It all starts with a single thought

So i worked out this morning that i have averaged 14km per week of running for the last 12 weeks incl today’s marathon.

Its a joke actually how much i haven’t been running and due to the Bar-One Manhunt TV that i am on, we are filming every weekend for the next 6 or 7 and wasn’t going to have time to qualify for comrades, so i had to run one at the drop of the hat today on valentines day.

I survived and survived well, i only started feeling a lot of pain around 38km and then the last 4km were really sore, but more joint and ankle pain from being on my feet so long as i haven’t been running at all.

I ran a PB, as it was my first stand alone marathon i have ever done and the only other one i have done was in a Ironman and i ran 4hr 39min. Today i ran the course in the howling wind and rain in 3hr 56 min which i am very proud of.

The only reason i was able to do this was good pacing during the race, i didn’t push it or care when big women were running past me, good equipment on the day and then lots of good base HR biking in December. I managed to keep my HR around 145 bpm the whole way which is about 70% of my sustainable max for me and still be strong. I would of been even stronger if i didn’t do a 2hr MTB yesterday but hey, you only live once, right ?

I ran in double layer compression tights, from Under Armour which i thought was going to be a overkill, but they were so super comfy and didn’t bother me at all during race, i also used there Compression socks and under long sleeve. I wore there clima cool cap as well. I rocked my Puma Tenos shoes which are my favourite in the puma range and have been ever since i got a set 4 years ago. I also used my custom Oakley radars to bring me home.

Another small piece of equipment i used was my Power Balance and i must say i felt strong most of the way and was able to hold my form a lot longer than i expected and believe that it gave me the edge.

If you interested here is my data from the day :

• Avg HR for the day was 149 bpm, i really started to run harder near the end to make sure i broke 4hrs

• 3271 Calories Burnt for run

• I took 5km run splits according to the boards : 29:28 ; 28.02 ; 26:41 ; 28:53 ; 27:07 ; 27:36 ; 28:13 ; 28:19 the first one was slower cause we were running through people and the faster one had long down hill but pretty consistant.

• My nutrition plan was light breakfast, a KORU every hour from the start, i only started coke around 18km and beofre that was only water. Once i started coke i hit a cup every table and made sure i walked the whole table. I also popped 1 myprodol at 21km which was awesome.

So there you go, was 1 hell of experience and i qualified for comrades which is going to be a whole nother mother, now i think its time i start doing some more running, thats once i can walk again of course.

See you on the road