If you have read Part 1, you may be thinking 'bloody hell Ray, you haven't won an Olympic medal' I admit it may seem that I am dramatising this heroic achievement. I am also aware that there were 4,835 people in front of me so my time may not be that special. If I may I would just like to explain why this meant so much to me.
As some of you may be aware, I was fortunate enough to be selected by Men's Running magazine to be part of 'Project 26.2' where they selected 5 men running a Marathon and provided all the help and guidance you could need to achieve their goals. I didn't think my goal was too ambitious bearing in mind that I had done two marathons 13 & 15 years ago and had managed 04:30 with basic and probably not very structured training.
So I had a physio, nutrition running apparel and a qualified coach (Nick Anderson) that set me a programme to achieve my goal. I was taught about core strength, interval sessions, speed session, recovery runs. During this training I managed a 01:38 Half Marathon and a 20 mile race in 03:01. So my training was definitely showing the benefits. This in fact in hindsight was probably my downfall. Everything was going so well, I was over confident that I would achieve a sub4, in fact I changed my target and was going for a 03:45. Oh was I brought down to earth with a bump. Having done 16 miles in the London Marathon at a consistent average of 08:35 min/miles the wheels slowly began to fall off and the rest as they say is history.
I was gutted at the time and despite getting a new PB, I felt I had let a lot of people down. So this time I was determined not to make the same mistake.
Within a week of what I saw as a failure I was looking for a Marathon for the latter part of the year to attempt a sub4 again. Valencia was my chosen race.
I followed a similar schedule to what I had done for the London with slightly less races (Nick had raised his concerns that I was maybe doing too many races and needed to take some of these slowly) In truth, I probably didn't do as much as I would have liked and even had an enforced 10 days without any running due to illness right when I was due to do a long slow run. However, by following Nick's concepts and actually doing what I should have done in the London Marathon on race day, I achieved a sub4!
Could I have gone quicker? Maybe? but I learnt that for the majority of runners, the Marathon needs to be treated with due respect not only with the training and prep but the actual running on the day.
If Nick happens to be reading this, I am sure he wouldn't say this to my face as he is too much of a gentleman, but I am sure he is thinking 'Yes Ray you div, if you had stuck to the plan and done this in the first place you would have more than likely had a sub4 in the London Marathon'
Well, valuable lesson learnt When I was having my post race beer with Mich my wife, I said "Thank God I have got that sub4" she replied, "Yes but what is your next target going to be" She know me too well :-)
For me that is the beauty of running. Unless you are Mo Farah or Patrick Makau there is probably going to be somebody better or faster than you. So your race is always you against the clock, or you against yourself. Irrespective of everybody else in a race you can set your own goal whether it be to get round and finish, finish without walking, a sub4 or a PB?
My next goal? Simple, beat 03:58:47 :-)
TJH
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