This year's course was slightly faster as it was more open and downhill.
The squeeze on the tram was something as they had offered free tram rides to everyone doing the half and full marathon and it seemed that every single competitor chose that mode of transport.
I was squashed next to a pair of Italien ladies who looked like they might be rather good, but not as good as Tenke.
I got into the "Pen A" no problemo and shuffled to the back thinking this was the 1:29 boundary. However, by 10mins to go I was joined by a few cotton shirts and the same guy with the 1:40 balloon. I suddenly decided I did not want to run out with the 1:40 guy as per the original race plan and thought more about not going too close to the 1:30 guy. But there was no way through the wall of people.
The start was a little bumpy and I nearly got pushed over, but recovered ok and quickly found what I thought was an ok pace. I decided to have a gel a half way and split the race into three 7km sections. First 7 not too fast, 2nd make some time on the downhill and 3rd just stay with it.
After about 1km a bloke in a red cap had a pee in a hedge. He then sprinted - I mean it sprinted - back to the race - I think he was trying to catch the 1:30 balloon. The guy next to me cracked up and so we had a laugh about that and that relaxed me quite a bit.
Plenty of kids in the villages and so a few hi 5s to break up the pounding.
The full marathon finishes on the same course and suddenly we merged. That made the paths blocked and a group of us pushed our way past the various slower pace makers for the full marathon. I tried to get some more pace out of the hills and took a gel at 11km.
This section was good - my splits for 9, 10 and 11km so me well under 7min mile pace - very pleased with that.
Then I was on familiar territory, the lake, the view all fine and from the yacht club in to Geneva I know every step and again powered through no problem. Decided to take another gel at 16km. I should have probably taken it a shade sooner. The route was then very twisty around the city and while I knew all the roads it was annoying to go around in circles when the finish was visible. At 18km I lost it slightly and felt very tired and cross with the route.
As we crossed the pont de l'Ile I hear a woman on a bike shout in French "There is no-one in front of Tenke!" Great news and that lifted my spirits.
Then I got it back together and pushed for home.
Long way along the last drag to the finish, but I could not help getting faster and faster and one guy in a green top was waving to the crowd as I flew past him to nip over the line ahead with a filp jump for the line camera!
After my calves cramped up and I need some attention to sort that out. But all good now.!
Garmin had me at 01:34:19 full details here, Note the ave hrt, it did not get high until 9miles then the drift to max started and one minute faster than last year.
Official Results have me a little slower. But look at the splits, seriously negative. I was 94th for the last 5km.
26.45 169.¦ 18.25 129.¦ 31.39 110.¦ 17.54 94.
Tenke won a Garmin for being the first lady home in 1:20 - amazing stuff as usual considering the lack of training.
124 in my age group and 333 overall. That's the 2012 London Marathon training well under way!!
1 comment:
well done, now that's inspiring!
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