Sydney Marathon : 3.31.44 yeah !!

I have run 16 Sydney Marathons and completed my 14th as Blue Line Legend (that is having run all of the Sydney marathons since the event has been run by Fairfax). And it completed my 22nd marathon for the year with just three (3) more to go to complete 25 for the year. 

I am not sure where that time came from considering the 100 miles in my legs from the weekend before. I started off with the 3.30 pacers but let them move slowly ahead at about 10k and from the on I kept my own pace and as it turned out I was not that far behind them at the end.

I ran the whole race in my own space and was happy with that. After halfway my Garmin decided to close down and so I was very much running on feel but I also had the belief I was falling further and further behind the 3.30 pace group after I lost sight of them. After 30k I had visions of the 3.45 pace group overtaking me. Clearly that did not happen . I was just too far behind the 3.30 group to catch sight along Hickson Road and give chase. If there was anything in the tank to do that. Probably not. 

Almost even paced with 1.44/1.47. Crossed the start line in 724th position and finished in 490th by steadily moving through the field. The 5k splits were a bit varied with between 24/26 minutes up to 35k and then the last 27.22 and that is where I lost the sun 3.30. 

In my preview in my last post I speculated in getting to 30k in 2.26 - 2.28 - I was there in 2.27.24. Perfect but at the time i was just running without any thought to pre set times. 

Best time since 2005 when it was 3.28. Since then except the 3.36 last year they were all run in the 3.50's because I had run the 100 miler either the week before or 2 weeks before. 

What more can I say. Run much quicker than I could have reasonably expected, almost even paced and despite having at the moment a very marathon unfriendly eating plan in place it does not seem to have been an issue and I though it would be a major issue in the ability to maintain a pace of the second half of the marathon.

Next weekend will be only the second weekend since the first week of July and Gold Coast I have not run a race. It might be nice to be home for 2 days on the weekend. But then 2 in 2 weekends with the second being the Melbourne Marathon that I have not run for a couple of years.