Sunday 25th March 2018
The clock is ticking and it is getting closer and closer to the London Marathon (less than 4 weeks to be precise) by the morning of Sunday 25th March. John and I and our friend Craig (who did the Hemel 17 miler with us last month and loved it so much that he had decided to come back for the 20 miler).
Although it was raining the day before, surprisingly, on Sunday it was a dry day with a reasonable temperature of 70C set out for everyone at the Boxmoor Cricket Club in Hemel Hempstead where we started. Today was a far cry from 3 weekends ago when it was so cold with so much snow that the Regents Park 10K had to be cancelled. The last time the race was cancelled was February 2012 for the same reason.
Now that the cold snap has passed, I truly thought I was going to have my first spring run of the year and to see all the bulbs in the flowerbeds poking up and all the birds coming out singing to welcome the spring. But…… I didn’t feel right as soon as I started. The sky was cloudy. There was no wind. It was weirdly calm. I had that stuffy feeling which usually happens before a storm. Coming from Hong Kong, I am very familiar with high humidity. I had exactly that feeling this morning. My split time was slower than last month in the Hemel 17 miler even though it was a sub zero degree temperature. Today, I just couldn’t lift my leg. It took me well over 32 minutes to finish the first 3 miles on the towpath compared to last month when I finished exactly in 30 minutes. My pace didn’t improve much for the rest of the distance. It was mostly over 10 and a half minutes a mile pace even when descending. I finished in 3:35’45”. I was over 8 minutes slower than last year when I finished in 3:27’09”. I was wondering: Was it due to the high humidity? Or, was it because the clock change to day light saving and I had lost an hour sleep? I rested well for 2 days before this event. I felt fine when I got up this morning. So, why was I so slow?
When I walked back to the club house, I couldn’t find Craig. I thought he must have finished long time ago and gone home. He told us earlier that he was aiming at 9 minutes a mile pace and so he must have finished in 3 hours. I then went back to my car to collect my rucksack and went to have a shower at the club house. When I went back to my car after the shower, to my surprise, John had not collected his bag and clothes from the boot. It was well over 4 hours since we started. I went back to club house to look for John. I couldn’t find him. Where was John? When I came out of the club house, I saw John just finished. John said he felt so rough today and he couldn’t push at all. He finished in 4 hours 24 minutes. Then John got a text message from Craig. Craig said he was gutted to have finished in 3 hours 19 minutes which was well above his Marathon target of 4 hours. Craig said he felt very rough during the run and he had to walk a bit before resuming his run. Today was not our day as all 3 of us did poorly. Whatever the reason contributing to our unsatisfactory performance, I hope on the day of the London Marathon, at least the humidity will not be to high !!
