Time for a race strategy...

One of the great things about the Rock and Roll Marathon series is they genuinely cater for all runners, unlike some where the half marathon pacers go 2:15 or faster they have some out to 3:00 and back markers as well - http://www.runrocknroll.com/liverpool/news/2015/05/cep-pacer-gallery/. 

Which gives me a dilemma:

Start and try and stay with the 2:30 pacers (Ange and Helen),

or

Start with the 2:45 pacers (Guy and Robbie) and try and have enough in the tank for a fast last 5km along the river...

Partly it will come down to the day.  Partly it will come down to how the horrendous first hill goes, if I'm moving easy and keeping steady up Upper Parliament Street then I'll keep with the 2:30.

Worst case scenario is blasting out (for me) with the 2:15 pacer and then watching the 2:30 & 2:45 go past...

Why not go for the PB?  Basically, cos to do that I'd be running faster than I have in the last month.  I should, being a race tart, get a bit of a lift - it's the ego thing, I have an audience!

Also its a curious thing about half marathons, I don't tend to get good training in for them, my two fastest have come off the back of marathon or ultra-training. So, going out to 13.1 for the second time this year, in much better shape than Cambridge, will be good.  That said Cambridge has two "hills" both bridges you have to get over... Liverpool is not fast and flat, but it is (well the Rock and Roll version) fun and also bling-tastic.

I'll be getting a medal for the half, and one for the 5km on the Saturday... and a medal for doing both... and a medal for doing the marathon last year and the half this... FOUR stonking medals!!!!

And two technical t-shirts... and a free beer... and music, around the course and at the after party!

So, I'm gently carbo-loading, I've a 5km tomorrow evening and then I rest... Well I'm off to the British Cardiovascular Society meeting as a patient "voice" and I have long days of meeting at work...

Then Friday is the Expo, pick up the race packs... Trot the 5km on Saturday morning... then David Sedaris on Saturday night... then run 13.1 :-)

It's easy when you say it fast and don't mention the dilemmas...

TTFN

Paul

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something a little bit political...

Well the legs still don't want to run, walk and climb is fine, run makes them feel a bit leary ... Probably the two most contentious words in the congenital heart world (UK branch) are "safe and sustainable", a quick trawl of the support websites or facebook will show many a group being set up to save a hospital or a ward. I won't be joining any of them. Not because I don't care, but because I care too much. The origins of Safe and Sustainable go back to the Bristol Hospital Enquiry, and quite simply this is designed to ensure that the surgery that heart kids get is the the most appropriate, done by well trained and supported surgeons who are used to doing the operations and are in a surgical setting which are designed around the needs of the child going through the surgery and their family. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so. I want every heart kid to get the best surgery available to them, I want their parents to be given the best advice, support...
Read more

12% of a plan…

  It’s been a month.     A month since the new heart valve was inserted… the chaffing has died down, I’ve been sensible and built my walking up, restarted my apple fitness plus bits and bobs (boy has it been a long time since I bent like that, or cycled/spun like that) and I’ve been for two runs – a gentle 3k which worked as a prelude to my return to my local parkrun… I finished, my tally went up 1, and I remembered just how tough it is to run the first mile on so soft, dry sand… In hindsight I would’ve been better to walk the first third and conserve my energy (and pool of fitness) to the prom and the grass thirds…   Relive 'Return to Parkrun!' Yes, it does look the first bit is out to sea…  Monday was a random day off work to get out and do something, so with a bit of head scratch and some nifty plotting on the OS Mapping app I wandered along the canal, and then down the Transpennine Trail & “loop line”… Almost pancake flat, I know...
Read more

It’s a kind of magic (the science kind)…

  Well, operation done – I have a funky new valve and a bit of a sore groin.     I was in hospital for 28, sleepless, hot, hours and unconscious for about 4 of them.     While the insertion points for the three catheters I had in me in at the same time heal it’s a case of taking it easy, let my body get over the various manipulations (sore throat, the impact of the still there frozen shoulder) and the simple lack of sleep from stress and some noisy neighbours on the day ward I was on.  There’s really not a lot else to say… I went in, did the usual pre-op checks, had a chat with the interventionist, had a chat with the anaesthetist, signed the all-important consent forms (kids – that’s when you know you’re an adult; parents, that’s when you know your kid is in charge), was wheeled across to a hybrid cath lab… laid down, bit of banter with the team and the next thing I knew I was waking up, sore and not actually knowing whether the funky valve had fitted me…...
Read more