The road to my 8th marathon once again was not smooth. From time to time I have skipped training sessions because of work or because of being very tired and the third week before the start I catched a severe cold and could not train for a full week and the two weeks after I was away from home for work, what also means less optimal training. In the last two weeks I did what I could, but this morning my legswhere not as rested and relaxed as I would have liked. So around 7:45 am I arrived in the start area and saw that there were still many many people waiting outside. I don't know why, but the guard-robe issue this year was a complete chaos and as such took my way longer than expected. I no longer had time for a warm up and entered my box and started to run circles there to at least get the blood and heart moving a bit. Yesterday we had very heavy rainstorms in Barcelona, so it was almost incredible to start the day with a perfectly blue sky and a nice cold temperature, which is perfect for running. Around 8:30 we were shot away and I just settled into an easy pace. Much to my surprise that turned out to be 4m08 for the first k and even a bit faster over the second and onto the 5k mark I could easily maintain that pace. The road to the 10k mark is more downhill than uphill so the second 5k went even faster and I passed the first 10k in 40 minutes!! I hoped to be able to maintain the splits for a 2h55m finish as long as possible, but this was easy and way faster. Soon after I had to tie my shoelaces that somehow came loose and from 12k onwards I felt uneasy and struggling a bit, eventhough my pace was still quite good. From 14k to 15k we climbed up along Passeig de Gracia. I slowed down here knowing that that hill can take a lot of gas out of you if you don't do so and after I picked up pace again, though untill the half marathon mark I did not find a good regular pace again and just pushed along while the kilometers passed.
Half way through I was still running well below the 2h55m schedule and untill the 30k mark I was running well with some aches here and there but with a good stride and breathing easily. At the 30k mark I knew I had a chance of going under 3 hours for the second time in my life. The kilometers onto 35k were harder and slow, but I tried to keep running in good form, drinking water and I flushed down the last of 6 energy gels and would not take anything more untill the finish. Seven more kilometers to go and I was running just above the 2h55m schedule now, but as long as I could stay under 5 minutes for each kilometer I could finish under 3 hours. I passed the 40 mark with 10 minutes and 20 seconds left for 2 kilometers and 195 meters. Two long kilometers that go uphill but now it was time to push without breaking down and maintain the pace well under 5 minutes. When I arrived at the last turn I knew I made it. Somewhere halfway the sprint to the finish I hear Montse shouting and wave to her and Jordi who cheer me on for the last meters. 2h59m35s!!! And with room for improvement but for years I tried to at least break 3 hours again so very happy to have done so!!
My split times, for those who like numbers and statistics:
| Time | 5k split | 10k split | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:20:13 | |||
| 0:40:01 | 19:48 | 40:01 | |
| 1:00:39 | 20:38 | ||
| 1:21:52 | 21:13 | 41:51 | |
| 1:42:58 | 21:06 | ||
| 2:04:07 | 21:09 | 42:15 | |
| 2:27:18 | 23:11 | ||
| 2:49:40 | 22:22 | 45:33 |
