to match my half-marathon time from last week.
Things to a turn for the worse as I approached the half marathon mark. I don't know what 'hitting the wall' feels like, but my pace slowed a lot towards the 21k mark. At this stage slowing down wasn't an option as I feared it would cause me to stop totally. Doggedly I kept going, but was expecting bad things to happen...
The expectations turned out to be true, as I struggled up the hill for another loop of the golf course. Although the 21k was achieved with the same time as last week, I could feel that it's pointless to try to keep to the 3hrs target. 25k lasted 2hr40mins, and by this stage I could walked at the same pace as I was running. The mp3 died on me too...
The last 5k was predictably my worst, and 3hr20min was my final time. Some work to do when I get to Beijing then...
No comments:
Post a Comment