Down and Out in London and Paris
Congratulation Marahashers, so how was it for you? From what I can work out:
Paris
http://www.asochallenge.com/us/classement.html
Jesus 03:16:08
Jeremy 03:21:04
Chris 03:24:48
Steve (Australia) 03:43:30
Winston - No chip, no time, allegedly 3:50 - 3:59 ish but who can tell.
Miri 04:52:29
Mike 03:59:06
Josie 04:42:06
Sarah with the little dog 04:04:49
Nat 04:07:28
Rotterdam
http://www.abnamromarathonrotterdam.com/report-2011/results-2011
Julia Forman: 4:04:24
London
http://results-2011.virginlondonmarathon.com/2011/
Hannah: 3:15:20
Chris R: 3:52:07
Hermione: 3:49:24
Owen: 4:08:50
Simon R: 3:57:49
Dave Timney, 3hrs, zero minutes and 47 seconds
Neil Bailey 5:51:42
There was some really great performances there - PBs despite the heat. And Dave Timney takes the hash record for closest PB to 3 hours without actually dipping under - that takes real talent.
How was it for me? - bloody awful - biggest car crash on the banks of the Seine since er....
Can't the French organise some nice cool weather for marathon day? I just don't do heat, I get so far and my body says nope, too hot, stop, and I have to stop. Mid 20s, scorchio sun, I got to 28km and that was that - lots of walking from there on in. But to be fair, I hadn't really done the training. The only bit of my training plan that I'd done enough of was long runs, and because I hadn't put the miles in in between, I was wiped out for days afterwards.
It got me thinking about what training has worked in the past.
As did Vernon, at the Blue Ball run on Friday, who asked, which Monday night hasher has the best marathon PB? I know for sure that the winner of that particular accolade is a very, very long way ahead of the pack, even if I don't know by how much exactly.
Tim Johnstone was slightly disappointed by his big marathon race in 1968. Only 2:28, and 8th, but it was in the high altitude Mexico Olympic Marathon. I think his marathon PB was around 2:13 - and around 61 minutes for the half - records for Monday night hashers that won't be beaten for a while yet.
When I first started hashing (15, cough, years ago), Tim was running with the Monday night hash, and I remember taking part in the occasional mid week training run... The pace would start at something that seemed impossibly slow and relaxed - the temptation was to push on ahead. But as the run went on, somehow without noticing, the pace got faster and faster, until half way round, it was quite competitive. Except the pace just got faster and faster, until you struggled to keep up, and then pushed yourself that little bit further. On one training run, I comfortably beat my half marathon PB... Tim's best advice to me for the marathon was to start slowly. But he also alluded to the level of training that was required to be competitive at the very top of athletics, and just how much difference this can make to performance at all levels. Tim left Cambridge to do something lawyer-like in Den Haag, but has been back in Cambridge since - maybe will be back on the Cantab hash one day!
Searching the web I came across this interview that I found quite interesting:
http://www.chosenrunning.com/blog/2011/1/6/tim-johnston-qa.html
Tim's advice for aspiring champions: "move to Addis Ababa and train with your head not your computer"
For the latter, I quite agree - my best marathon performance came when I didn't follow any type of plan, just had huge motivation, and sufficient time to run whenever I wanted to - and you then run as hard and as far as you body tells you is sensible. As for the altitude training - must get round to buying that ski appartement in Val Thorens...
The moral of the story is that there is probably still a long distance between marathon PB to date, and what might be possible. That will take a perfect training schedule and weather on the day that isn't hotter than, er, Paris any time I've tried running there... Amsterdam in October anyone?
posted by Chris Howell @ 12:33 AM
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