Abingdon - The Gory Details

First - an apology..

for not having written this sooner.. but long journeys and Night shifts once again got in the way.. but here we go.

The whole reason for running Abingdon was a fact finding mission for me...
How fit am I
What does 26.2 miles actually feel like
What else do I need to look at such as nutrition and hydration
How will I recover from such exertions

and so on and so forth..

It was a nice day too - fed well before the race started and arrived (despite an inadvertent micros detour - remind me that I should LISTEN to my navigator when she knows the way better than I do!!) with enough time to do the toilet thing and hand in bags - as well as meet up with a whole load of Forumites in the Grandstand.

Very relaxed!!

In the absence of my trusty HRM (I've managed to lose both mine and Womble's Chest straps), the plan was to run at a pace that was easy enough to be able to be ridiculously verbose, but also for me to run in as efficient a way as possible.
That seems to be around 8 min/mile Pace - so that's what I did..

The first few miles were, of course nice and easy - and after having seen RichK (from forum) twice - I mentioned to the girl I had been running alongside that it was amazing how he managed to remember everyone!!
It turned out that she was 'Mellifera' from Forum - and she was aiming for a time of 3:27
A quick calculation and I realised that we were likely to be running at about the same pace, but that she would probably leave me later on as I got tired - especially as I hadn't done enough training for any race - let alone a marathon. The first half marathon passed almost before I knew it - the pace was really comfortable, and I felt really rather good.. about 1:44 according to the clock at the roadside there

So far so good!!

A couple of miles later, Mellifera dropped back a bit - and I didn't see her again - I'm still not sure what happened.. but I didn't see her come past me later - Hmmmm!!

Miles 14,15,16, were absolutely fine too - saw RichK again at Mile 16 - He gets everywhere!!!!! - shouting encouragement and 'twas great to see a friendly face!

Mile 17 passed without incident - although I was starting to feel like I had done a bit of work by that point !!!!

Then in mile 18 I felt myself starting to slow - just a bit - but discernibly!! That's OK, I thought I was expecting that if was honest with myself. So I thought - lets just go with this and see how it goes... It was at this point that my breathing became heavier too - and if I'd had my HRM, I'm SURE I'd have seen a notable increase!!!!!
Miles 19 and 20 felt pretty much the same - slightly slower - a bit tired - slightly heavier breathing..
In fact - as I went past the 20 Mile marker I thought - "Excellent - only a 10K to go"

The next mile illustrated how much I hadn't trained enough - slowest mile split of the lot - and as I went up the slight incline at the 21 Mile marker, my Right calf cramped absolutely solid..

Tried stretching it out - didn't work - so I stopped and tried everything I could think of to recover my running legs - and then tried to walk it off..

The details of the next 5 miles - Rob - were indeed gory!!!!
Suffice it to say that if I tried to run AT ALL - the cramp thing just returned with a vengeance. So Mr Sensible Head arrived to say - Walk you Idiot - or you'll hurt yourself!!

So I did

To the end

I felt really unwell at the feed station after Mile 23 - Lactate washout I'm sure - and contemplated pulling out there. But a Litre of water and something to eat kept me going.
In each of the miles to the end various bits of me cramped and complained at the abuse - but I didn't take any heed (well not much)

I have to mention at this point the absolutely FANTASTIC Mister W - who had been riding around the course and supporting everyone. Between Miles 24 and 25, he saw me, and walked with me for a short while - and I appreciated that SO much at that point.

The Forum Guys were in the Grandstand shouting encouragement for all the Forum runners - and that final 300 meters really made me smile!!!!!!

What a BRILLIANT day
Even now I smile about the memory - and despite the self-inflicted physical hardships, I really enjoyed this
No, really - it was amazing

So.....
What did I learn...??

1. Marathons are not fun-runs!!!!!!!
2. I'm not fit enough to run a marathon yet (no surprise there!)
3. When I have the base fitness - I will be able to run a half decent time
4. I need to work out what I need for hydration and nutrition (and I have a MUCH better idea about that because of the ACTUAL experience of doing the distance)

I was really pleased with how I did - I ran well for 17 miles - well 20 miles really
before crashing and burning!!!
and I had a nice 5 mile warm down!!!!!
I have a MUCH clearer idea of what I need to do for London and what I want to achieve there
AND - I don't think I've done any silly damage to myself either

Excellent

Here are the numbers
I've put both the Garmin times and the Stopwatch times on..
Even though the GPS is inherently inaccurate - it will have measured each 'split' the same relative to itself, and a few of the mile markers were definitely in the wrong places!!!

Mile	Garmin	S/Watch	Time	Comment
1	7:58	8:27	8:27	.
2	7:40	7:45	16:12	.
3	7:39	7:52	24:04	.
4	7:43	7:49	31:54	.
5	7:48	7:59	39:54	.
6	7:54	7:58	47:52	.
7	7:46	9:39	57:31	Marker was WAY out!
8	7:55	6:08	1:03:40	.
9	7:53	7:51	1:11:32	.
10	7:47	7:59	1:19:32	.
11	7:59	7:58	1:27:30	Started on pre-prepared juice stuff
12	7:50	7:56	1:35:26	.
13	7:57	8:00	1:43:27	.
14	7:57	7:53	1:51:21	.
15	7:53	8:00	1:59:21	.
16	8:05	8:13	2:07:35	Bit of a hill in this mile
17	7:39	8:10	2:15:46	.
18	8:37	8:41	2:24:28	Started to slow - OK, just go with it!!
19	8:33	8:35	2:33:03	.
20	8:44	8:47	2:41:51	Thinks - 'Only a 10K to go - excellent'
21	10:12	10:58	2:52:50	Legs hurting - CRAMP at marker
22	18:41	19:59	3:12:49	.
23	14:55	15:03	3:27:53	.
24	17:53	20:02	3:47:52	Brill marshalls - made me smile :o)
25	19:01	17:47	4:05:43	.
26	15:30	16:32	4:22:16	.
26.2	9:52	3:33	4:25:24	Official time from the Website

Here's the Elevation Profile!!!!