2nd Nafplio Marathon

For the second year in a row I managed to prepare for and run the marathon of Nafplio. The thing I like about the race is that it is in the spring (which I prefer over fall dates) and it is only 2hrs drive from my town.

This year I have prepared pretty solid for a target pace of 4'30"/k resulting in sthg like 3h12min finish time. The whole thing went to trash when I got sick exactly on Monday prior to the race :-/ I did manage to drop fever mid week but my nose and throat where far from fine even on the race day.

Long story short, I knew from the beginning (well technically even before the beginning :-P) that I will not make my target time. And after first 10k everything was more than crystal clear: my HR was averaging around 156-157bpm while it should be below 150! This meant I was not going to maintain 4'30"/k for all 3+hrs...
First bigger crisis came at 24-25th km, when my HR started to peak above 160bpm and my legs started to get a bit stiff :-/ Worst thoughts were: this is it, in next 2-3km I will simply die and need to drop my tempo to way above 5'/k just to finish. But I was passed by two runners keeping same target tempo as mine and I decided to stick with them for as long as I could just to win some time. And I managed it for next 10k !!! Of course the price was quite high as I got very close to 170bpm mark! Then on 34th km, on a little uphill section (well everything is uphill after 34km :-P) I just had to drop the guys and tempo. I managed to keep it under 5'/k for next 4km and then pain in my legs got so strong I had to let it go even to 5'10"-5'20"/k for the rest if the distance.

Finish time: 3hrs 15min 40sec! Not bad for a sick guy :-D and of course a new PB by a big margin (previous from 2012 was +7min). I did feel a bit odd as I knew I would have easily keep 4'30" if it wasnt for the sickess, but there is more left for the next time :-P