Victoria Marathon

What a success! After fighting injury for the last 4 weeks and missing some really important training runs, I made it to the start line after some short test runs on Saturday and some strides on Sunday Morning. It was such a beautiful weekend weather wise, and for the race it could not have been better. A crisp 10 Degrees to start, warming to mid to high teens for the majority of the race, no wind, and sun. Perfect race conditions.
I was pumped at the start line, so amped to go, I love the feeling before a race. Kate was feeling a bit nervous, but I knew that with her water tight 5 month training regime, that she had nothing to worry about.
The first 21kms went exactly as planned, I hit it in an average of 4mins8sec per km. Then the next 4 kms also went to plan, with my goal being to sit at 4min10sec for the whole race. At about 27kms the wheels began to fall off! The lack of long distance training and some of my key training weeks that I missed really showed. I started slowing down big time and was losing seconds per km. I had a blister on my right foot from about 11km which was causing grief, and now another blister was forming on my left foot. So before I had some relief on my left foot strike, now each foot strike hurt.
By about 35kms I was in damage control mode. The goal was to pace myself so I didn't have to run at all - I wanted to run the whole race. It's funny the mind games you play with yourself to convince you that there isn't far to go. Whatever it takes to get you through really. The last 2km was brutal, and the last km, with a burst of pure determination to set a PB i gritted my teeth and squeezed out a 4min 30sec km. A bit of talking to myself occurred here.