Maybe not ages but long, long time. East Antrim Marathon Series marathon over May long weekend, Carrickfergus coastal route. Little different than the one from end of the last year. Instead of going all the way to Belfast airport and back this time it was three loops. Weather better than last time. Again, cause Carrickfergus is about 2 hours from home so overnight stay was needed. Stayed at Larne, nice small town north of Belfast. Spent one night in very friendly guest house – Derrin. Owners created warm atmosphere. Got upgraded to bigger and nicer room cause there was no guests that weekend. Even if that was Belfast marathon weekend, long weekend and quite good weather. Like that town, even spending just couple of hours. Beautiful view of hills and sunset… If will need any accommodation near there I will use same guest house in same small town.
Next day short drive to Carrickfergus. Looked like a nice day. Sunny, some clouds. Weather was ok, but I remembered that last time running there was actually quite challenging for me. Back then my body was in bad shape and coastal breeze wasn’t helping. This time was similar. Instead of worn off body – IBS, breeze same as in December. Just little bit more sun, actually at the end of the run I had sun burns. On the spot I was informed that route has been change slightly. So, three loops instead of one here and back. Didn’t know what to expect from my body. I wanted to try run, if possible, constant pace (some inclines there so not really possible) to get 3:45. Time which I will be pacing on my next marathon in Prague. First and most important thing was not to charge again too fast on the beginning. 3:45 is 5:19 per km pace. I was going little bit quicker now but still knew that I can’t go faster now even if I can. So, that’s done. Kept my cool. I knew that on each lap one way there are two inclines. Not too big one but running these six times could be irritating. On that day my main focus was on ‘do not stop for pitstop’. I knew if I will not put my body under bigger pressure I should be fine. That is why running with slower but stay pace was so important. First loop was ok, but straight after second incline I knew that I’m still not prepared to run same pace whole distance when route is not flat as a pan. But… I have tried. Said to myself that if I would need pitstop I have 3 loops so twice passing toilet at the end of each loop before finish. During fist loop I was thinking too much about ‘guts’ issue. Haven’t focused on the run. That almost cost me one stop. Had to relax more and go with the flow. Relax body, pressure just when running up the hill. That was the whole idea and I think I have delivered that exactly. Must say that I have weakened quite a bit at lap number three. Still was able to get my time exactly what I wanted – below 3:45. Probably would be 2-3 minutes less if marathon wouldn’t been 600 m longer. This time I’m not blaming GPS signal cause whole route is on open space, no thee coverage, no buildings disturbing signal. So, marathon was little bit longer… But who cares?
Lesson learned. At this stage when body not under constant pressure I can run without toilet breaks and body acting ok. Body not under pressure means about 3:45 marathon time. Be relax and enjoy, speed and endurance will come back…
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