Old No7: Big pb there, nice one. You're getting close to the 35min milestone, you should be pleased.
Hell of day for me at the Dorchester Marathon with highs and proper lows, emotionally speaking: There were 3 or 4 guys I knew of on the start line who I knew were better than or a similar standard to me so thought there was potential for a placing. The one guy I knew was in shape as he'd run 2:41 at VLM shot off from the start and pulled out couple of hundred metres before we'd even got half a mile. I was running in a group of about 4 for the first half mile but as soon as we hit the smallish hill which was Dorchester high street I was running alone just by maintaining a reasonable pace. Anyway I thought if I could keep the leader in view I'd have a chance. I suppose he got 300m ahead for a while but by 10 miles or so I was sure he was coming back to me, especially on any hills.
Got to 17 miles running up an nasty little incline on a hairpin bend which was in the middle of Puddletown, a very small but famous village. My wife and daughter were here so all got a bit excited as I was just closing in on the leader who I mangaged to drop around 17.5 miles. I was on my own with the lead car then -I'd never lead a marathon- which was an odd experience as it's hard maintain your pace due to the car pacing off of you and not the other way around.
Got to 20 miles and was starting to feel it a bit then as the course started to bite; with some nasty inclines, culminating with a massive hill from 23 to 24 miles. I'd also caught up with the HM which started after the marathon so I was passing hundreds of them, many of whom said nice things as I went past which meant I felt I needed to politely reply; could have done with out the pleasantries. I'd had several looks back down the road and could see no one from the marathon catching me up even though I had slowed considerably on the hill. The lead vehicle had now changed to just a bike and I'd got his attention so he could give me a drink. I also asked if he could seen anyone coming up to which he answered 'no, we've broken them now'. I just had 2 miles all down hill to the finish now but unusually for me my hamstrings were starting to cramp which at one point round 24.5mi made me stop for about 10/15 secs to stretch out. I got going but every time I increase pace below 7min/mi they started to twitch again so I was then in damage limitation. Plenty of looking back down the course but still couldn't see anyone coming and neither could the lead bike, although there were a lot of HM runners on one side of the road, leaving room for me to stay on the right, behind the bike.
I could see the tented village and was just about to turn into the finishing field when this guy came sprinting past me with literally 200 meters or so to go. I just assumed he was an over keen HM runner who was giving the big heave-ho for the line. I even said sarcastically to the lead bike that I hope he wasn't in the marathon....well, he was; must have seen me in a bit of trouble and came down the hill in amongst the HM runners. It was a good move by him because I had no time at all to react. Not saying I could have but it would have been nice to see him coming so I could have had the option to race to the line.
Once the dust had settled I decided I was happy with second but I was so close to winning my first ever race. Oh, as I friend of mine said, at least I hammered him on age grading; he was only in his 20s. I ended up with a big positive split due to the hillier second half, of 2:53:21. The winner had 2:53 dead.
