1. Unusual build and how ten mile training translated into marathon performance

Summer was a 5k block, then autumn was focused on extending speed out for my first ever ten mile race, the Great South Run. Having a marathon dumped two weeks prior to this goal race was far from ideal, but you don’t give up your first opportunity to represent your country (at your favourite distance), so it just needed to be managed carefully.

Chester was never going to be a PB attempt, though, for a few reasons:

1. To hold back just enough to recover for GSR.
2. I had done literally no runs over 30km for more than five months.
3. It’s not the fastest course; not crazily hilly, but certainly not flat, and about double the elevation of London, for example.
4. I only went into this with a partial taper, since the England ‘experience’ was far more important to me than the result.

So, I went in excited and proud, but with limited expectations, and my coach and I agreed that sub 2:35 sounded reasonable. The plan was to run sub-maximally, keep heart rate low, and just see what that spat out in terms of time. It couldn’t have gone better. I barely even looked at my pace or splits, and finished in 2:32:04, less than two minutes off my marathon PB, and to my great surprise after, as the second placed M40 runner across both the England and Wales teams.

2. Running relaxed is key to performance

Given the casual build-up, the low-key expectations, and the fact that Chester Marathon is a welcome couple of tiers below the majors on the general event stress scale, I was pretty relaxed on race morning. Knowing I was running to such a sensible heart rate (keeping it below 162, approximately 85% of my estimated max) meant there really wasn’t much that could go wrong.

So I did just that, and I also had a smile on my face for a lot of it. I had family in the crowd, my England vest on, and this was an opportunity to proudly reflect for a couple of hours on how my running journey had taken me here. I was that incredibly annoying guy thanking all the volunteers and spectators, and engaging far more than normal with my fellow runners. Absolutely buzzing, basically.

The fact that this translated into such a surprising result was also made possible by my historical endurance running (i.e. plenty of previous marathons), although while the heart and lungs were very comfortable, there was certainly a bit of neuromuscular fatigue creeping in towards the end. The body just wasn’t used to going long in this block. Fortunately, the end arrived before this became a real issue, and I was able to finish with a flourish, unknowingly pipping the second place M40 runner.

So this was a big tick for running relaxed, and indeed for slightly smaller races. Sometimes it’s good to go all in for the adrenaline of a major, but sometimes it’s just a nicer and more chilled experience for runners (and spectators) at a medium sized event like Chester.

3. The importance of pack-racing and in-race decisions

The previous paragraph describes what sounds like the most serene race of all time, and while this was mostly true, there were a couple of key points in the race that helped ensure this was the case.

The first, and most important, was after about five miles. I found myself on my own and adrift of two packs; one in front and one behind me. Given the sparsely populated course and the headwind for the first half of the race, I made a snap decision to chase down the pack ahead. They were about 20 seconds ahead at that point, but I put in 2-3 quick kms and this did the job. As soon as I got there, I was blowing for a bit, but knew it had been a good decision. There were now about 8 of us all running at a similar pace, and we took it turns to lead, but generally stayed together for about 8-10 miles, which flew by as a result of this shared load. It’s impossible to quantify the benefit of a stretch like that, but I’ll try. It felt like it was worth about 5 seconds per mile, both at the time and in hindsight.

That pack eventually started to dissipate behind just myself and a Scottish chap called Ross. We introduced ourselves to each other at this point and it transpired that he once ran the marathon for Scotland in the commonwealth games. Anyway, we kept a bit of gentle chit chat going to push each other through the hilly final few miles, and generally this helped really put the seal on what was a wholly positive race experience…but this was all down to a really good bit of decision making to chase that pack down about 20 miles earlier.  

4. The pros and cons of race tourism with family

What can I say…there are definitely pros and cons to having family support at races like this, especially when one of them is an incredibly boisterous 23 month old. Here’s a quick summary off the top of my head:

Pros:

• Lovely to feel truly supported and share the experience.
• Exposing my son to the positivity of running as much as possible.
• Nice distraction from my usual pre-race anxieties and weirdness.
• That post-race beer with my wife was just perfect.

Cons:

• I couldn’t just be ‘selfish’ with my usual pre-race routines; everyone needs to be factored in (although I sent everyone to Chester Zoo for the day to get a few hours of peace!)
• This managing of everyone’s needs / travel plans / meal requests / spectator logistics is definitely quite tiring in itself.
• Toddlers don’t suddenly become good sleepers in the build-up to a marathon. Ray refused to sleep in the travel cot I had hauled up from London on the train, so I spent my two nights before the race on some cushions on the floor. Yup, not exaggerating.

