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My Vaal PB

Submitted by capoyeti on Wed, 2010-04-21 20:26

A week later, and I’m still on a high after smashing my previous marathon PB. Leading up to the race, I felt that my training had gone well, so I was confident that I would do well and that I should take a few minutes off my PB. I just never thought I would go 14 minutes faster! Not in my wildest dreams, and as if it couldn’t get any better, I found that the run was actually easier than I thought it would be. I felt fresh most of the way, and loved the speed. How could that be?

Well, firstly, I’ve been doing regular quality sessions for the past six months with the crowd at Fitness From Africa. These tough sessions not only developed extra speed, but it also gave me the confidence in knowing that I had successfully pushed through countless tough sessions, despite wanting to give up before getting half way through. I also believe that the success achieved by the others in our track group at recent races helped me to succeed. Hearing all their stories made it real for me. Leading up to the race, I chatted with Marcél about my strategy for race day. He challenged me to go out faster than I had planned, and to maintain that pace for the entire race, and he insisted that there was absolutely no need to walk during the race. I honestly thought there was no way, but I agreed, and got butterflies in my stomach every time I imagined what time this would convert to. On race day, everything worked out amazingly well and I was amazed to find that I could actually run that fast, and I could manage this for the whole race. The anticipated tough last 10-12km ended up only really being tough for the last 5km, and by then, I was so fired up that I was able to power on to the finish line. What was also uplifting was that Marcél drove along the course so I ended up seeing him 4 or 5 times in the 2nd half of the run. This really helped motivate me to keep running strongly, and to maintain good form. Other important aspects that helped contribute to a successful race included consciously eating properly (both during the race and in the days leading up to race day); preparing properly for the race by visualising how I would be feeling in middle and last third of the race; and by systematically following a well thought out training plan. Obviously on the day everything worked out perfectly, and this will not always be the case; but I am convinced that by following through on what has been started here will lead to continued success, and further confirmation of why I truly love to run. Sven

on the home straight