June 2018
Next month I’m racing my tenth City to Surf marathon as one of only 20 or so runners who have completed all the previous nine running’s. ( http://perthcitytosurf.com ) It is very rare in a runners career to be able to enter the inaugural marathon of a big city and although Perth has the West Australian Marathon Club event, which has been going for nearly 40 years, the City to Surf event only started in 2009. It holds a special place in my heart as it was my first sub three marathon and I’ve been lucky enough to finish top 10 on a number of occasions and even ran with the No1 bib a few times. There was even the year I ran with a named bib after my mate Rhys nabbed the No1 bib, I had to go one better and convinced Rhys numbered bibs were so ‘last year’ and it was all about names now. It did feel good to run with ‘Matthews’ on my chest, maybe not running the Kenyan times but it made one balding, bearded old runner feel like a Kenyan, albeit on the inside.
Although there are some hills on the course I consider them marathon friendly in that they are short, sharp inclines followed by long drawn-out declines. This allows you to gain back any lost time and maybe even bag a few extra seconds. Of course there is ‘heartbreak hill’ at the 39k mark which is a 2km hill of pain asking some serious questions. Of course there is a 1km stretch to the finish after this ‘tester’ that allows you to explode into the finishing chute. ( Funny story with that finishing stretch, I’m sure every year they move the finish further and further down the road as my ‘finish sprint’ seems to become a tempo/steady run by the end, whereas years ago it was a threshold from start to finish ? Maybe it’s just me ?)
Of course there was the infamous short course of 2017 where it was not accurately measured and was probably 500m short. Trust me I personally was not that worried and even managed to sneak under 2:50 for the marathon thanks to the generous course. Of course I was outside my PB by nearly 10 minutes but my friend Mark C. ran a PB but always has a hard time defending the result to us ‘true marathon runners’. (He also has a dubious half time on a short course as well, maybe he’s just lucky ?) Unfortunately I hear this year the course has been re-measured, pity
The City to Surf has also been my fastest marathon on two occasions and , on average, my fastest full stop. I’ve ran 2:58, 3:03, 2:49, 2:45, 2:41, 2:49, 2:48, 2:41, 2:49 , the only blemish running over sub3 was in 2010 when my Garmin stopped at the start and I fell off the back of the pack at around 15k leaving me to run the rest of the race alone with no idea of time. The day was also humid as hell and I was wearing a Chevron sponsored top which didn’t fit well. I gave myself lots of reasons not to run sub3 that day and , with hindsight, could have done things differently. For the next few years I ran with two Garmins just to sure this never happened again and have only recently started to run with just one Garmin as my co-pilot.
The photo below is one of my favourite of the 2010 event with Jon realising I was dropping off the pace and ‘encouraging‘ me to speed up. Around this time in my running career I would use Jon as my pacing yardstick and would try and stay with him for as long as possible before he scuttled off into the distance and left me to finish alone. It took until the City to Surf marathon in 2011 until I was able to beat him to line and that was only in the last few hundred metres where I felt gravity helped me more than Jon due to my long legs and extra weight. Truth be told I felt a bit guilty as we were together for the fist 41k and even discussed our finishing strategy but as soon as I smelt the finish line and saw the ocean it was ‘on for young and old’ and all previous conversations were forgotten, that’s racing.
Another bonus of the City to Surf marathon is the marathon tent which, as the name suggests, is for marathon finishers only. In the good old days of the Oil and Gas boom (the event is sponsored by Chevron.) this tent was a magical place filled with muffins of all flavours, sports drinks, massage tables, changing rooms (well a changing room?) and a tribe of helpers who attend to your every need. Unfortunately those days are long gone and the marathon tent even disappeared for a year before a public outcry persuaded the organises to reinstate this ‘business class’ lounge of the running world.
So anybody who is reading this in Australia needs to get themselves to Perth on August 26th and take part in one of the most scenic marathons on the planet. From the website :-
The Marathon is considered the most picturesque course in Australia. Perth’s best natural assets are on show starting from the colonial heritage of the CBD on St Georges Tce and finishing on the lush parklands of City Beach. The course traverses past the crystal waters of the Swan River and the iconic Old Swan Brewery, through the beautiful grounds of the University of Western Australia and alongside the botanical wonder of Kings Park.