5. Fuelling for sub-maximal effort (and increased hydration)

Given that I knew I would be running this one sub-maximally, I would be using a slightly higher percentage of fat than carbs per minute than in previous marathons, so I knew I could get away with a less intense carb load. I went for 550-600g on both Friday and Saturday (approx. 9 g /kg, compared with ~11g/kg in recent marathons), and found this absurdly easy to manage; I really had to hold myself back.

I also kept my  intra-marathon carb intake a little lower than usual, with approx. 210 g over 2.5 hours (84g per hour), compared to my usual ~100g/hour. As with previous races, this was a combination of a homemade carb mix drink (90g in 250ml today) and gels (3 x 40g today).

I also made more of a conscious effort to proactively drink water in the second half of the course, which is something I often neglect a bit. I don’t often feel especially thirsty and don’t like to break my momentum, but the hot and humid Big Half 2024 reminded me to reassess this, and I feel this, and my fuelling plan overall worked really well for the race plan and conditions.  

6. London 2024, cancelled GSR, and the benefit of hindsight

After a performance like this, I couldn’t help but look back at London 2024 and feel cheated. I was in such strong shape in April, for 2:29 if not more, but as I’ve written before, something wasn’t right on the day and I took myself to a dark place to squeeze another 2:30.

To cruise round to 2:32:04 in Chester, barely a minute slower than London, on a much hillier course in fairly windy conditions, having neither trained for a marathon nor pushed myself hard in the race just confirmed my suspicions that London had been out of my control.

That said, the relaxation and control piece is definitely a factor too. I was perhaps inappropriately pumped for London and can learn from Chester in that respect.

The other big old dose of hindsight going on is that, as I write this in mid November, I can sadly  report that my ten mile goal race that I had been saving the legs for, Great South Run, was cancelled at short notice due to Storm Ashley, and who knows what I might have been able to achieve at Chester if I’d really gone for it. That said, maybe if I’d pushed even five seconds per mile faster I’d have crashed and burned. Like I say, who knows.

So those are my six things that I thought worth mentioning or documenting for my own reflections, but above all, this was just one of my most enjoyable race experiences to date, and hopefully not my last opportunity to represent my country at the sport I love. Chester is also a beautiful city that we will definitely be going back to, and I’d certainly do this race again…just perhaps staying in an AirBNB with a spare sofa bed next time.

Since writing this, England Athletics have written their own blog on the day, and have mentioned me by name and my (unintentional) finishing straight battle for M40 second place!

The post Representing England at Chester Marathon (2:32): my big six takeaways appeared first on Tom Hollis.

Before I reflect on the special day itself representing my country (next blog, coming shortly), I’ll recap here on the events that led to my selection.

Following my 2:30 PB at Valencia in December last year, I then had the smoothest and best marathon block of my life; every session went to plan, and I fully expected to break 2:30 at London in April. Sadly, something just wasn’t right on the day, and my heart rate started high, and kept rising. I ran for over two hours above my threshold, clinging on for dear life and finishing again in 2:30. To this day, I don’t know how I did it (a very high carb intake certainly helped), but I seriously wouldn’t recommend it; it was a wild and thoroughly unpleasant physical and mental battle.

At the finish line, there were seriously mixed feelings. I was proud of how I’d grafted for a good time and sizeable course PB when I was clearly not at my physical best (it turned out to be a cold that reared its head a couple of days later), but gutted not to go sub 2:30. Added to that was then having to deal with the emotional weight of explaining all the above to expectant family, friends, and clients, who had all assumed 2:29 was a done deal. We all know marathons don’t work like that though. Unlike shorter distances which can be, to some extent, blagged, the marathon will expose any weakness, any chink in the armour. London 2024 was also a big lesson to me in the value, sometimes, of keeping my cards a little closer to my chest in the build up to a race.

My coach wanted me to salvage some positivity from the block, and suggested I consider a last minute entry to Milton Keynes Marathon in early May, since it was the last of the year’s qualifying events for Masters marathon qualification for an England vest. If I could patch myself up quickly and recover in time for this (just fifteen days after London), and then finish among the top three M35 group (since I was still 39 at the time), I would be selected for England. It was a risk, but based on previous years’ results, it did seem possible, so I went for it and booked that day. Perhaps this was a classic post-marathon knee-jerk response, but there wasn’t time for indecision, as I think I took literally the last place available (I had to email the organisers, as it had officially sold out that morning). As per London lessons, I kept this race a secret from all but about five people in a bid to take the pressure off.

