Training Log Archive: loefaas

Event: ING New York City Marathon
 

So came the big day in the big apple! Early morning, left the hotel at 5:15AM to go to the pickup location in central manhattan. From there it was bus caravan with all elite-athletes escorted by a number of police cars to our meeting point at Staten island. Arrived there about 2h before the start, nice to have warm tents, some food and plenty of time for the last preparations (vaseline on vulnerable areas). Short jog before going to the start, we arrived at the start location about 30min before the start, so time for some more easy warm-up and some strides there.

Legs felt easy and rest of body good to. A bit chilly and windy weather but not as bad as I had expected at the start, as the wind came from the side into verrazano bridge so not a headwind in the first hill up on the bridge.

Start went off and we pretty soon formed a group of 8-10 runners from the sub-elite group. The first mile up to the top of the bridge wasn't as tough as I had expected (about 45m of climb), from that there was 3 of the guys that did most of the work in the front of the group, I tried to run smart and stayed in the back of the pack since from the bottom of the bridge and through Brooklyn we were mostly running straight into the wind (about 6m/s wind). Passed 5km in just over 17min, so a little faster than planned (~17:15).

Our group stayed together for the coming 5k which was done in 16:43, so a speed up and well below my goal pace.

Nice pic of our group at mile7 (courtesy to bklynjosh)


Passing through Brooklyn downtown there was a huge crowd and the german Holger got a little enthusiastic and pushed the pace up Clinton Hill, here I had to let the group go since I was already running close to the limit and didn't want to push in the uphill. Here Mårten B already had dropped off from the group so I ended up in a vaccum bymyself.

Could keep the pace alone quite ok and passed 15km in 50.49 (16.59) and 20km in 1.08.08 (17.19). At this point I was about 40s faster compared to Frankfurt last year. But here the tougher part of this course starts.
At the half-passage comes first the bridge going between Brooklyn and Queens. About 3km later comes then the Queensboro bridge going into Manhattan. At this point (~23.5km) I was caught by three guys coming from the back, we meant some help with the speed again. The part through Queens (20-25km) became the first slower part in 17:52.

Going into Manhattan with the huge crowd and help from the other guys meant a speed-up again. But going north on 1st Av meant once more straight into the headwind, still the 5k between 25-30k was done in 17:21. But just before the 30k mark our small group split up, with one guy going off in the front, one guy dropping off and me and another left. Too bad for me he was very short so didn't have so much shelter behind him, still nice with help with the pace. Managed to stay with him to the Bronx, until loosing him between km 32 and km 33. Now I started to slow considerable, mostly on the bridges going into and out of Bronx and the 5km between 30 to 35 was slow 18:28. And now the really tough part starts, going up from Harlem to Central park, a climb of about 30m. But feeling much worse after more than 35km of running. The pace dropped considerably here (km 38 on 4min flat), still I passed a couple of people from the elite-elite group, and didn't get passed by anyone. Had one small feeling of cramp at 36km but nothing severe, instead it was a sticking in the chest and hard to breath that was stopping me up the hill. The 5km ending at 40km I did in 18:53, only 2.2km to go on undulating roads around the south end of central park now. An ok finish with the last 2.2km in 8:13 ending up in a total time of 2:28.55.
Not as fast as I had hoped but still really satisfied with the run and was placed about 32 among the men which is really good, most guys around me had personal best in the range 2:20-2:25. Tough course and even tougher with the wind today.

Comparing the pacing today with my previous marathons (marathon splits) I probably run to fast between 5km and 20km this time. In frankfurt last year which is my best time, I was slower both compared to this race and compared to sthlm 2011 to 30km, but still it is the fastest by 1.5min, showing the importance of being strong from 30km to the finish (even though in Frankfurt my last 10km wasn't that fast either).

C • Nice! Grattis!!! 8

Marathon - Splits

Nice and easy run today. Good legs, lovely weather and nice views. :-)

Last training on Swedish grounds, have been cheating with the strength training last couple of weeks, and my back reminded me yesterday. So an short session in the gym today with cleans and squats to reactivate the muscles again.

Off to New York tomorrow. Never been this prepared for a marathon before, will be interesting to see if it gives results.

A little over 4500km of running from Frankfurt marathon last year. And almost managed the goal of on average 15km running per day between Stockholm marathon this year and New York.

Bib number 274 is the one to follow. :-)

C • NYC Marathon 4

C • Snart dax! 2

Last hard day. 1k-2k-3k-2k-1k-1k with Jonatan, Hugo, Rassmus and Grahl. Felt very easy first half, increased the pace on the last three and still felt good.