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London Marathon

Picking a pace

A pleasant run 24km this morning, mostly on lanes towards Diss but including about a mile on a rather muddy byway. There were a few spits and spots of rain, but not enough to wet the ground, and getting distinctly warm towards the end. I found myself racing the postman in his van for several miles – it was a pretty evenly matched contest as he needed to stop so many times.

With two weeks to go till London, I still remain in a dither of doubt about what my target marathon pace should be. In an attempt to address that, this morning’s run was deliberately intended to be at 3:59-marathon pace. My logic beforehand was that as I ran an easier 22 miles last weekend fairly easily with energy left at the end, and if I could run at 3:59-marathon pace for 15 miles today on not well-rested legs without the boost from the occasion, the crowd, the fellow runners, etc, then it wouldn’t be a totally unreasonable target pace on the big day.

I kept nice even splits throughout, and finished a few seconds ahead of schedule, but finished in as much doubt as when I started. There’s a long way from 15 to 26 miles, and the last two today weren’t easy. Maybe I should adopt 4:05 or 4:10 as my target and take the pressure off myself.

The VDOT app on my phone says the half-marathon time a fortnight ago is equivalent to a 3:59:01 marathon time, which is encouraging.

The Running Calculator app on my phone says the half-marathon time a fortnight ago is equivalent to a 4:13:10 marathon time, which is less so.

The dither continues…

But on a more positive note, today is the 10th anniversary of my first outdoor run – I’ve come a long way from the boy/man who couldn’t run.

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