Within a day of booking, the aforementioned cold symptoms appeared, and perhaps unsurprisingly, given the exertions at London, they persisted right up until MK. My normally robust immune system had taken an absolute beating around the capital, and despite an array of pharmaceuticals and my trusty vitamin C + zinc, it wouldn’t shift.  

Milton Keynes arrived, and despite the sniffles, it was time to deliver the best that I could on the day and hope it would be good enough for that top three M35 place. I had been led to believe that it was a ‘fast, fairly flat’ course, but although it was a scenic and well organised event that I would certainly do again, it was apparent from early on that this course description was not at all accurate.

Annoyingly, within the first mile I experienced the same heart rate issue from London. It shot up during what should have been a really sensible start, pace-wise, and again it just kept climbing scarily towards threshold. The dread started to grip me. I wasn’t sure if I could do this all over again.

Then, just as I was about to go deep into a negative spiral, I was distracted and saved by Mark, an affable and like-minded guy from Durham. We met at about mile five, and then spent the next twelve or so miles running together, chatting a bit and just generally encouraging each other through tough moments. He was M45, but a very similar standard to me (2:30 at Seville 2024), and with similar aspirations for the day. The non-stop undulations and tight turns of the course were actually helping too, both as a distraction from me being a slave to pace, and also with the downhills providing opportunities for heart rate to settle a bit. However, without Mark I would probably have DNF’d regardless.

We went through halfway (the first loop of two) together in seventh and eighth place overall, which we knew would probably be enough for both of us to be top three in our age groups. However, it transpired that everyone else had misread the course too, and we started to reel people in. Despite slowing down ourselves, we were gaining on everyone in front of us, and one by one, started to pick them off.

At no stage was I feeling comfortable, but I think my London experience had given me extra confidence of pushing closer to my physical limits, and I had to leave Mark with a few miles to go. Spectators and marshals informed me that third place, then second, and finally even first place were not far in front, and I started to wonder if I could win this.

In the final mile, I overtook that final runner and took the lead. I was running on fumes by this point, but figured he must be too, so I just had to grind it out (including one last killer hill which we’d all been dreading from loop one). Once that was safely negotiated, I looked round and knew that I was clear. My wobbly legs got me round the MK Stadium finish as best they could, weaving past the half marathon finishers, and I burst through a hastily assembled finish line ribbon and promptly collapsed, gasping like a fish out of water.

2:37 was the finishing time; not especially impressive on paper, but this tells you nothing of the race itself. Not only had I secured top three M35 and done what I came to do, I had won a city marathon of nearly 2000 runners. Most importantly, this would mean I would qualify for that England vest. I was chuffed to see Mark soon finish in third place overall too, and it felt fitting to share the podium with him a little later. After allowing myself a few moments to bask in the glory, I jogged to the train station to get back to London and resume Sunday afternoon daddy duties, trying to explain to little Ray that I’d just won a big race.

A few weeks later I received email confirmation of my selection for England. What a moment! The representative ‘international’ marathon would be in Chester in October, which was totally at odds with the rest of my training schedule for 2024, but I wasn’t going to miss this moment; I booked Chester later that day.

The following summer months of running were really up and down, with more misses than hits. My 5k block was punctuated with too many races, but also too many fun weekends in quick succession: in Germany at the Euros, at Glastonbury, and then my 40^th birthday parties ( dietitians and coaches need downtime too), which meant that I struggled for consistency and rhythm. Results were all over the place, and my 5k PB of 15:55 was never under threat.  It goes to show how difficult it is to be on peak form all year.

The inconsistency continued into autumn, with solid outings at Sri Chinmoy 10k (33:19) and my hilly home town Frome Half Marathon (73:55, second place) followed by a chastening day at a humid Big Half (74:28) in early September. To compound the uncertainty, I managed to break my toe on holiday in Cornwall the week after, swinging my leg around and smashing my bare foot on a sofa leg while looking after Ray (a very similar injury to this time last year…I really must be more careful around the house). I knew exactly what to do this time though, so I strapped the toe, started cross training on day one, and waited for the pain to subside sufficiently to resume running. Luckily this was even quicker than last year – less than a week – and no fitness was lost. Next stop (and next blog) Chester…and England vest time.

The post Winning MK Marathon and qualifying for England representation! appeared first on Tom Hollis.