Third successive Sunday race and it has rained heavily on route to car park and Race HQ. And for the third time it cleared before the race started. I was amazed at how quickly the route dried out. In the 8.75mile circuit. There was only one puddle. We were directed into a holding pen where we lined up according to our estimated finishes times, then walked out onto the road for the start. Smart move as this meant we weren't milling on the road and holding up traffic ahead of the start, but with the start being on traffic baring road there was no timing mat at the start, so I'm a little confused as to where the start line actually was. The race involved 3 circuits around a rounte that departed Lea Manor Recreation centre, cut round housing estate lanes and parks before running northbound alongside the A6 to Streetly where it was a rurual route to Leagrave to then cut alongside another park to complete the lap. We'd received a few comments about Luton being unsafe, but this route seemed fine. There had been 800 individual entries plus a further 200 Three person relay teams. The rain must have put a lot of people off as there were only 400-450 individual finishers. Just as well the numbers were down as the first 3 miles were narrow and technical with little opportunity to overtake. I used the conjested start as an opportunity to restrain myself and warm up before trying to settling into an 8mpm pace which I then held upto 20 miles. I slowed noticeably in miles 21 and 22 where a hill caused me to walk. I then walked again for a little bit at 23 miles and then up a hill within mile 24. Pleased to report that I ran from the final water station to the finish and posted a time of 3:42:59 (official gun time). I'm content with that it's only 3 minutes off my PB. I'd traveled down with JT and Philippa Rudd they posted times of 4:14:59 and 4:18:35 respectively, both 15+ minutes off their PBs. Does that mean my time was 10-15 minutes off a potential PB?
Sunday 13 December 2009
Luton Marathon, Sunday 6th December
Third successive Sunday race and it has rained heavily on route to car park and Race HQ. And for the third time it cleared before the race started. I was amazed at how quickly the route dried out. In the 8.75mile circuit. There was only one puddle. We were directed into a holding pen where we lined up according to our estimated finishes times, then walked out onto the road for the start. Smart move as this meant we weren't milling on the road and holding up traffic ahead of the start, but with the start being on traffic baring road there was no timing mat at the start, so I'm a little confused as to where the start line actually was. The race involved 3 circuits around a rounte that departed Lea Manor Recreation centre, cut round housing estate lanes and parks before running northbound alongside the A6 to Streetly where it was a rurual route to Leagrave to then cut alongside another park to complete the lap. We'd received a few comments about Luton being unsafe, but this route seemed fine. There had been 800 individual entries plus a further 200 Three person relay teams. The rain must have put a lot of people off as there were only 400-450 individual finishers. Just as well the numbers were down as the first 3 miles were narrow and technical with little opportunity to overtake. I used the conjested start as an opportunity to restrain myself and warm up before trying to settling into an 8mpm pace which I then held upto 20 miles. I slowed noticeably in miles 21 and 22 where a hill caused me to walk. I then walked again for a little bit at 23 miles and then up a hill within mile 24. Pleased to report that I ran from the final water station to the finish and posted a time of 3:42:59 (official gun time). I'm content with that it's only 3 minutes off my PB. I'd traveled down with JT and Philippa Rudd they posted times of 4:14:59 and 4:18:35 respectively, both 15+ minutes off their PBs. Does that mean my time was 10-15 minutes off a potential PB?
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