Marathon Training – Strong Finish

Slept in and woke up 20 minutes before race start! Made it to the start just in time after a quick warm-up jog from the hotel and had my mandatory pre-race Snickers bar after the gun had went off.

As I mentioned in Saturday’s blog post, I was running Pattaya Marathon 2014 as training. The plan was to run easy for the first 30 km, then pick up the pace little by little every kilometer. I started well back in the crowd because I was late. This was probably for the better, as I didn’t see when the speedster took off and therefore I didn’t get tempted to go faster than planned.

First 5 km at an average pace of 4.17/km. Feeling relaxed, passed a few familiar faces to chat with along the way. Similar speed for the next 5 km, then slightly faster (4.08/km) from km 11 through 15. Made sure to grab water at every station, which I sometimes neglect when I’m racing hard and don’t want to lose the rhythm.

Half marathon, 21.1 km, in 1 hour and 29 minutes. Just after the U-turn (22 km), I caught up with the two leading women. Viola, who would win the race, was looking strong and controlled the race. Ran with her until we reached 30 km. Then my marathon began…

Beforehand I wasn’t sure how it would feel to step it up from 30 km of easier running, especially with a high milage week behind me. Luckily, my legs were eager to go faster and I ran the 31st kilometer in 3.45 without much effort. After been running almost the whole race along Sukhumvit Road, the route now continued towards the coast. I continued to increase the pace for every kilometer. Ran at 3.35-3.42/km until the 37th kilometer.

With 5 km to go, it was time to put the hammer down and run really hard to the finish line. Then I hit the marathon’s toughest incline. Decided to wait until the last 4.5 km instead. Had to work quite a bit, but managed to finish as strong as I wanted. Last 4 kilometer splits between 3.25 and 3.30, sprint finished the final 500 meters at 3.10/km pace.

Passed a few runners in the last quarter of the race. Surprisingly enough, my 2.51.38 gave 9th place overall and 2nd in my age group (all results). It’s encouraging to know I’m capable of running fast even after 35 km, which hasn’t been case my previous marathons.

Time to rest up for next race, 50k on Sunday.