18 Mile Long Run – I May Have Overestimated The Marathon

10. Jul, 2011 0 Comments

So today I was due an 11 mile run but since I haven’t ran a big run for a while (over 15 I call big) I really wanted to run 18 miles .

I set the alarm for 6:00am. Yes I must be crazy as I was lying in bed, I thought about just rolling over and back to sleep but then thought that all the effort I’m putting into my 1^st marathon training will be well worth it come marathon day. So I forced myself out of bed and had a crumpet to eat and a glass of water. I also took a bottle of Lucozade with me on the run for some added energy.

Out the door I went for 6:30am and it was amazingly bright outside but not too hot, I decided to run to bestwood park where there are some really big hills but I was to run through the back entrance and I’ve never ran that way before but I knew that I would have some hills to climb which would likely slow my miles down.

I was aiming to average 8 minute miles over the whole run but I really wanted to keep at the 8 min mile mark. I managed to keep to my goal and finish all 18 miles in a time of 2:22:44 and I finished the 1^st half 13.1 miles in 1:44 which was a minute under my goal.

I was running quite comfortably and every time I looked down at my Garmin Forerunner 305 it was saying 7:40-7:55. It only slowed down on the hills and out of all 18 miles there were 5 miles that were just over 8 mins. So I was happy with the result today and I also took about 1-2 mins of a previous 18 miler and with all the injuries lately I’m very pleased.

Overestimated the marathon

I knew the marathon is tough but running today I had to really dig in and concentrate to keep cranking out the miles, there were a few times when I wanted to call it a day. Mile 11 as I was only supposed to run 11 today. Mile 13, mile 15 and mile 16 but the last 2 miles running was really tough and I knew it was almost over so stuck with it and finished all 18 planned miles.

When I was running today I kept thinking how am I supposed to run another 8.2 miles at this pace to get me through the marathon in under 3:30 hours. Looking at my stats today I can see that I will need to either slow down or actually run the 8 min miles or that I may just go over the 3:30 and I don’t think I could bare that. I do know that the 2^nd half of the marathon is flat so I should be able to crank out the 8 min miles as long as I don’t burn myself out and rush the 1^st half.

Below are my mile splits and also I found it quite interesting to see that the steepest hill I climbed actually wasn’t as high as the previous one which was a shock. Although the steepest was short and the other went on for a while.