Lloyd Biddell

Since the Chester Marathon the plan was to have a rest and I had booked a trip to New Zealand for some R&R.  Me being me I couldn't help to see whether there was any races and I stumbled across the Auckland Marathon which coincidentally is the largest marathon in New Zealand.  Upon contacting the organisers I was duly offered a free entry and that was that.  In my mind I knew it was a mad idea, but I could just trot round and enjoy it all for a change. Since Chester the legs initially recovered well but a combination of jet lag, walking around 10 miles a day plus some runs in Queenstown that included around 6km of hills resulted in them feeling pretty dead.  In fact I was even thinking of pulling out; it felt like trying to hit a moving target at times by attempting to juggle recovery whilst keeping the legs moving.  As the days got closer I was contacted by the organisers who wanted to profile me as a 'contender' for the race.  Ok, so no backing out now as I was in

Today was the big one that I've been working towards for several months.  The build up has not been without its mishaps; mainly an injury I sustained to the back of my knee a couple of months ago resulting in my weekly mileage actually being less than in the run up to the Greater Manchester Marathon.  On the back of Manchester I was selected to represent England in the V35-39 category at Chester in a match against the Celtic nations so the race was a step up in importance to me.  Before the race I was hoping for sub 2.26 (2.27.59 PB), maybe even sub 2.25 if everything fell into place.  The plan was to play to my strengths and go through half way in 73 mins, and try to increase the pace in the second half.  Easier said than done, but I also gave myself a get out clause that if I started to get into the mix then I would then focus on my race position rather than time - there is no point in just going purely for time if the race conditions dictate different tactics.  That said, I neve