Phoenix River

Phoenix River Marathon  3:56:51

Views great

This was with Phoenix Running in Walton-Upon-Thames on their long course. I did this course before in Nov 2014 and the weather was some of the worst I have ever seen and the whole course was waterlogged. It was a real slog fest.

Sky on the way in

Today however it was the opposite and on the 27th of December we had
Sun, Dry, Mud-Free, Puddle-Free, 13 degrees with very little wind. Near perfect conditions. On the drive into London the sky was amazing and red from early.

At 6.6 miles out and backs 4 laps was a marathon. Around 100 were here for the race. As a nice addition to this race series the local leisure center was open for registration, toilets and showers afterwards.

There were 2 fully stocked aid stations at each end of the course with

Registration in the leisure center

further toilets at the turn around. The last time I was here it was a disappointing 4:43. Today was going to be different.

And home

I started off steady enough breaking the race into 8 sections. 30 minutes each would be a 4 hr marathon. I was tracking Michael and the Fox for most of the race and there were a few that went off fast. I was only lapped by the winner though who came in with a very impressive 2:53.

Splits were pretty even and as I came through half way in 1:54 a sub 4 was on.

1   28:40
2   57:27      (29:13)
3   1:25:48   (28:39)
4   1:54:59   (29:11)
5   2:24:36   (29:47)
6   2:54:37   (29:59)
7   3:25:04   (30:27)
8   3:56:51   (31:47)

I felt good today and ran very steady especially the last couple of sections which were very steady and a 2:02 second half was pretty good.

Rik and the crew from Phoenix running put on a great event today and was faultless.

The weather was absolutely extraordinary for the time of year and it was like being on a different
course compared to the previous outing. I much preferred today. i was absolutely delighted with the time today and it puts me in a much better place than where I started last year. Focus now is Donadea in Feb followed by Seville a week later. The hard 5hr cut-off in Donadea now gets my attention and if I manage a marathon in sub 4 there I should be OK.

Nice video of the day:

Polar stats for the day Click Here