Training Log: Mal

Vienna Marathon 24 3:56ish

A glorious day but a fair few nerves, left Emma to go in to the box and apart from a last minute hop out for a pee it was an uneventful morning.
Set off comfortably on pace and felt really good, the first few km ticking by uneventfully with a cheers from Andrew and Ellie on the side lines at 2km after coming off the bridge. Down on the Kipchoge course through the trees for the first time I caught my mind wandering and debating whether to stop for another pee but kept going and was with a decent group moving at the same pace. Out of the park and up through the city for the first time and suddenly a massive pang in my stomach around 8km, managed to find a loo just before 10km and not too much time static/lost but was behind the group. Put in a bit of a concerted dig after 1/2km for a kilometer or so to see if I could close back up but decided quickly to back off whilst taking on gel #2. A turn back toward the city and in to a pedestrianised area where my stomach just went to pot again, a few nervous minutes passed before finding another loo. Told myself to calm down whilst static and try and sort things out properly. I still felt great at this point and running comfortably within myself going through the half effectively on pace 82mins inc. 2no. 1min stops. Was a little envious of the field turning in to finish and suddenly the group appeared a lot more sparse but still good. We were losing the height gained and heading down to the Donaucanal came off the gradual downhill at around 23km turned the corner at 25km and suddenly empty. I knew the next support was coming at 26km and sure enough heard them before I saw them but I wasn't too happy at this point. Half contemplated jacking it or stopping and waiting for Emma to come through but managed to get myself out of the boo I was in and just kept trying to take on the fuel and take it out 1 step at a time. Shuffling along in reality. Back in to the park with a couple of out and back to contend with, seeing the group I was with/behind at 20km roughly 10mins ahead or so wasn't great for moral as I went through 30km but I wasn't getting worse anymore. A fair few group came through which I just couldn't hang with but we got out the park and past the obligatory "1 Parkrun to go" sign which I swore at and had started to gather myself a bit more and rallied a little on the climb up towards the finish from 40k or so.

A bit disappointed all in all, had told myself 2:40 was the A goal, 2:50 the B goal and sub-3 the C goal but genuinely felt I'd trained well enough to be around 2:40. The caveat would be I be happy with anything if I'd gone out and blown up at 20miles to stagger in to the finish in whatever time, but disappointed things went away from me at 15miles which I felt should have been comfortable at and was until not far before.

It was a good experience though, and nice to run around Vienna though may have stumbled in to my next addiction....

C • Nothing to report? 1