This weekend was the 45th City To Surf race and the eleventh running of the marathon for this iconic Perth event. I’ve been lucky enough to run nine of the ten marathons,  missing out last year due to plantar fasciitis, a runners worst nightmare. This year I set my expectations a tad lower than usual as I was using the race as another indicator for the Perth Running Festival Marathon in October. Together with the Rottnest Marathon, earlier in the year,  the goal was to run a comfortable and controlled sub 3 marathon saving something in the tank for later in the season.

Conditions at the start were perfect, around 10 degrees with no wind. This made for a fast start as the first three kilometres are slightly down hill. Normally I don’t recommend banking time but in this case , when the opportunity is this good, you just need to go for it.  Running with the T-train and a turbo charged Jon we were soon rattling along at half marathon pace. Now hurtling along at half marathon pace in a half marathon is a good thing, in a marathon , not so much. My plan was to stick with the boys until half way and then back off and cruise home for a sub 3 finish. Going through 10k in less than forty minutes I decided discretion was the better part of valour and let the lads disappear into the distance , while I dropped a few gears and set the auto-pilot to 4.10min/k pace, far more civilised.

If you have never run the Perth City to Surf marathon you really are missing out on a treat. It must be up there with the best marathons in the world , with views to die for. The start is 6am , so its still dark , as you wind your way through the deserted CBD before moving along the Swann River on Riverside Drive and then passing the iconic Swan Brewery , as the sun rises, into Nedlands, one of the most affluent suburbs in Perth. I enjoy the Nedlands part of the course as you move from one street lined with mega-mansions to another,  and then through pristine parks  , before cruising through the deserted University of WA grounds and starting your 10k of hills in Kings Park.

Kings Park is another iconic symbol of Perth and running through it,  while it showcases its natural beauty,  is an honour , to do it as part of a marathon is a privilege. Of course there are hills but they are also part of the challenge and a reminder that a marathon is both a mental and physical test. This part is very much physical, the mental bit comes later of course as you move into the post 32k ‘death zone’.  

Exploding out of Kings Park you are then rewarded with 3-4 kilometres of undulating, downhill section as you move through Subiaco, another one of Perth’s best suburbs. This really is the marathon that keeps on giving. Finally you run past Bold Park and over Oceanic Drive to be faced with City Beach, in my view the best beach in Perth. The marathon is more a guided tour of all the best Perth has to offer,  with a medal at the end, priceless.

So back to the race. I left off earlier with me dropping down through the gears,  leaving the T-train running towards a top 5 finish and a 5 minute PB to finish in 2:45. Jon was five minutes behind him just missing out on a sub 2:50 finish, 8th I think overall. Personally I had targeted a 2:55 finish, a 2 minute improvement on my 2:57 at Rottnest in June this year. Truth be told it all went to plan and, after banking time and going through 15k with a 4min/k average , I allowed myself to slow to a 4:09min/k average pace and crossed the line in 2:55:27, mission accomplished.  How easy was it typing that, very easy, how easy was the marathon , not so easy. If you race a marathon it’s never easy, its not meant to be.

A marathon needs to be broken down into manageable chunks. The first 10k should be where you set out your stall, so to speak. Start depending on the terrain, for example the City to Surf is slightly downhill for the first three kilometres and normally very cold, this is perfect to bank a few minutes to be used later in the race. Faced with a hilly start you need to do the opposite and start slower than marathon pace to save energy for later in the day. A marathon is all about choosing your battles. The next 10k or so , too halfway,  is about locking in marathon pace and preparing for what I consider the hardest part of any marathon, the 10k between halfway and 32k.

From halfway to 32k is when it’s going to hurt. You’ve ran a half already and you’re now probably maintaining a pace at a distance that you rarely, if at at all, run in training. Your long runs are normally long and slow, more of a time on feet run and your tempos are not normally past 21k. Thus you rarely run over 21k at marathon pace and between 21k and 32k you will start to feel the pain,  that is long distance racing. This is where you need to dig deep and just get to the final part of the race, the finish quarter. At 32k , personally, I switch into finish mode.

With less than 10k to go I know I probably hold on and if the first 32k have gone to plan I’ll be there, or there abouts, to my predicted finish time. Mentally I can feel the mind relaxing a bit and the central governor releasing its hold on  the body.  One of my runnings hero’s David Goggin’s  once said that the central governor protects the body by only allowing us to use 40% of what we are capable of. By working on our mental strength we can find another 60% , imagine that , 60% improvement ! Endless possibilities, beats spending $350 on a pair of Nike Vaporflys for a 4% improvement, David Goggins can get you 10 times that by using one of his ‘suck it up pills‘ or eating concrete to harden up, you get the picture. ( https://davidgoggins.com )

So the marathon went to plan really. First 10k felt good and I banked time to be used in the hilly second half. Up to halfway I set auto pilot to just over 4min/k pace and enjoyed the ride. The 10k in Kings Park was challenging , as expected but the following 10k to the finish was easier and although the last few hills beat the hell out of your legs the end is in sight. All in all another great marathon , in perfect conditions with good friends. It doesn’t get any better truth be told and as the photo shows below running with good friends is what its all about.

Right the point of this post isn’t about my last marathon, my 45th in total, the point is to try to show you that whatever you consider your best really is just 40% of what you can achieve. Spend some time on the David Goggins website, get inspired and learn to loosen the grip the central governor has on your ability. It’ll be a whole lot cheaper than a pair of Nike Vaporflys and ten times as effective. Goggins is also the master of motivating memes and a favourite with me and my friends, it’s worth reading his books just for some of these little gems.

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