Basel Marathon, done and dusted!

So I completed the Basel marathon yesterday! I didnt get a PB but just to finish was an accomplishment for me. I was still injured in the days before the race and wasnt sure if I was even going to start. I spent the night round our friends Gavin and Anna, who live in Basel, (Switzerland BTW) with an ice pack on my knee and some heavy thoughts in my mind. I was moody, as I had done all the training and wasnt confident that I was going to be ok to run.

But when i woke up the next morning and tested my knee, I thought it felt "ok" enough to give it a shot, so had breakfast, got my stuff together and went down to the race meeting. Only then did I try to run for the first time in a good few days.... and it wasnt good. When landing on the right side my knee wasnt painful, but it was uncomfortable; certainly not the best situation to start pounding it for the next 42 km!

But pound it I did, and after 4 or 5 km's it felt fine. The weather was lovely and the city of Basel was a really nice place to be running. It was a smallish race with maybe only 300 marathoners, so it felt like I was running on my own course for most of the time as most of the other runners were much faster than me. At times I really thought I was the last of the pack but occasionally saw some people behind me, which was nice. :)

Around km 25 my left quad starting screaming more than usual at me. I must have been over compensating for my right knee by leaning more on my left, so my quad was in agony for the remainder of the race. I had kept a good 6.05 per km pace for the most part but had to slow down and introduce some walk breaks in the last 12 or so km's to make sure i got to the end. I didnt want a DNF!

The end result was 4 hours and 50 mins - thats 11 mins slower than my best time in Dublin 2011 but I was simply happy to have been able to get the medal.

Towards the end I said to myself  "no more fcuking marathons David!!" but now as I write this I don't think that will last.... :)