Sunday 2 October 2011

Luberon marathon 2011


By a miracle, the knees were sorted, so the monumental planning that went into this race went ahead: I really did try to get everything right, even organising routes for my family and ensuring they had what they needed. Only of course everything did not go right. Cutting to the chase: I got a time of 3:15, sounds pretty reasonable? But a 17 minute positive split is probably not what it's about, right?! So apart from going too fast in the first half, what else? Inconsistent marshalling. Sometimes they were pointing in the opposite direction to the signs and generally left me genuinely praying that I was actually on the right route. At one point I definite was not. The wheels came off properly in the latter half as I encountered what seemed to be bigger and bigger hills and the temperatures cranked up toward 30, cramps, dehydration and even walking. Boo hoo hoo. What did go well (apart from my first half splits)? Wonderful Provencal scenery, diversity of landscapes and running surfaces ... and nutrition! Yes this was my one big success of the day, because unlike all of my other recent long runs, everything stayed where it was supposed to, and my emergency tissues lived to fight another day ;)
This was my second marathon, and yet unlike the Half, I feel i have yet to run one properly where I know I am in control of IT rather than the other way around. Role on spring season!