On Sunday, with Hayley in support, Ollie and I with 4000 or so others ran the Chester marathon.
The route is very picturesque and largely flat, not without undulations though and the hill at mile 22 is, in my opinion, in the wrong place. The conditions on the day were good; the headwind being offset by the tail wind. There was some rain and for 15 minutes, heavy rain, but that was late on and quite refreshing.
We set off at 9 from Chester race course with Ollie looking to get under 4 hours for the 1st time and I was looking for 3:20ish with the ish extending to 3:30. I had decided to stay just behind the 3:15 pacer and did so for the 1st 4 miles, but feeling confident I’d see him again later I pushed on towards Wales. I saw the pacer again at 16 miles and by 18 miles my calves had tightened and I was concerned I’d be seeing the 3:30 pacer as well. However I managed to keep it together enough over the last 7 miles, even with hill 22, to finish with 3:21:57 and was pretty happy. Ollie ran a great race smashing 4 hours with a 26 minute PB.
Baggage reclaim was slow, but other than that organisation was very good as was the of support.
Tev
| Tom Charles | 2:29:29 |
| Steve Austin | 3:21:57 |
| Ollie Smeed | 3:52:22 |