i picked up Howard who was pacing me and drove to chester. It was really easy to get to park up and head to the start of the course. It was well organised, Howard picked up his number we did a shirt warm up and ducked under the railing and into the start just behind the 3:30 group. Watch lost reception just before the start but kicked in again about 30seconds after I crossed the start line.
It was difficult to get past people on the race track as soon as we got into the town found the right pace we were a little faster than planned originally. But feeling good I got a cheer from Cath and Pete who we’re doing the metric marathon and also of warren. It was good to get out into the countryside a great route we saw Paul Platt about 4 miles in I was still running strong he was in our eye line for about 3 miles I think we were running about same pace as we never closed but he didn’t get to far away. Howard was doing rubbish at pacing not a single mile was what it was supposed to be but I was glad he was there. Was good to chat to him round the course. 14 miles in we had a minute in hand over where I wanted to be. Then my race took a turn for the worse.
I finished my drink with zero tabs in and had second gel. Both had been used beforehand on marathons no problems at all. About 1/2 smile after I got a massive pain in right side under ribs. I was coughing burping and choking. I was stop start unable to get breath back. I wanted to be sick just to clear it and carry on running. I ran a little but when I tried to pick up the pace pain again it took me till about mile 18 to get going again. Catching the metric runners and passing them was great I caught jonny from Pennington flash I also caught saw Cath on the turn around inmust of passed Pete as he finished after me. The last part of the course was hilly Howard was doing his best to drag me round and encourage me . I was close to getting under 3:30 as we finally got back on the the race course I tried to sprint to the end but didn’t quite have it official time was 3:30:06 an improvement of nearly 6 minutes over Manchester 27 minutes off from Malaga last December.
Now rest,recover and focus on ironman
http://www.virginmoneygiving.com/greenyspunk
https://www.strava.com/activities/406699415
therunningpunk 