The lead up

This GC campaign was almost two years in the making.  Last year was a stinker for me with my appendix bursting on a flight home from Washington just pre the race, some heart issues during the operation and then breaking my ribs later in the year!

When I kicked off with CT in Feb at 90kgs I he was going to charges me an excess weight premium!! My first long runs were 12 slow ks, in the heat and sweating like a world champion. He progressively built up the mileage and I endeavoured to run with the Centennial Park crew.  I was dropped off every week and didn’t really even speak to anyone (because I couldn’t!).  Week by week  progressively made it further until I could stay with the group and finally join the chat.  I assure you, nothing constructive was said or heard.

Preparation was good with zero injuries and only one 10 day European distraction a week out from the race.

There were originally four of my triathlon geek mates looking to toe the line however in the end they couldn’t race.  Enda was there as well.

Race goal was low 2:50’s, any quicker and I’d blow for sure and any slower and I would be disappointed.

Race day

Because I sweat so much I load up on salt.  I had six tablets when I woke and two more at 10, 20 & 30ks.  It wasn’t enough as it turns out!

Race day was less than ideal with a big down pour about 3 min before the race start.  I’m used to running in wet shoes anyway so no big deal!

I took off and planned to try and stay with Enda.  Almost immediately he started playing mind games and stopped to tie up his shoe about 400m into the race.  I always try and not go out too hard and actually felt like I was bludging for the first k.  I ended up doing a 3:52 so I slowed down and just let people run away from me.

I hate the first few ks of a marathon before you are getting into a groove and when you are too far out to commence the count down.  I ended up getting into a group of guys at about 5ks and stayed with them…the next few miles went by relatively uneventfully with my 5k splits no more than 30 seconds difference between the slowest and fastest for 35ks!

Things started turning ugly when Enda joined the group at 28ks.  He kicked off by telling me how shit he was feeling and then picked up the pace.  We were on camera for a couple of ks as we ran over the bridge.  As Enda isn’t accustomed to being in front of a camera he got a little frisky and accelerated up over the two hills at the start line.  I had to let him go.

At 32ks I was starting to feel pretty rooted to be honest. I had nothing left to try and stay with the evil Irishman.  As I watched him skip off into the distance it made me realise why so many people don’t like him!

At the far turnaround I was starting to really feel the pinch and my legs started cramping.  I was no longer on for a low 2:50 but still had plenty of gap for going sub 3 again and keeping my 10 year record intact. With 4 ks to go things went south very quickly with my right and then left hammy seizing up with cramp.  I was at a complete standstill.  A little bit of panic started to creep in.  It was a 5:50 k and time was literally slipping through my fingers.  As soon as I’d start to run again my hammies would go.  This happened 4-5 times and then I just had to jog slowly.

I actually felt a little relieved when I realised that I was no longer going to go sub 3 hours as if I had to sprint to get under I would have killed myself.  I wasn’t seeing straight towards the end with tunnel vision and everything going black and white.  I dribbled over the line slower than Timmy up to buy a round at the bar.  And there he was…that evil little Irishman standing there after executing a perfectly paced race to secure his Boston spot standing there waiting for me and helping me away to the recovery area.

Post Mortem

So in the end 3.01.54.  It all came down to those last 5ks where I dropped 5 minutes.  1-10ks was 4.06 pace.  10-20ks was 4.06 pace.  20-30ks was 4:10 pace.

Looking back I think I was just a little complacent about the marathon distance and it hurt me.  I didn’t have any of those sessions in the lead up where I felt I smashed it (all relative here people!!).  I was sick for a couple of weeks and although I didn’t miss any sessions I’d say I completed them rather than really stuck to the program.  I’m also too old to go on the piss for 10 days in the lead up to a marathon.

So my 30^th marathon was a stinker.  I lick my wounds and refocus on another one.  To be continued…