The Marathon

Background:

Back in my 20’s (and early 30’s) I frequently said I’d run a marathon someday, but not until I felt like I could do it in under 4 hours. Then, seven years ago I ruptured my left Achilles tendon, had a horrible rehab, and said it was clear that I would never manage a marathon. A couple of years after the rupture, I tried running a few times, and developed tendonitis in my right Achilles. My doctor told me not to run anymore, and for a couple more years I didn’t. Then I went to see a sports Dr, who told me she thought I could try running lightly, get PT, orthotics and start gradually. I did start slowly, and last year I ran my first half marathon in 1:51. I’ve continued to have some pain in my right Achilles, but not as bad as when I saw the sports Dr, and my feeling was that if I was ever going to run a marathon, this was the year.

Training:

I’ve been training since January, using a modified Hidgon Novice 1 program, modified to add another 20 miler, and one very low mileage recovery week after the first 20 miler.

I set my goal to 4:10, and was planning to run at 5:55/km (9:32/mile). This seemed like a conservative goal, but in the last weeks I’ve wondered if I could hit it, some of the runs have been tough (but the weather has been brutal this spring too).

The Race:

I couldn’t believe how nervous I was yesterday. My wife said I looked green – and I thought I was hiding it well! I was worried about everything, and just wanted to get started. I did sleep some, but not much, and got up at 3:45 to have breakfast 3 hours before the 7AM start. Last minute panic, I realized I was on the wrong side of the barricades from the bag check, and had to jump the barricade, and run to the bag check as the national anthem was being sung. When I got back in (jumping the barricade again), I realized I was lined up too far forward. I did move back some, but wound up around the 4 hour crew.

The start was ok, and as expected a lot of people were passing me. Just before 10:00 in, I heard what sounded like a heard of elephants coming behind me. Turned out is was a 4 hr pace bunny, doing a 10 min run, 1 min walk, and just after passing me they started to walk. I moved left, and saw another 4 hr pace bunny, doing a continuous run. As the 4 hr bunnies & crowds moved in front, I decided to see how their pace would feel, so I started to run about 30 meters behind the big mob of 4 hr runners. It was nice there, lots of space since most people around that time seemed to be flocking to the bunnies, and I stayed there for a while. I hit the 10k mark at 56:22, about 3 min too fast, but feeling great. So I kept following the pace bunnies, wondering what the average pace should be for that goal, and held that position until the 20 km mark. Around 13 km my right Achilles started to hurt, but it never really got much worse than it was at that point. The second 10 k took 56:54, I was hit the halfway mark with an average pace of 5:35/km(9:01/mile).

Just after the 20 km mark, I realized I had slowed, and picked it back up to a comfortable pace. This is when it got strange. I passed both 4 hr pace bunnies and their crowds. Now I was worried, but feeling good, and there was lots of space in front of the 4 hr crowd too. The third 10 km took 55:44, and I started to pass lots of runners. At this point I was waiting for something bad to happen, I didn’t really think I could hold that pace. The next 10 km took 56:11. I was dog tired at this point, but knew I could make it. My average pace in the second half was 5:25/km (8:44/mile) – a negative split!!! My finish time (chip) was 3:56:51. I had a smile on my face from about the 10km mark till the finish, and kept hearing people yell at me to keep smiling. It was a great day.

My legs are very sore now, and my right Achilles isn’t happy with me, and is swollen and a bit red. So, I have no idea if this will be my only marathon (hope not), but if it is, I can live with it.

Five Days Left

Five days till race day and I'm feeling pretty good. Nervous sure, but physically pretty good. I've had heaps of energy on my last couple runs, 12 km Sunday, 5 km this morning. There's still a bit of a twinge in my right Achilles, but it isn't bothering me during my runs. I'll plan to keep icing it every evening, and doing some stretches during the day. It doesn’t really feel any different than it did when I started training, so I'm hopeful that it won't be an issue.

The forecast for Race day is currently around 5 degrees C at 7AM, with a high around 20 degrees. I'm trying to figure out how to dress for the start. I tried doing my run this morning in shorts and a singlet, with the temperature at 4 degrees C (wind chill of zero). Short summary: I need more clothes than that at the start Sunday, my arms and hands were frozen.