Spring marathon club

[Runningonempty84]

Anyone want to join?
There must be lots of us getting into the high mileage now, in prep for London/Manchester/Edinburgh...or any of the other spring marathons.

How's it going? Are you aiming for a time? And are you finding the long runs so tiring?!

That's probably a wise decision TriSkirun. Hope that you feel better soon.

I'm certainly not flying this week (though well done ferret!). Few short runs and plan for long run today stymied by rain and me not feeling very well.

Hope to get out for a 20 miler or so this weekend.

Doing a half this weekend. I'm pretty tired though and doing a run on Saturday as well so I dunno about the likelihood of a good time. I feel like I need a pb for a bit of a boost, this weather is really depressing!

Good luck with your half, @SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic - is it a PB course? I've got one next weekend; also hoping to cash in a PB before the marathon in April.

Got 22 miles to do in the morning. Not feeling that tempting right now!!

It's not flat, I would say 'gently undulating'. First half net uphill, second half net downhill. I think it could be a pb course, my half time is no great shakes and my last pb attempt got cut by a mile for a bomb scare 😂 so I think I'm gonna find the 2 hour pacer and see how long I can hang on for.

@Runningonempty84 how did your 22 go? It brightened up a lot here mid morning so I hope you got the benefit of some of that where you are!

Sadly I was out long before it brightened up, and did 22 hilly miles in torrential rain. And most of it in the dark!! Fair to say I'm broken. In a good way

Good luck with your half! Why not stick with the 2hr pacer til 11 miles and then leave them for dust, sprinting all the way home?

Oh no! Still at least it's done running look after yourself for the rest of the day.

Yeah if only I could hope to leave the 2hr pacer for dust with a sprint. That's gonna be a tall order, I'm a 2:05 lady on a good day

Very impressed runningonempty.

I chickened out (again) today but really must go tomorrow. Been over two weeks since I did a long run. Hoping that the forecast holds...

Just in from 21 miles. Good weather for me, cold and bright, but I really struggled with perimenopausal symptoms.

Aside from more aches and pains than usual, I sort of forgot what I was doing a couple of times and just stopped and stared into space!

Glad it's behind me, although have started wondering why I'm doing another marathon...

Who got a 1:57:35 pb at their half marathon today?!

Me! Still can't quite believe it

Oh well done SexIs!

The boost that you were hoping for !

Totally Bflat I thought I might best my previous 2:03 but a full 6 mins faster, I am SO happy.

The 2hr pacer was rubbish though. Set off way too fast, I had to let him go and run my own race in the end. Obviously caught him up and overtook him though!

Wow, massive well done SexIs ! Six minutes off a half is huge. And a massive boost for the marathon too.
Are you mentally adjusting the marathon goal yet?!

Maybe a little Running I might have several 'marathon time predictor' tabs open on my laptop. Varies from 4:20-4:25. I would love a 4:20! Wow.

I think what I might do is use the 20 mile next weekend as a test and see how the revised pace holds up. Crazy how there's only 10 seconds per km between them!

I'm obsessed with calculating different finish times and splits too! And you're right, what seems like a minor adjustment in pace makes for a very different finish time.

I still can't decide which MP to aim for - it's anything between 8min and 8:15 at the moment. Guess I'll have to make my mind up soon...

Did you say you were doing a half next week Running? Hopefully that will give you some idea about what to aim for, though I guess it could give you more of a dilemma depending how it goes!

Some pace calculators were crazy optimistic, so I have ignored those. I think a lot are set up for faster runners tbh - 4:08 one of them came up with. I mean, that's ridiculous

Sure am, SexIs - well remembered! Also hoping to follow in your footsteps and nab a PB. Very much hoping for sub 1:35. If that happens, I'll be more confident about aiming for 3:35 or even 3:30 in Manchester. But I don't want to get ahead of myself...

18 done today, longest ever. It was actually 18.5 but I walked the last half a mile as legs were about to give up. Felt hard but not too hard. also managed to meet up with two different groups of friends along the way so I only did about 5 on my own.

And the weather was nice for a change.

Well done @SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic. I've only been sub 2hr once and that was by 20 seconds. once the marathon is out of the way, a half PB is a target.

Super well done Potplant you're really into the long runs now. It makes such a difference running with friends especially towards the end of your long run.

Yeah I wasn't anticipating a HM on at this stage, thought post marathon it might be likely. Of course, now I'm in the trap of thinking 'well if I can do that at the end of marathon training, what can I do with a bit of rest and so on'. Dangerous!

Well done SexIs

I did a Half this weekend to - first half of it went really well, second was slower than I had hoped (PB for that course, but 10mins off my all-time PB). But important point was that I felt strong all the way round.

I’m now planning 16-18 mile runs for next few weeks, then up to the big 20/22 runs last week March and first week April.

But with news of cancellation of all but the elite in Tokyo, I am beginning to worry about London (40,000 runners; 750,000 est spectators) falling foul of ‘no big crowd’ rulings. I have a charity place, so assume i won’t be able to defer

(Silver Bond place, so charity won’t get another runner for another 5 years, so a bit crap for them)

Glad your half went well iVampire

I too am worried about big race cancellations. I'm hoping Manchester is too soon for any measures like that to kick in.

I would hope that London wouldn't be. To me it seems too big to cancel, a bit like them cancelling the Olympics. But since Tokyo got cut to elite only I admit the possibility seems greater. Will keep fingers crossed.

Halfway house would be elite and charity places only, with ballot places all being deferred to next year. But that would still be a massive event.

Or moving it to autumn - but finding another date for a central London road-closed event won’t be easy.

Or just deferring everyone. Mucks up next years allocations, and of course there will be people who aren’t regular runners who might not want to try to reach Marathon fitness a second time)

It’s also the 40th year - do a real embuggeration in terms of the celebratory mood it would otherwise have had in spades.

I think I’ll be quite disappointed if they cancel. I’ve gone from thinking I’m going to die of shame on the sweeper bus, to looking up pace charts and thinking 5 hours is achievable.

Rome and Paris have been cancelled. Shit.

Are they cancelled or postponed?