Royal Victoria Marathon (the aftermath)

Maui was fantastic, but you’ll have to take my word for it. Sadly, our camera broke two days before returning, so unless anyone has a reader for a Canon G9 we’ll all have to wait until the damn thing gets fixed. Regardless, the sand was fine, the sunshine warm on my back, and the water heavenly.

.

As for my race, I’ve been periodically reflecting on my performance but I still don’t know what to make of it.

.

Whether self-doubt or a touch of reality, on race morning I decided to slightly adjust my goal and aimed for a sub 2h45. Splitting the half in 1:23:01 left my marginally off target, but just. Sadly, as my 5k splits indicate, it was just after the 25k point that my race started to (slowly) unravel:

.

19:15, 19:24, 19:56, 19:53, 19:56, 20:14, 20:28, 20:58, 09:37

.

So instead of analyzing the race, I’ve been asking myself, “what I might have done differently during my training”. This question hasn’t helped either.

.

All things considered, I was happy with my approach. That said, if I were two change two things, I would 1) switch the half marathon I did 3-weeks out of the race, for the planned 3x10k at MP, and 2) spent more time, in particular tempo running, on undulating terrain. Those two gems, along with the compression socks, Udderly Smooth and my new nutrition plan, are all lessons learned.

.

Thanks for all the comments to my last post, they are greatly appreciated.

.

So, what’s next? I’m still thinking…

.

Training: 2-weeks in Maui - beach running, surfing, snorkelling and the odd (hilly) ride