Neil Featherby: The power of pacing ahead of Wymondham 20
'Pace makes for the perfect race' which I constantly hammer home to any athlete or distance runner I have ever advised.
Mark Armstrong demonstrated this in last weekend's Barcelona Marathon and no, I don't advise Mark, but he has most certainly learnt over the years just how important it is to know exactly where you are at with your fitness and ability once you toe the start line of a marathon.
So before I go any further, it really is a big well done to him and I am sure he will continue to improve for the foreseeable future.
In 1989, I won the very first Wymondham 20-mile road race which of course takes place this coming weekend.
I am sure many will be using this as a tester prior to an April marathon. However, and at the same time, if this is the case it is so important not to run yourself into the ground whereby it can then affect training during those final few weeks leading up to marathon day.
Going back to that very first Wymondham 20, which I won in a time of 1:49:35, and is still a race record to this day albeit being equalled during the 1990s by Anthony Pooley from Bury St Edmunds Pacers, I have a feeling that a new name will be added as the race record holder after this Sunday's race.
When I stood on the start line just outside of Wymondham College with a few hundred others, it was one of those days when I was just not as motivated as I should have been.
It had had been raining quite hard prior to the start with several big puddles out on the wet roads but I liked running in the rain so it wasn't that.
For whatever reason I just didn't feel fired up as you should be for a race. I had finished third in the Malta marathon just a few weeks before which may have had something to do with it and I had spent what had been Christmas and the first few weeks of January staying in hospital with my young son Greg after he had broken his femur on Christmas Eve. Maybe this and the effort of the Malta marathon had just come to a head and I was mentally stale.
It was also a two-lap course, so heading out for the second time around was just a case of keep on running and then when I got to the 19 mile marker I looked at my watch and saw that unless I gave it my all during the last mile I wasn't going to go under 1 hour 50 mins.
It was a bit like a kick up the back side for which I ran that last mile in five minutes flat which was faster than any of the previous 19. It also proved just how much our minds dictate towards our feelings when it comes to having the drive or not having it.
Callum Bowen Jones, who I coach, will be running in this Sunday's race and for the first time over the 20 mile distance.
Up to now he has not raced beyond a half marathon. I also have a couple of other guys running it for which it will also be a first time for one of them.
I am forever winding Callum up telling him that he's not as good as I was and needless to say I am only joking, but if all goes to plan he for one should break what has been a race record which has stood for far too long.
For all those running and racing this weekend, I hope you have a good one.
Oh and stay motivated!
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