The run started maybe a little fast. The first 500m of the marathon have not been recorded because I started my Garmin Forerunner 405 only after about 500 m. Then I had two fast kms before settling into a more realistic pace. My pace was pretty constant for the first half, then I got a little slower. My goal was to go under 4 hours which means running 4:38 per km (see white line in graph below) or 9:14 per mile (see blue line in graph below). Of course these times include stopping at drink stations to get enough drink in, so the actual run pace is probably about 10 seconds faster. For most of the run the pace was between 5:15 and 6:00 per km or 8:24 and 9:36 per mile. Then at km 34, I got a severe stitch and between kms 34 and 35 I had to walk. After that I struggled for a few kilometers (6 in total) before picking up the pace again and running into the finish.
I ran 4:03. So clearly if I had been able to run through kilometers 35-40 I would have gone well under 4 hours. Generally the pace I was running at was a little slower than I thought I could run and I think there are two main reasons for this:
1. The most important reason is that I gave everything on the bike to go under 5:20. Because the wind picked up this was hard and I spent way more energy than I probably should have.
2. The conditions were quite extreme and even late in the race the tempeartures were still very high.
So the big question for me is how I can run faster in my next Ironman. Is this by doing more running miles (whihc I did last year) or is it by doing more cycling and coming of the bike a bit better. I am tempted to think that more cycling really works for me. Last year I did way more running (at the cost of cycling) but this did not seem to result in better running times. This year I felt much better on the run.