It forgets to mention the ‘Surf‘ bit of the City to Surf, in this case one of the best beaches in Perth, namely City Beach, where me and the boys normally meet every Sunday morning before setting off on another long run pre-pancakes at Clancys cafe, when they are on the menu of course. The other option is the infamous waffles which is good but not in the same league as the pancakes. I hear on the grapevine that pancakes are in at the moment so I’d recommend you pop along quickly…
After the Australian Masters Championship in April this year my running literally fell off a cliff. All of a sudden I was struggling to make 10k and pulled the plug on quite a few training runs early. Now this for me is unheard off ! A few times I even had that ‘sit on a fallen tree trunk and ponder ‘why am I doing this ?’ feeling’. As anybody who knows me will testify this is not what I do. I love running and for the last 10 years have made it my goal in life above all others to improve, everything has been sacrificed for this and I mean everything. They say you can do two things well and for me it’s running and family, though maybe my kids will disagree on the second point. The first point though is something that nobody can argue I don’t put in 100%. Dark nights, early mornings, hot midday runs are all taken onboard gladly and I’m always looking to the next race as one I will try and run faster than I have ever ran before. As I have said many times if I have a bib on my chest ‘it’s on for young and old’ , every race.
After a couple of visits to the Doctors and a blood test it was confirmed I had just run myself down with a poor diet of late not able to sustain my running program. This was purely self inflicted but a big lesson to learn. (My skip lunch diet and just eat free fruit at work is one to avoid apparently. You may drop a few kilos but feel like ‘weak as a kitten‘ constantly and are unable to run. Not one of my brightest ideas!) No matter how good the engine if it runs out of fuel you stop, you can be the best runner in the world but with no fuel you still stop, simple really. I have said it so many times nutrition and hydration are so important and it really is common sense but sometimes even the most experienced runners forget this. Cost me 3-4 weeks of running on empty and generally questioning ‘why I was doing what I was doing’.? A few steak dinners later and a small fortune on supplements (still not sure about these but just in case….???) and my running is back, albeit curtailed by Plantar Fasciitis lately so mostly round and round grass ovals.
For racing success you need the grind of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly training, it doesn’t happen over night unfortunately. Once you reach a certain standard your goal is to maintain or improve.Of course other factors start to creep into the equation. I remember reading recently that the reason Kenyans do so well in marathons, and running generally, is their life is uncomplicated. Not for them the worry of mortgage payments, second cars, interest rates, credit card bills, private education or college fees for our American cousins. All these eventually start to wear down the Western runner. All the Kenyans worry about is should they have two teaspoons of sugar in their tea or should they splash out and have three, bless ’em. ? (I suppose in the back of their mind is always the possibility of getting eaten on their run but we probably have more chance of getting run over ? Swings and roundabout really…) An uncomplicated life makes a happy, better, runner and unfortunately we all seem to have forgotten this.
This week was the perfect example of this. So far this week my weekly total is 10k where I planned at least 50-60k as I’m tapering for the Perth marathon. (I digress but this aways reminds me of my mate Mike Adams who would always produce all these weekly predictions of massive totals and more often than not come nowhere near to hitting them, a lot of the times just flat lining with an injury. We joked that in planning there are many curves to record progress, the early curve, late curve, bell curve etc.. We always reckoned there should be the ‘Mike Adam’s flatline’ curve , basically just a straight line moving along the date axis on zero. The things you talk about on long runs. Sorry Mike ).. What happened you may ask ? Life just got in the way. I’m just about to complete a four unit development and as the same time we are submitting a tender at work in which I am heavily involved. Add into the mix the worst weather in Perth for many a year, what the English would call Summer, i.e. constant rain. Finally a head cold and Plantar Fasciitis finished me off and my running was a non starter. On the bright side I had enough sugar for my tea so at least that was a positive and we even managed to find a carton of Yorkshire Tea bags at work, best tea in the world accordingly to my mate Steve Dale ? This also explain this being the first post for nearly a month. The image below of my last few weeks sums it up perfectly, all consistency out the window, and as I have always maintained consistency is the key to running success.
Right, the point of this post is to improve your running you need to work on the mental side as well as the physical and to this end make your life as simple as possible. Concentrate on good diet, as much sleep as possible and an uncomplicated social and professional life, basically make running your number one priority. As I mentioned at the start of this post you can do two things well in life, make one of them running. (Maybe best to keep that last snippet of information to yourself and not mention it to your significant other, just saying.) As always this ain’t rocket science but sometimes it just needs someone to state the obvious for you to take stock and reevaluate. I’ll say it again but the old saying ‘if the furnace is hot enough it’ll burn anything’ is basically crap, concentrate on your diet and make it the best it can be, within reason. Let’s face it you’re probably not an Olympic athlete and thus do not need to make the sacrifices they make but if you are serious about your running and want to be the best you can be then a good diet is paramount to success. Weight loss is 80% diet and 20% exercise so lets make some easy inroads and watch what we eat. (and that doesn’t mean eating with your eyes open !!!….)
