Auckland Marathon 2008

This weekend I ran the Auckland Marathon. This was my 9th marathon, and my 3rd Auckland marathon.

It was also my fastest marathon to date. I ran a 3:38:53, beating my previous record of 3:48:11 by almost 10 minutes! At the same time, I took back the crown from my friend Craig in our little marathon competition.

I think I was probably in the best long distance shape I've ever been in going into this. I was in good shape for my first marathon (and second fastest) in 2002, but I took about 6 weeks off running just before the race with a heel injury (which was annoyingly not even running related - long story). So thanks to Kel, Paul, Staton, Benny, Haydn, and all my training partners for that!

The race conditions were excellent, they'd been forecasting rain, but it never showed up. There was a bit of a headwind on the last 10k or so, and the sun warmed things up a bit in the last hour, but I definitely can't complain about the weather.

Our pace was a bit of a change in plans. My friend Paul and I had been doing long runs at about 5:50-6:00 Km pace. My weekday runs varied anywhere from 5:15 to 6:15. But after seeing Craig's results in the Marine Corp Marathon the weekend before, that had to move up a little. I decided that since Craig had run a 3:50, I might as well set a PR and break 3:48. So I checked with Paul, who was more than happy to shoot for that, and I grabbed pace bands for 3:45.

Once the race started, we settled in behind a pace group leader for a 1:50 half marathon. Strangely, that felt a little bit slow, so we passed her up and pushed on slightly faster. We ran quite evenly, give or take a bit for hills, and by the halfway point, we'd built up about a 6 minute buffer on our 3:45 goal.

By about 24 K, Paul was starting to feel the impact of the faster pace. His goal was sub 4:00 so I pushed on ahead.

At about 30 K I realized that I had 1 hour and 5 minutes to do 12k if I was going to hit my goal of 3:45. That was not a happy hour to look forward to at that point, so I focused on doing the next kilometer in under 5 minutes, and the next, and so on. I saw Paul again about a minute behind me from the out-and-back turnaround point, so that was good!

With about 3K to go I got the idea that I could break 3:40 if I just held it together for a couple more Ks. I choked down half a cup of water at the last stop and finished with the fastest 3Ks I've done in any marathon finish! It even ended up with a bit of a sprint at the end as I saw that my gun time would be just under 3:40 as well!

I didn't see Paul at the finish line, but I heard the next day at work that he'd come in at 3:58! Kel ran the quarter marathon (10K + change) in 1:15 (a PR for her as well), so a great day all around.

Km   Elapsed    Split Notes
1        ???   (5:21)
2      10:43   (5:21) 10:43
3      15:26    4:43
4      20:55    5:28  w 
5      25:32    4:37
6      30:23    4:50
7      35:10    4:46
8      40:10    5:00  w
9        ???   (5:17) -
10     50:46   (5:17) 10:35
11     55:43    4:56  
12   1:01:14    5:31
13       ???   (5:15)
14       ???   (5:15)
15       ???   (5:15)
16   1:22:15   (5:15) w21:01  
17   1:27:33    5:17
18   1:33:42    6:09  Long?
19   1:37:40    3:58  Short?
20   1:43:05    5:24  -10k 52:29
21   1:48:24    5:19
22   1:54:32    6:07  w-
23   1:59:49    5:17
24   2:05:03    5:13
25   2:10:02    4:58  left Paul. (avg 5:12 -> 5:09)
26   2:14:57    4:55  w
27   2:20:06    5:09
28   2:25:02    4;56
29       ???   (5:07) w 
30   2:35:17   (5:07) 10:15 -10k 52:12
31       ???   (5:12)
32   2:45:43   (5:12) w10:25
33   2:50:55    5:12
34   2:55:44    4:48
35   3:01:00    5:16  w
36   3:05:56    4:55
37   3:11:22    5:25
38   3:16:40    5:18
39   3:22:18    5:37  w
40   3:27:30    5:11  -10k 52:13
41      ???    (5:10)
42      ???    (5:10)
42.2 3:38:53   (1:02) 11:23
 
8:20 miles
5:11 ks