How I lost 10k by running 21km in 2hr34min 57s

October 30. Sunday.
Standard Chartered 2011 marathon.
Goal/Target: 21km in under two hours and walk away with Ksh10,000.
Personal details: 86kgs, Age 35 and 7 months.
My back had not been friendly since June last year.For that I had received quite some treatment to the extent I stock Doloact, a muscle relaxant, just in case the back attacks. In short, I didn't practise as much as I should have – I got back to training about two or so months to the race and did a total of less than 10 hours; slightly over 70km only; the famous ‘nce and easy runs.’
So, come that Sunday I was all set to do the 21km in under 2hrs. I got to the start up venue an hour or so early, dropped my jacket at the luggage section and left to trace Jack and the other guys.
I ran into Jack. He was with two first timers: Borura and Mutwiri. We went into warm up: jogging, stretching and some valuable pep talk.
At 7.30am, we were flagged off, or rather, my supposed run to Ksh10,000 began.
At the back of my mind, the distance markers would be my aid – 5km, 10km, 15km etc. The other marker would be the water points (the booklet stated that these facilities would be after every 3km – and I believed them. Foolish me).
As we descended Uhuru Highway for the Uhuru Park turn, the energy went out of me. I felt tired and without air. Trouble.
I took the turn and ran on but getting back to Uhuru Highway heading to UoN turn, I was really forcing myself on. At that moment, I started telling myself not to walk but rather, if it came to it, jog. I hang on and ran all the way to the Kenyatta Avenue turn. So far no distance marker save for the 4km and 6km marks for the 10km runners.
On and on, I ran. The four or so runners I had picked out to stick with, left me behind one by one. By then, I had done the Harambee Avenue turn and was facing the gradual climb towards Airtel head office.
So far I hadn’t taken any water. I had promised myself not to take water until after the Airtel turn. The Airtel turn took forever to come and at some point, I think at the 1hr 42min point, I gave up and walk round the Airtel turn, took some water and walked some more.
Just before I ran again, some guy from World Vision started chatting me up … and that killed all hope of getting that coveted Ksh10,000 from Jack. Anyway, to cut a long story short, from then on, it was a mix of running, jogging and walking all the way to the finish line.
Final time: 2:34:57. Ksh10,000 not ‘taken’!
I took away a couple of lessons for 2012.
a) Practise
b) Practise
c) Practise
d) Strategy, you know: run how often and for how long and how?
For Stanchart Marathon 2012, my target is a decent 100-110 minutes or 45 minutes off this year’s time.
Let’s see how it goes.