I am in Pescara for the weekend, I decided to do a good general reharsal for the marathon in 2 weeks. I went around the starting line of the marathon and I wanted to do an half marathon at goal marathon pace (4:37/km, 3h:15m total) starting at the same time (9am) and doing exactly the same course. For the first 10k I was on cruise control sun on my back and wind in my face, I extended the distance to 13k because I was feeling good and I thought going for 26k at that pace. As soon as I turned around, face to the sun and wind in my back, things started going south almost immediately, at mile 10 I decided 13.1 was enough at this pace, but during the last 4k I really struggled to keep the pace. It was definitively hot (many thermometers indicated between 30 and 32°C) and as soon as I hit 13.1 in 1:37:30 exactly, I stopped at a drinking fountain and spent the next 5 minutes drinking and dousing myself in a too-late attempt to cooldown. Because I had to go back to the car 5k away I started running at a slow speed more depressed than actually tired. I felt really bad and depressed, because I thought it was going to be much easier to maintain that pace (as I did in some of my long runs in the last few weeks), the "two" excuses are the usual suspects: the heat and being tired after lots of mileage (for me). For sure if the temperatures won't go down at least 10-15°C in the next two weeks I will reassess my goal to a slower pace for the marathon. I have already decided to move my goal from 3:10 to 3:15 because I am not feeling very confident and I also have another attempt at the end of november in Florence. But if the heat will the same as yesterday even with some more rest and tapering things won't change much, I have already done three races in the heat in the last two months and I know I don't do very well when the temps at the start are above 25°C. At least I can't blame taper madness because I haven't start tapering yet (and probably I should).
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