Today’s blog is brought to you with the letters W.O.W.Z.A!

This marathon lark is very unforgiving! One minute you running toe for toe with America’s Greatest, the next you are overtaken by an Elvis (or Elvi?). Whatever, the King passed the pretender and to be fair he is looking in decent shape for a guy his age!

It all started so well……..

I failed to tell you guys that I had a surprise up my sleeve in the shape of Ryan Hall and Josh Cox. Ryan Hall being America’s Half Marathon record holder (and a PB of 2.05.45) and tipped to medal in last years Olympic’s. Josh Cox a record holder for 50k.

 "If Carlsberg did pacemakers they would probably choose the best pacemakers in the world…. Ryan Hall and Josh Cox!"

With the A team in place it would be a walk in the park, right? And so it seemed. I went off at 5.25 pace with an aim to go through halfway in 71minutes. The first half of the race was full of hills so I figured the second half would be much easier and I could deal with any fatigue. At halfway I felt great and bang on race plan.

The second half of the race had fewer people on the course and I just focused my attention on getting to 20 miles at the same pace. Ryan Hall left me at 9 miles and Josh Cox was meant to take me to halfway but decided I would be too isolated and stayed until 19. At mile 20 i was still and just needed a 35 minute last 10k to bring it home!

Then my legs screamed "Why couldnt phidippides have died here!"

Then the infamous Wall had hit me. I ran a 6 minute mile for the first time in the race and tried to react but the legs were numb. Mile 22 was a very hard 6min 10secs mile and I knew it was over.

Easing off the gas made things worst and the cramp really kicked in. I finally gave in to defeat and started to walk. My god it was a long and painful walk….. I was searching for a good excuse or something to blame it on but there was nothing but two simple facts- not enough mileage and quality tempo running.

My body was in great shape for a 10k or half marathon but not ready for the last 10k of a marathon. Oh well. Atleast I didn’t hype myself up too much and now look an idiot! (wait a minute.....)

So a week on and the legs don’t feel too battered unlike my ego. So I have to look at the positives- I know where I went wrong training wise, saved myself an injury and raised a shed load of awareness and money for my charity. Plus I must admit I had some great fun with Ryan and Josh. For the first half of the race I could pretend I was an elite runner!

Now what?

Well I have let my hair down since the marathon and enjoyed a few beers and parties. Hit Vegas for a couple of days. Why do they say “Hit Vegas” when you always feel on the way home that actually “Vegas Hit You!” I am not going to run for another week and then start to cross train a bit. I will definitely keep my weight in check and start back running at the end of the month.

I will have a look at my options and then decide on a realistic  venue for my next attempt. Im coming up to half way through soon so I need to make the next attempt a good one!

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me and entered the competition. I reckon by the end of this we will have $20,000 going to help many kids which is great!

The competition winners are below. It goes to show it pays not listen to my predictions!

2:31:05  Paul Halford   

2:28:39  John Oliva   

2:28:10 Emily Evans  

2:28:00  Joffroi Holcomb   

2:27:40   Brandon Mills