So, the final leg of an Ironman race is a marathon.  Previous to that you have to swim 2.4 miles, and then cycle 112.  Never the less it is still a marathon, and a marathon is far from easy on it’s own.  Due to running being my weakest discipline in any triathlon, I have signed up for the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon on the 21st December.

26.2 miles of non stop running.  The mens World Record for a marathon currently stands at 2:03:23 set by Wilson Kipsang from Kenya.  This is running just over 4.5 minute miles for 26.2 consecutive miles.  A fairly awesome feat I am sure you will all agree.

My fastest mile pace is around 8 minutes, and that would be just running one mile.  It is most likely that to sustain 26.2 miles of running I would be at around 10 minute/mile pace.  At that speed it would take me around 4.5 hours to complete a marathon, so that has to be my target time.

I have researched and subsequently created a training plan that will see me complete around 70 training runs in the 18 weeks that I have until the marathon.  This plan consists of 3 shorter runs during the week, and 1 long run at the weekend.  The distances slowly build towards week 16 where I will complete a 20 mile run for my long run.  This is the furthest I will run during training, and also be the furthest distance I have run in one go for over 15 years.  

All I need to now is avoid injury, run (a lot) and I should be fine.  Easy………right???