Running Oslo Marathon in 3:20 Can it be done?
Justin Fackrell is raising money for Plan International UK
Participants: Justin Fackrell
Story
Race report: Sunday morning, bright slightly cloudy 12C, met up with Chris U on the start line. He was determined to get 3:15, and so we went for it! Up to about 18km we were moving along dead on 4:37min/km pace, just in front of the paceholder man with the big 3:15 balloon. But then things started to go pear-shaped :-(
I said bye bye to Chris and watched him disappear in the distance and then struggled to keep my pace up. But it was tough. On lap 2 it was getting harder to even keep my pace below 5min/km and I could see that 3:20 was heading out of reach. The last few km I was averaging 5:30, heading backwards in the field and experiencing the wall, brutal and unforgiving.
Crawled home in 3:26 so no BQ for me this year. Sorry guys. But "tusen takk" to all who chipped in a few quid to help Plan with their good work, it helped me finish to know that it was for a good cause, and I will be in touch once I find another marathon for 2012. Next up is the Polar half marathon in Tromsø in January. Brrrrrrr.
(Chris came home in 3:14 which is a fantastic time ;-)
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To qualify for the Boston Marathon I have to run 3:20. My previous marathon times have been 3:45 (Berlin), 3:28 (Copenhagen), 3:26 (Paris) and 3:21 (Rotterdam). I'm close but I still have yet to get that Boston-shaped cigar.
This year I have, amongst other things, run a couple of 10kms (43:00 and 42:00), cycled a few races (265km, 84km, 82km and 94km), drunk some beer, oh, and walked 24h in the forest without stopping. "Why?" is a valid question at this point. But anyway let's see if Sunday could be the day when I finally crack it. If I do I promise to take it easy for a while to heal your wounded conscience.
PLAN is a great charity dedicated to helping children worldwide. They are consistently one of the top charities in terms of transparency and cost effectiveness, so give them a pound and you can be sure that nearly all that pound will go to help someone. So please go on, give them a pound.