Before the full marathon in October I was advised to get in a few more official races to practice the race day protocol.  So without much need for further convincing back in June I eagerly trawled the internet and the pages of Runners’ World searching for races which matched with our training programme.  The result was entry into 2 more half marathons and a 10 K.

The first of these ‘practice’ races was on Sunday (09/08/15) in Clacton-on-Sea.

The Clacton-on-Sea Half had appealed to me because it was described as a flat course along the coast – much like the Lisbon Marathon will be. On top of that, British seaside towns fill me with nostalgia for my childhood and I thought I might get the chance to play in arcades or defy death in the amusement parks as well as consume a Mr Whippy.

I was excited to practice my pre-race protocol mostly since it includes a legitimate excuse stuff my face with meatball calzone (before a race it totally counts as carb loading).  Over dinner between delicious bites Andreas and I discussed race tactics.  I wanted to treat it like any other long run – i.e. go slowly, whereas Andreas wanted to try and best our time from the Liverpool ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ Half Marathon.  To be honest, I pretty much thought beating our previous time was a given.  During the Liverpool Half I had to stop to use the toilet and since I figured we were already behind schedule I also stopped to chat to friends that had come out to support us.  All this chatting and faffing and waiting in long portaloo queues in Liverpool must have added at least 10-15 minutes on to our time – I figured, with optimistic hindsight – so we can easily beat 2:29:17.  In the end, feeling wonderfully optimistic, throwing all caution to the wind and heroically passing on dessert I might add, we decided to aim for about 2:15:00 which is an average pace of about 6:30 mins/K. Easy eh?

Happily jumping from bed the next morning, eating our predetermined race day breakfast of banana and brioche bread and raring to go, we drove down to the race start with 45 minutes to spare.  Plenty of time to warm up, go to the loo etc. or so we thought.  The first hitch to the plan was the queue for the ladies – only 2 cubicles for a race with at least 600 or so people (!).  Inevitably we were late starting and despite good intentions I didn’t warm up.  Note: Warming up actually serves a purpose as I discovered after mile 8 when I had to keep stopping to stretch out tight leg muscles.

Anyway – long run in brief; it was hot, really hot for running (22-26°C) and whilst it definitely seemed easier than the Liverpool Half in the end it never really picked up.  What I mean is, whilst I was never at the point of feeling I can’t go on – in Liverpool at mile 10 I cried to Andreas that my legs hurt, hell my arms hurt, even my hair hurts and he smoothly replied ‘wasn’t that the point, it’s not meant to be easy’ and I reluctantly agreed and carried on – I also never had a moment like in Krakow where I felt like I was really doing this (!).  My theory is the heat had baked that part of my brain to a crisp.  Kilometres drifted by without me really being aware of what was happening.  2:15:00 came and went without notice.

The last 2 K on red tarmac was the worst, not because I was tired or had aching muscles but because the sun was directly overhead in a perfectly blue sky and beaming radiation down harshly upon us.  The coastal breeze was only an occasional lick of even hotter air pushing against you and the road was superheated so it was like running on fire.  I think it is the first time I have been at the seaside and wished for a cloud or two to appear above us – or perhaps a quick thunderstorm would be nice.  Still, on the other hand, you couldn’t deny that it was a glorious day and there was good support along the route.  It is always pleasant to hear “good job guys” and clapping from random strangers.  And, I suppose, I shouldn’t really complain about the weather considering we are running the Marathon in Lisbon, Portugal.  If anything, I should consider it good temperature conditioning.

The end result was 2:27:11, over 2 minutes off our previous record and I can honestly say we worked for every second of that!

Week 6: Total mileage for the week was 37 K (23 miles), total running time was 4:21