On June 3rd I ran my third Christchurch Marathon. This is also the third different course I have run it on. The first year was downtown. Then there was an earthquake and it had to be moved to a small township outside of Christchurch. This year they moved it back to Christchurch and since the major sponsor is the airport it was run on the roads around the airport. This is the least favorite of the three courses for me because it had too many out and back sections. Hopefully one day it will be moved back into the city when the rebuilding is finished.
The first half of the race was sunny and was in the lower 50’s deg f. At times there was no wind and it bordered on warmish. I hit the half marathon in almost exactly two hours on my watch. Some of the miles were faster than four hour marathon pace and some slower but I was happy to hit the half in two hours. I knew that all I had to do was run a negative split to finish in less than four hours overall and at the time it felt doable.
The second half of the race was totally different. I felt strong but at about mile fifteen or so a storm blew in. It was nice that it cooled down but the wind went crazy. There was a point at around mile sixteen where the wind was so strong it stood me straight up and I felt like I was not moving at all. I probably could have walked as fast as I was running but I kept running. It was a little bit disheartening. To be fair there were a couple of times later on where I felt like I was being thrown down the road when the wind was at my back.
At about mile 18 I started passing people – a lot of people. Around mile twenty there was this guy who would almost sprint past me and then he would walk and I would pass him. This repeated itself about ten times until I dropped him around the twenty-four mile mark.
My last three miles were the fastest three miles of the race. 24th mile – 8:53, 25 mile – 8:48, 26th mile 8:45, last 0.2 – 8:42 pace. But I came up a bit short. I finished in 4:02:18 chip time (4:04:25 gun time). Given the conditions I am okay with that. It is my fastest time in Christchurch so far. In fact I get about a minute faster each year. It is still about ten minutes off of my marathon PR.
I am encouraged that I was passing so many people at the end and I feel good about how strong I was running in the last miles. My last couple of marathons have been this way. I am considering another try at Singapore Marathon in December and I am sure it will be a different beast as far as finishing strong is concerned.
Andrea and I spent the two weeks after the marathon roaming around the South Island of New Zealand. I had a couple of really good runs on single track and lakesides in Queenstown, Te Anau, and Franz Josef. I am blessed to be able to run in such cool places.
The first half of the race was sunny and was in the lower 50’s deg f. At times there was no wind and it bordered on warmish. I hit the half marathon in almost exactly two hours on my watch. Some of the miles were faster than four hour marathon pace and some slower but I was happy to hit the half in two hours. I knew that all I had to do was run a negative split to finish in less than four hours overall and at the time it felt doable.The second half of the race was totally different. I felt strong but at about mile fifteen or so a storm blew in. It was nice that it cooled down but the wind went crazy. There was a point at around mile sixteen where the wind was so strong it stood me straight up and I felt like I was not moving at all. I probably could have walked as fast as I was running but I kept running. It was a little bit disheartening. To be fair there were a couple of times later on where I felt like I was being thrown down the road when the wind was at my back.
At about mile 18 I started passing people – a lot of people. Around mile twenty there was this guy who would almost sprint past me and then he would walk and I would pass him. This repeated itself about ten times until I dropped him around the twenty-four mile mark.I am encouraged that I was passing so many people at the end and I feel good about how strong I was running in the last miles. My last couple of marathons have been this way. I am considering another try at Singapore Marathon in December and I am sure it will be a different beast as far as finishing strong is concerned.
Andrea and I spent the two weeks after the marathon roaming around the South Island of New Zealand. I had a couple of really good runs on single track and lakesides in Queenstown, Te Anau, and Franz Josef. I am blessed to be able to run in such cool places.
