Sponsored Team - Yorkshire Marathon - Matt & Keri's race reports
Oct 19, 2022
The first race report is from Matt
My journey to York Marathon started in June when I went to visit Dave for a long over due Lactate test. With the results we put a plan in place to run under 3 hours - a goal id never really dared to dream of. I came to Dave as a 4h something marathon runner - but by now I believe and trust Dave enough that when he says something is possible, it’s possible.
After Manchester I’d had a small issue with my ankle that Caroline at the clinic did a fantastic job of helping me through and getting me back full health. And then training was well underway. A key part of the training was the marathon paced session - I remember doing these and struggling to keep on pace. But I didn’t let that phase me, I believed in Daves training and I knew in time it would pay off.
Historically, looking back on my training i’ve always ran better in spring marathons then autumn races. What amazes me about running is i’m still always learning about what works and what does not. I realised this year that a large part of that - outside of work I enjoy volunteering/working at festivals. But these take me away from training a week at a time. Previously this might have been okay, but when trying to run under 3 hours, those were vital weeks I needed. Not to mention having to build back into training.
So i’m learning that there’s a few bad habits that I got away with running slower marathons, that I can’t get away with running at a faster pace.
What really threw a spanner in the works though was I also caught Covid for the first time during this block. That probably took maybe 4 weeks of good training away from me. I knew then that any autumn goals i’d set, they were done. My motivation took a hit - but then someone reminded me, it’s just a race. There’s always another race. Sometimes it can feel like running is my whole life. And whilst I love it, it’s just running.
That helped to shift my focus. I ran GNR and had an opportunity to pace a friend to under 2 hours (1:59:44) something I wouldn’t have done in the middle of training. I started looking at the rest of this block as the starting point for spring 2023.
Which brings me to race day. Now i’d be lying if I said the thought about hammering it round hadn’t crossed my mind. But i’m also running NYC in 3 weeks, and one of my main goals coming out of York was to be in good condition to go and enjoy that. So i settled on 3:40 as a do-able time. The first 25K were very smooth. I just ran to HR and kept around 162-163BPM. But my days, the wind and the hills on this course! 25-35K were more of a struggle. I think i’d under fuelled a little also, maybe thinking if this was an ‘easy’ effort run It didn’t matter - it did. Around 35K, I happened to come across another friend - He was in a bad way. Not wanting to over do it myself, this was a perfect opportunity to slow it down and pace him to the finish. I say pace, it was more me shouting at him to keep going. haha.
Clocked the finish at 03:37:44. A far cry from my personal best (03:13) but a great starting point to build upon. And now I can go off and enjoy NYC and soak that in.
What I really enjoyed the most though is hearing all about everyone else’s incredible results yesterday. Whether it went your way or it didn’t, know that it’s inspiring to people like me to keep pushing. Congrats to you all.
Next is our Ladies 3rd place
RACE REPORT
The build up
Starting with the build-up, taking into account a few factors such as looking at what has worked for the previous marathon build ups, the times I can commit to training with a young child and full-time busy job, we changed the format of my training week slightly for this build up. It still had all the elements we usually had but over a different period of time, working on a two-week cycle, with one week my main session was a long run with elements of MP and one week a faster paced session and a long run. We started with this mid July and towards the end of August, we started to see some real signs of progress in my runs, based on HR and pace, indicating I was getting into some good shape. We then tried to replicate what we did at Gilberdyke the previous year, with a 10-mile warm up followed by the race at the same heart rate. The difference was huge and in a positive way! Which left us confident that the adaptations, we had made were making a difference. Need to say a big thanks to Disco, Dave and Lee who ran their Sunday long runs at my MP with me at times to help out with this and Jen for supporting with drinks and fuelling. Great team effort.
Then on the Sunday prior to York, on our last 90 min easy run, my heart rate was a slightly high but nothing to be overly concerned, the following few days my HRV dropped to its lowest point and by Tuesday I was starting to feel under the weather. I did my last session on the Tuesday evening and my heart rate v pace was still looking ok. I took a day off on Wednesday, in the hope all my other data, HRV, RHR etc would start to look more positive, however, my HRV continued to drop and RHR got higher. By Thursday/ Friday I was quite poorly, so a great lesson, in actually how reliable HRV is, as this picked up my illness several days before I actually felt physically poorly and meant we were able to start putting things in place to try and make the start line, which included a significant amount of sleep, hydration, resting and eating well to limit the damage. On Friday, I thought York was pretty much game over, however, Saturday I had picked up a little. So, on Sunday morning, I woke and thought I would give it a go, although do admit at one point walking to the start, saying to Dave I'm not sure I should run, as I felt rough. He was confident though I would be able to get something from it!
The race
I had readjusted my expectations even to run 30 mins slower than planned just to make sure I finished so I didn't feel the usual nerves on the start line.
As we started, every one shot off the down the hill, but I had learnt from last time, that they soon slow down. I felt OK as we set off and had a change of thought to have a reasonable attempt at it. I've trained hard, so "why not" was the exact thought. I set off steady and by mile 10/11 had managed to move into 3rd place. However, at the first turnaround, could see 4th was still hanging on. When we hit mile 14 and the long drag up, the wind hit us (we knew it was windy, but it was windier than i expected). At mile 14 there is still a long way to go, so I kept my heart rate at what I knew I could hold and forgot about the pace, whilst wishing there was someone to shelter behind! The wind felt relentless in that second half and I felt I had slowed far more than I actually did. At 40k, I realised I was still on for under 3 hours and was still in third, so knew I just had to hold it! Finishing that one felt better than a PB run and felt proud of myself for giving it a go. Unlike most runs, I feel quite content that I could not have done anything better/ different - which as runners its not often we feel that so will savour that for a few days.
It was a great team effort and great day out, seeing so many of the group run, with their own personal achievements and others who came to support on the course throughout the morning.
I cannot thank Dave enough for encouraging me to still give Sunday a go, he was right.
And for those who find the fuelling bit interesting.....I had Maurten Solid bar 60 mins before, a Maurten gel 30 mins before, 4 Maurten gels at 4-mile intervals and then caffeine Maurten gel at 20 miles, so 190g carbs, then water every 3 miles, with electrolytes at 6, 12 and 18. For ladies reading, the On shorts are perfect for a marathon fitting all that in the pockets!
Whats next......
No firm plans, but think a winter of working on the shorter faster stuff with some mud thrown in and look to target an autumn marathon next year!
