Well what a day. I am sitting here with a cup of tea and a few chocolate biscuits as this post could take all night. This has to rank as one of my best ever days running as it was just such a great event with great friends, great support and pretty good conditions. It really was everything running a marathon should be. There were times when you felt you could run forever, times when you just wanted to walk and give the whole thing away and of course the runners high when you realise you are going to achieve all your goals when you have asked yourself some tough questions and answered them all.

I know this sounds pretty dramatic but ask everybody who finished today and they all have their stories containing questions that had to be asked, time in the pain box, mental battles with fatigue and generally we all come out better at the other end. Funny thing now is I can only really remember the good things, like the last 10k with a tail wind and legs that had something left for the run home, finishing strong and getting a sub 2:45 time, 7th overall finish and 2nd in my age group. The feeling of running down runners who are far quicker then me (albeit they were probably injured.) and the relief when you see the finishing chute finally. Man,  running gives you so much on days like these.

First of all lets break the race down into manageable chunks. With all marathons I’m a big believer in the first 21k is really where you should be relaxed and if you start to question yourself before halfway you are in for a world of pain. Proper training and a realistic goal should make the first 21k hard but achievable. Today was different. I had been second guessing myself since the Rottnest half. The week on Rotto’ after the half was probably not the most ideal training and although I ran twice a day I was certainly fatigued. This manifested in a good Masters 5k but not the PB I was hoping for. Thus the seed of ‘self doubt‘ was planted and then along came his partner in crime ‘weight gain‘ when I weighed myself yesterday and found to my horror I was 2kg heavier than 3 weeks ago. (I remarked to my Wife Karen in Yelo Saturday morning, while eating a chocolate and banana muffin, I had ‘let myself go‘, to her amusement !)  Thus for the first 21k I was certainly running quicker than I should have really , given the conditions, but knew I was running in 3rd place in the age group so this is where I needed to be.

So as the course is a two lap course we started the second lap into a head wind which I knew would be my partner until the 32k mark and the last turnaround before the run for home. This was a double whammy as I felt this was not going to be my day and could feel myself thinking about all the (wrong) reasons to justify a slower second half. When I started to do the maths, adding on 1:30 for the second half, I knew I was in trouble. I managed to struggle to the narrows bridge and into the head wind from hell (I am assuming in hell you would probably be faced with a head wind as I suspect Lucifer is the sort of demon who would find that amusing. I, of course, will never find out as we all know BK will one day be God’s training partner.)

I digress. My mate Jeff managed to catch up with me at 28k (on his bike) when I was at my worst, slowing down and thinking of so many reasons that I could justify stopping. This is what running a marathon is all about. These times when you ask yourself some really hard questions, give yourself the easy way out and then decide to get back in the pain box and shut the door behind you. I reached a decision to get to 32k and introduce myself to the tail wind I knew was waiting for me.

32k, as already discussed, the ‘death zone’ for runners. If you are going to have a bad day it will normally start around this distance. Training, character, nutrition, fuel all get you so far, at 32k it’s time for the mental part of marathon running to take over. This is what running marathons is all about, the last 10k. As I have already discussed this is where the Noakes ‘Governor’ kicks in and the mind works with his old friend ‘fatigue’ to slow you down. (Commonly known as ‘hitting the wall‘) Surprisingly this time I had managed to convince myself that if I could get to 32k the tail wind would ‘caress’ me home. This was all I needed, instantly with a tail wind I was reinvigorated and knew the last 10k would be challenging but do-able. My race was saved. This proved to be the way it panned out and I even managed to move from 3rd to 2nd in my age group and catch a WA running legend Todd Ingraham , albeit an injured Todd Ingraham.  Finished 7th overall, 2nd in my age group and even part of the Australian team who won gold as our combined times was nearly 2 hours quicker that the British who were second.

So what did I learn about today. When you race a marathon it never gets any easier. I certainly had to dig deep, real deep, to pull this one out of the fire. The City to Surf and Perth earlier in the year were both a lot more pleasant, I won’t say easier. I went out too hard and ‘trusted my training’ to get me home in one piece and with the help of the tail wind I got the job done. For marathon number 41 I may have once more managed to avoid ‘paying the piper‘ but this time he was close, real close.

Other highlights of the day. The support on the course was just amazing. I tend to keep my head down and try and zone out during a marathon so if it looked like I ignored you, believe me I didn’t. Every shout of ‘go bk’ was registered and helped,  trust me. Of course I must mention Tom Millard and his family for the ‘Run BK Run’ sign at South Perth, that made my day and I certainly made a big effort not to let them down as I passed. Thanks guys.

Myself, Mike and Mark stayed around for the awards ceremony which actually took longer than the marathon but was worth hanging around for just to be inspired by the runners taking the stage. We learnt a lot from the national anthems and specifically Chile has the longest national anthem in the world. Hearing it for the first time we all assumed the recording was stuck as it seemed to go for ever. Imagine our amusement when about 10 minutes later it was played again. Those Chileans love their national anthem, and why wouldn’t you when it starts sounding like a Mozart tune and ends up more like Justine Bieber. We were also concerned for the two oldest Japanese runners who took to the stage when the wind was virtually at typhoon stage each holding large Japanese flags. At one point I was convinced we were going to lose them in a scene reminiscent of the opening scene of the Wizard of Oz !

My training posse also preformed admirably with Damien and the two Marks grabbing silver in their age group as the second fastest 35-40 age group team ‘in the world’. Well done lads. Mark C. also threw in a 29 minute PB , bringing his marathon time down from 3:33 to 3:04. I can’t take all the credit , the City beach pancakes and a ‘speed beard’ would have also contributed to this biblical PB. If he keeps repeating this feat he’ll be the first man to run sub 2 hours at the City to Surf in August next year. Now that would be worthing blogging about !

Finally a big thank you to the  West Australian Marathon Club ( http://www.wamc.org.au ) and the army of volunteers. An outstanding job and it sounds like this could be the last time the World Masters holds the marathon as part of the bi-annual games, which is a pity but what a way to go out.

Right I may treat myself to another cup of tea…….