Starting his training way back in August, Matt Brown had had a very long build up to the Valencia Marathon which was taking place on the first weekend of December. He set about running his sessions to a specific heart rate and putting in some long runs to build the endurance.

With so much time to build his fitness, there was no need for him to rush it. He could afford to take his time and gradually progress through the schedule with no concerns.

In early September he did the Big Half in London and the plan for that one was to go at his intended marathon target heart rate. That saw him complete the course in 1 hour 21 minutes but crucially, he felt like he could have gone on at that pace for another half marathon. He knew then that he was in a great position, especially in such an early stage of his training.

He then went on to run his 6k leg at the Southern Six Stage Road Relays at Aldershot in 20:23 which is a very good time for what was quite a tough, undulating route.

Two weeks before the Valencia Marathon, he ran 12.5 miles at a fairly fast pace before going on to compete in the Boscombe 10k and still managed to clock a time of 34:43, which put him in 11th place. His average pace for the 20 mile training run was 6:31, so it was fair to say, based off that, that he was in good shape for the marathon.

Even if you’ve had a good training block before a marathon though, there are still some factors that could influence the result, such as illness, which is essentially uncontrollable. Unfortunately for Matt he’d had a cold on the week of the race and was in bed feeling sorry for himself for most of the day on the Saturday.

Feeling horrendous on his shake out run, he didn’t know how he was going to be for the race. Given that, he decided to start quite far back in the pen. That turned out to be a mistake, as it took him a few miles to get up to speed and he was going at 6:20 pace for the first 5k which wasn’t quick enough.

He was hoping to beat his PB of 2:41:26 from Málaga in 2023 but the ultimate target was a sub 2:40. The traffic began to thin out a bit on the fourth mile and he was able to lift it to 6:15 before getting into his stride with a 6:04 for his fifth mile and a 6:08 for his sixth.

He’d managed his second 5k in 19:18, so that much more like it and saw him go through 10k in 39:10. His next 5k took him 19:40 but after that he got into his stride and was going at around 6:05 pace. That put his next 5k at 19 minutes and got him to the half way stage in 1 hour 22 minutes.

The way he runs his marathons though, there was no need for Matt to panic. He goes by heart rate for the first 20 miles, then starts to progressively up the pace over the last 10k. That technique worked brilliantly for him in the Málaga Marathon, so it was tried and trusted.

Posting a 6:09 and a 6:10 for his 14th and 15th miles, he then registered a 6:04 for his 16th mile, putting his next 5k at 19:08. Then from 16 miles onwards, he upped his heart rate from 160 to 165. That meant he was going slightly faster and was below 6 minute mile pace for the first time in the race.

Getting through that 5k in 18:37, he’d made it to 30k in 1:55:35. His next 5k was 18:45, then on the 23rd mile, he cranked the pace up to 5:51, then 5:50 and 5:48 for his 25th mile. That was an 18:14 for his last 5k, taking him to 40k in 2:32:34 and leaving him with just two kilometres remaining.

Rather than tiring and slowing down like most of the runners, Matt was still speeding up and clocked a 5:33 for his final mile split before upping it to 5:22 pace for the last third of a mile.

Reaching the finish line in a time of 2:40:11, he’d finished in 1,445th place overall out of 30,769 finishers. He’d actually gone through marathon distance in just under 2:39 but the distance had come up slightly long, possibly due to starting too far back in the pen and have to weave in and out of traffic.

It was definitely that that cost him the sub 2:40, as it had slowed him down too much over those first few miles. Nevertheless, it was an outstanding run from Matt and was a PB he had to be proud of.

Once again, his race strategy had worked and had seen him perform very strongly at the end when others around him were most likely flagging. That’s probably the best way to run a marathon.

Even though he didn’t quite crack the sub 2:40 on this occasion, he knows he has the capability to do it and at next year’s Valencia Marathon, there’s every chance he’ll do it.

It’s always a learning process though and next year he’ll know not to start off too far back in the pen and to ensure he’s near the front and can get into his rhythm more quickly. His average pace for the run came out at 6:03 for the 26.4 miles he covered and it was quite remarkable the way he was able to up his pace over the last 10 miles.