Reflection on Wrexham Elite Marathon DNF and next steps

The Wrexham Elite Marathon was a race I had been targeting all winter and was a keenly anticipated race for a lot of runners as we come out of lockdown. It's a chance to see if people's training had paid off. I felt that I was in good shape. The training and build up had gone well. I had done lots of marathon pace runs, some long 22 mile runs and had practiced with my nutrition strategy. I was aiming to run a solid 2.20 and bank a new PB. So it was a bit puzzling to me when I dropped off the pace around 17 miles and dropped out of the race by 20 miles due to my pace dramatically slowing and essentially hitting the wall. Its been a few days post race and I have had a chance to reflect.  

Preparation

Looking back at the last 16 weeks, I had done all the sessions I wanted to. The only room for improvement would have been to train with others and have had some 10km or half marathon races in the build up to assess where my current level of fitness was.

I travelled up to Wrexham the night before and had a look at the flat course. I parked by the start line and spent the night in the van. I was up at 0500 and had some overnight oats and banana for breakfast, as well as an electrolyte drink and coffee. I set my table out by the van and placed my 6 bottles filled with Maurten on there. I put 165ml of water and a 3rd of a sachet of Maurten in each bottle. I worked out that 6 bottles like this would give me approx 600cal and I planned to take a drink each lap. The course was over 7.5 laps. I also carried 3 small Veloforte caffeine gels on me, to add another 150 cal. I prepared this nutrition well as I remember had big problems at Frankfurt Marathon in terms of grabbing my bottles. The prep paid off as I got all my bottles and gels.

Race

At one point, 3000 people were watching the live stream of the race on FB. It's pretty common now for organisers and spectators to stream an event.

I went off in the 2nd wave, which was set off 15sec behind the 1st wave that was targeting 2.10 for the marathon and 65min for the half marathon. All waves had a mixture of marathon and half marathon runners (the half guys had a number on their back to make it clear). My group was the 2.20 group. After a choppy start, I had to decide whether to go with a slower group or slightly faster group. I choose the faster group, that also had Mike Kallenburg in. I had trained with him recently and guessed this was the right group. The group I was in had about 7 other runners and we all agreed on a controlled pace and to work together. Conditions were almost perfect. It was about 7 degrees with sun and clouds and a light wind. Working together meant that people could take turns at the front to break the wind or set the pace. We were averaging about 5:15/mile pace for the first 10km. I thought at the time that this was too quick for me. But then again, I had trained well, and didn't know exactly what shape I was in. I decided to stick with it and gamble on my fitness being there. 

We went through halfway in 1hr09 flat. My plan before the race was to do 1.10 and then pick it up in the last 5 miles if possible and negative split it. However, I started to feel the early pace and dropped off the back of the group around 14 miles. I was still going around 5:20 to 5:25/mile pace and got into my own rhythm, so thought this will be ok if I keep it here. However, my speed fell to 5:30/mile pace. Still a good speed, but it was heading in the wrong direction. I would still be on for a good personal best. But by 20 miles it was over 6min mile pace and I would probably do a fair bit of damage to my muscles if I tried to power through another 6 miles. Therefore I decided to stop shortly after the 20 mile marker. 

Post Race

As I write this my quads are pretty sore, but otherwise everything is ok. The winner of the race (Jake Smith) ran 2.11, which is 30sec under the Olympic Qualifying standard. The group I ran with ended up splitting apart after 20 miles. One finished around 2.18 for 5th place. A couple ran 2.20/21, showing that their pace dropped a bit, and a couple of others dropped to 2.22/2.23. Maybe in retrospect I should have run my own race and gone at more of an even pace, and maybe I would have passed these guys in the later stages. It can be hard to have self control and run your own race. Then again its so much easier running in a pack, so I still don't know if starting out slower would have changed the result much. I'm only talking 5sec per mile slower, but it could have made a difference. A lesson I'll take forward into October's London Marathon. I also realised that I didn't drink all my nutrition drinks. When I got home, I ended up emptying out a lot more than I thought, which leads me to believe that I only took on half of the nutrition I should have. Even though in the race, I felt like I was taking on a lot and had a stitch from the fluids at one point, I didn't quite stick to my nutrition strategy. So perhaps not finishing the bottles, may have contributed towards hitting the wall. Going slightly slower, may have also helped me to digest and avoid any stitches. 

Future

I was in good shape going into this race. I will take an easy week and do some cross-training, massage and stretches. But then I'm looking for some shorter events like 5 and 10km over the summer on the road and track. Then a Half Marathon in Sept (not sure which one yet). I think I can get sub 30min for 10km and sub 65min for HM this year. 

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