Sex...
Get your minds out of the gutter, I'm not that sort of girl!
Sometimes it's good to be a girly. I've got hold of a copy of the results from yesterday, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. Although the official time gives me a couple of extra seconds than my watch did (and the number I saw as I ran under the finish) I'll live with that. 1:55:44 is hardly to be sniffed at. What is more interesting is my overall placing. For the full race I came in 717th out of 1110 finishers, but I also worked out my position out of the women, which was far more impressive. Let's ignore all the men (always sound advice!). The numbers were done by me counting through the results by hand, so may be one or two out, but hopefully not too far. Out of 319 women I finished 114th. That's pretty near (although just outside) the top third! In my first half marathon!
Not bad at all for a former fat chick! I've never been good at sport. Enthusiastic from time to time, vaguely passable as I improved a little, but nearly in the top third for a half marathon? On my first attempt? That's actually more than just passable or respectable, it's quite good. I'm still in shock from that realisation. Looking at the runners world forum thread for the event, my time was more than passable and I was nowhere near the slowest of the people who posted on there.
I like being able to ignore the speedy blokes when working this stuff out.
I also had a play with the time prediction calculators last night. Based on yesterday's time one predicted a marathon time of 3:59 and another came up with 4:02! How amazing would it be to break 4 hours? I suspect that marathon time predictions are probably far less accurate because of the ability to crash and burn badly (and also because a slow start is more likely in a big city race, and would eat away precious minutes), but if I train well it's actually starting to look like a possibility. I know that I can get faster than I'm running at the moment, so if I can build my speed up at the same time as I improve my endurance I might be looking at a time to be really proud of. Just finishing is still the main aim, but that number's just sitting there now, willing me to aim for it. I'm certainly tempted to pick a more ambitious training schedule than I previously had earmarked.
(I'm trying not to get over ambitious and think about the London womens Good For Age automatic qualification time of 3:45. Not just yet anyway, but maybe once I've got the first marathon out of the way...)
I'm also looking to see if I can find another half marathon to fit in before the marathon as part of my training, or if not a 10 (or 15?) miler. I found the whole experience strangely enjoyable, and would like to get some more longer distances than 10k under my belt before September. I'm actually seriously considering the Blackpool half in June as it's pretty much the same course (and therefore a good measure of my progress), the only problem is that it's the week before I already have a 10k planned. What I might do is see how I recover this week from yesterday's run and see whether I think doubling up is remotely feasible. If I feel like I'd be able to run 10k by the weekend then I might go for it.
Not that I'm planning to run again just yet, I'll have a few days of other exercise for a change!
Sometimes it's good to be a girly. I've got hold of a copy of the results from yesterday, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. Although the official time gives me a couple of extra seconds than my watch did (and the number I saw as I ran under the finish) I'll live with that. 1:55:44 is hardly to be sniffed at. What is more interesting is my overall placing. For the full race I came in 717th out of 1110 finishers, but I also worked out my position out of the women, which was far more impressive. Let's ignore all the men (always sound advice!). The numbers were done by me counting through the results by hand, so may be one or two out, but hopefully not too far. Out of 319 women I finished 114th. That's pretty near (although just outside) the top third! In my first half marathon!
Not bad at all for a former fat chick! I've never been good at sport. Enthusiastic from time to time, vaguely passable as I improved a little, but nearly in the top third for a half marathon? On my first attempt? That's actually more than just passable or respectable, it's quite good. I'm still in shock from that realisation. Looking at the runners world forum thread for the event, my time was more than passable and I was nowhere near the slowest of the people who posted on there.
I like being able to ignore the speedy blokes when working this stuff out.
I also had a play with the time prediction calculators last night. Based on yesterday's time one predicted a marathon time of 3:59 and another came up with 4:02! How amazing would it be to break 4 hours? I suspect that marathon time predictions are probably far less accurate because of the ability to crash and burn badly (and also because a slow start is more likely in a big city race, and would eat away precious minutes), but if I train well it's actually starting to look like a possibility. I know that I can get faster than I'm running at the moment, so if I can build my speed up at the same time as I improve my endurance I might be looking at a time to be really proud of. Just finishing is still the main aim, but that number's just sitting there now, willing me to aim for it. I'm certainly tempted to pick a more ambitious training schedule than I previously had earmarked.
(I'm trying not to get over ambitious and think about the London womens Good For Age automatic qualification time of 3:45. Not just yet anyway, but maybe once I've got the first marathon out of the way...)
I'm also looking to see if I can find another half marathon to fit in before the marathon as part of my training, or if not a 10 (or 15?) miler. I found the whole experience strangely enjoyable, and would like to get some more longer distances than 10k under my belt before September. I'm actually seriously considering the Blackpool half in June as it's pretty much the same course (and therefore a good measure of my progress), the only problem is that it's the week before I already have a 10k planned. What I might do is see how I recover this week from yesterday's run and see whether I think doubling up is remotely feasible. If I feel like I'd be able to run 10k by the weekend then I might go for it.
Not that I'm planning to run again just yet, I'll have a few days of other exercise for a change!
posted by YP at 7:04 PM
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