Cardiff marathon

Recovering from yesterday's Cardiff marathon - my fifth race over the distance. The plan was to do this simply to get a good time, but in the end we decided to make a family weekend of it - stopping at Gilfach farm and St Fagans on the way down and enjoying the city. It was a nice event and a good course for decent times - the two laps weren't as psychologically tough as I'd thought. I can't decide whether I ran the perfect race or failed to push it enough. Virtually every mile was 8 minute pace, to within a few seconds. Went through the half way point with Dave exactly as planned - just under 1:45. Slowed very slightly along the windy barrage, but then picked it up again and maintained the pace right through to the fantastic millennium stadium finish (the north face of the Eiger made a superb finish to the Jungfrau marathon and this was a great, but almost equally exhilerating, contrast). Managed 3:27, and at least I now have a non-embarrassing marathon time. But I'll have to push a bit harder next time, moving towards the sub-3 hr. I still have to concede that I'm more suited to 10k distance.