I have mentioned numerous times on this blog that in a marathon the winner is the runner who slows the least. At 32k the race begins proper, all the training then comes into play. Basically the last 10k is what all those late nights and early mornings were about. All that family time you gave up, all the social nights you avoided and all that lovely food you discarded ; it all was for this last 10k. You need to keep this in mind when the time comes and the piper demands paying, because I guarantee he will. Trust in your training and you’ll smash through that mental wall that all runners encounter at 32k, it is where the body can no longer supply the energy needed to continue at the pre-32k pace, this is where the mind starts to play games and introduces the runners mortal enemy ‘fatigue‘ into the mix.

When fatigue comes calling you need to realise this is your mind protecting your body the only way it knows how but this central governor , as Tim Noakes calls it, can be bypassed but it takes experience.  Personally when I get to 32k now I switch over the ‘finish mode‘ but I’ve ran 43 marathons and 18 ultra-marathons so experience has given me the confidence to do this.

That’s not to say the 42k distance is now a walk in the park. Somewhere within the marathon you have to dig deep, ask yourself some serious questions and face your demons; this is what makes marathon racing so addictive. For me now it’s between 21k and 32k, at 21k I dig myself a big hole and then spend 10k trying to get out of it !! Will the full 42k ever be easy, no, not if you race it. For elite runners, park runners or even weekend warriors somewhere in the marathon they have to ‘hurt’, it’s just a case of how much ‘hurt’ you are prepared to put up with. Slow down enough the hurt goes away but thats not racing , that completing and it’s a whole different animal. We don’t complete marathons we race them. 

Of course for some ‘completing’ marathons is a goal in itself and thus they hurt as much as the runners racing. That is fine and a marathon is a different challenge for each of us, the most important thing is you need to be able to look yourself in the eye afterwards (with a mirror I assume?) knowing you gave it your all.

Right back to the point of this post. A good marathon runner will have a small time margin between the first half of the race and the second, a small positive split is a sign of a proper paced race; I believe anything less than 5 minutes between the first 21k time and the second shows a good pacing strategy. If you negative split I maintain you probably went out too slow and could have run quicker but keep in mind that doesn’t mean setting a half PB in the first 21k of the race, this normally (actually always) ends in tears. I think in my 43 marathons I may have ran a negative split once or trice but no more. I have ran a + 1-5 minute positive split on a number of occasions and this is now the norm, remember what I said about experience.  In fact the last time I really blew up in a marathon was 4 years ago, since then all have been in the 1-5 minute range. This is not to say racing marathons gets any easier, hell no, I’d even say they get harder but with experience I’m mentally better prepared and can deal with the pain. I’m not selling marathon racing am I ? All this talk of pain, hurt , fatigue, the mind protecting them body.

Unfortunately racing marathons hurts , there is no sugar coating it but it does have its positives. Finishing strongly and achieving your goal is life changing and you will be a better person for it. This translates into everything you do, it takes a special person to race a marathon and push themselves, once you have achieved this you take the experience into your family life, work life and social life. You feel stronger and more empowered and as everybody knows the best part about finishing a marathon is letting everybody know about it. (?)

Over the weekend two of the boys ran great times but may have been a tad over zealous in the early parts of their respective  events. Jon ran 3 hours 2 minutes at Bunbury for the marathon and won his age group but for the first 10k he looked like he may have been confused about the distance he was running as he was cruising along at sub 2 hour 46minutes marathon pace. This was all good for 10k but then the mind realised what was going on and put the handbrake on. Jon then struggled for the next 32k but still managed to pull an age group win out of the bag and a respectable time. Funnily enough I did the same thing at Bunbury in 2014 and still find it difficult to contemplate a return, the mental scars run deep.

At the same running carnival the T-train blew a gasket with 10k to go in the 50k ultra-marathon. He was chasing another great runner who had blown his head gasket moments earlier, but in a more spectacular  fashion it seems. Tone still managed a great time of 3 hours 35 minutes but was on for a sub 3:30, his initial goal, until the wheels fell off the cart and he had to work very hard to keep moving forward. This proves it can happen to the best runners. Between the two of them Jon and Tony would probably have well over 100 marathons and ultras to draw on but both got their initial pace wrong and paid the price. Luckily they are mentally strong and kept moving forward, enough that both finished well up the field. The T-train even won his event. !

Pacing can also go bad in shorter distances. In my previous post I described the Bridges 10k I had run last year, blowing a gasket at 5k and hanging on for dear life. Well it seems there’s no fool like an old fool as I replicated the same race a year later, albeit 13 seconds quicker. Yet again I set off at 5k pace and suddenly realised at 5k why they call it 5k pace. ! Made the next 5k more of a challenge I suppose, no point making it too easy. On the bright side I ran under 35 minutes for the Bridges 10k for the fist time at the 6th attempt so it wasn’t a complete disaster but there has to be a better way, surely ? Before the race I had predicted (hoped for?) a top 10 finish, an age group win and a sub 35 minute time, ended up 9th , first in 50-60 age group (how did I get so old, I much prefer the 5 year age group groupings  , 50-55 sounds so much better ?) and 34:59:49 so all goals achieved but not the most pleasant 10k race I’ve ever ran.  Luckily in a 10k race the worse that can happen is you explode at 5k and hang on, not so in a marathon or ultra. Jon and Tone worked very hard in their respective races to dig themselves out of the holes they had dug for themselves, this comes with experience and mental toughness can be acquired over time, maybe you can teach old dogs new tricks, maybe…….

So to sum up this post,  because as always I have digressed , for any distance draw upon your previous experience and training to dial in a ‘race pace‘ and stick to it. You will always feel like going quicker at the start but this will come back and bite you at the finish , and then some.  Remember for a marathon it’s a 10k race with a 32k warm up, the race really does start at 32k and it is in the last 10k you will make or break the race. Pace it right and you’ll continue to the finish at your race pace feeling like a million dollars as you pass the rest of the field, and you will run past so many runners if you just maintain your pace, no need to speed up they’ll just come back to you. Get the pace wrong and the final part of the race will become a mental battle between you and your demons, which in itself is a learning experience and can be beneficial long term but the proper pacing option is so much easier , so lets aim for the first option.