Marathons
Last Saturday night I was getting ready for the Perth City to Surf Marathon the next morning, going through the runners conundrum of deciding how late you can set the alarm while factoring in eating and at least three toilet stops? I was going to run my 10th City to Surf in a row, part of a small group of runners who had the run the previous nine since the inaugural one in 2009. This streak was important to me and even though I had been battling plantar fasciitis since April I was in a position where I thought I had a good chance of completing the race. Of course there was other issues I also had to deal with, as well as being a 10-in a row marathon I also had to consider my 27 in a row sub 3 streak dating back to 2010. I had (have) plans to try to at least get in 50 in a row before I eventually get dragged back to the pack, kicking and screaming.
So here I was at 9pm setting the alarm for the morning when Jon would pick me up and together with Mike, Adam, Chris, Mark and a few more we’d join together and try and break three hours. The foot felt good and I had ran twice the previous week, which compared to the weeks before was a ‘big week’. Gone were the 700km months and the 150km weekly average, since April my weekly average was 50km. This ultimately was what made the decision for me. One last check of Strava ( http://www.strava.com In Strava we trust.) and I made the call to Jon and became a DNS (Did Not Start) for the third time in my running career. (I couldn’t make the Disney Marathon , the four day event, in 2015 when Chevron decided they had too many planners and terminated my contract ; and last year I pulled a calf muscle a week before Bunbury thanks to Mark and his ‘cappuccino of injury’) Looking at the Strava extract below I think you’ll agree this was probably the right call.
How did it feel to pull the plug on a ‘Spartan’ run and also drop out of the ‘runners who have run all the Perth City to Surf Marathons’ group ? (For runners who run 10 of any marathon they become a ‘Spartan‘, don’t ask me why ?) It was absolutely devastating. I suppose because I had got so close, I even packed my bag for the big day, I had delayed the inevitable decision to the very last minute and had been kidding myself for weeks that there was a chance I could run. I should have been honest with myself from the outset and went about getting my foot better in April and May instead of ignoring the plantar fasciitis and just hoping it would go away. In my defense I’m probably not the first and I won’t be the last runner who has adopted this policy of denial, it is the ‘runners way’.
On the morning of the race I awoke to prefect conditions and took the boys out for a walk. (I have two Golden Retrievers, Sydney and Spencer) My Wife would have realised my mood was probably bordering on depression because she elected to come with me and I must admit while I waited in the car there was a tear or two as I thought about all that I was missing. Of course I composed myself before she joined me and the moment in the car was shared between me and my boys. I think they understood ?
What next ? Luckily for us marathon runners there is always a new goal and for me it’s Rottnest in late October. I have raced the Rottnest Marathon 11 times and finished top 5 on a number of occasions (last eight positions 4,12,5,4,2,6,3,2 ) with two second places, my last one being last year where I missed out by less than 30 seconds. At fifty-one years young I reckon I got one more podium in me and will start on a 10 week training block to make that happen. Will there be tears, hell yeah, will it be painful, of course, will I enjoy it, guaranteed. This is why I run, this is what inspires me, being the best I can be and beating my time from yesterday with a better time tomorrow. I’m racing me from last year and I’m sorry ‘2017 BK’; you’re going down !!!
Right, the point of this post after I have digressed for so long. As well as the lack of training there was also the mental aspect of marathon racing that I was struggling with. Over the last 2-3 months I had grappled with weight as I let the training disappear but still ate the same and, truth be told, maybe even turned to ‘comfort eating’ , (as a few of my training buddies have over the years, who shall remain nameless..) the old ‘I’ll start training in ‘x’ days, so might as well enjoy the downtime’. You need to be careful the ‘downtime’ doesn’t suddenly become the norm. I had certainly let myself go mentally and this was probably the deciding factor in the end. The extra three kilo’s, lack of running, possible injury and mentally not prepared, wow, when you type that out I’m surprised I got so close to actually starting. I really was in denial, big time ! Sitting on my bed at 9pm on Saturday evening all these points came and hit me like a ‘tsunami’ and the call was made. In the light of day it was the right call but at the time, and even now, it still hurts but that’s marathon racing, you need to have all your ducks in a row and be extremely lucky to even get to the start line fully prepared, when you do take a deep breath and soak it all in, the next forty two kilometres are what makes it all worthwhile.
The photo below shows the boys with their marathon finishers medals. Mike won his age group , 55-64, with a 2:59 finish (Is that an age group record for the run Mike?) while Jon was placed 11th overall and Mark L. made his Mum proud with another sub 3 finish. Mark C. is recovering from Boston, still!, and ran a good time for the 12k. Bart’s, far left of the picture, has a medal on but for the life of me I can’t understand how he got it or what he ran, if anybody knows let me know..!!!!
After writing this post I bumped into Mike on my lunch time run and he confirmed it was a City to Surf age group record, 55-64. His time of 2hours 59 minutes and 5 seconds beat the previous record by nearly a minute. Needless to say he is stoked as are we.
Monday of marathon week is a day to reflect on what has gone before and start preparing your mind and body for the good old fashioned ‘kicking‘ they are about to endure. There is no sugar coating the act of racing a marathon, it is a massive mental and physical test and any weakness will be found out and exploited, and we do this for fun ?
I’ve been booked in for a facebook video post tomorrow at The Running Centre ( http://therunningcentre.com.au/ ) where I will talk through my top 5 tips for the marathon week but might as well spill the beans here pre-podcast.
You cannot gain any fitness in marathon week. The ‘hay is in the barn’ and there really is no point trying to add more ! Me, personally, I’ll run an easy 10k Monday and then maybe one more Thursday and that’s it. There are other things to concentrate on this week, save the running for Sunday. Alternatively short, quick speed runs but watch your hammy and calf, you are so close, this week is more about prevention of injuries not encouraging them when you are tired after your training block. (You have been training right?) Maybe treat yourself to a relaxing massage but I’d avoid a hard sports massage this close to a marathon. A proper sports massage is painful and has been known, if done incorrectly, to do more damage than good. This week is all about gently gently does it, soothing tired muscles no beating the hell out of them.
Start thinking about your nutrition and hydraytion plan and while you’re doing that be drinking water or electrolytes. This week you need to spend a lot of time in a toilet moving liquids through your system. If you’re reading this and not holding a drink bottle then you need to go and get one. For race day you need to make sure you have a nutrition plan which will involve digesting a carboshotz ( https://shotznutrition.com.au/ ) or Gu ( http://www.guenergy.com.au/ ) or something similar every 45 minutes, more if you can stomach them.
I’m a big fan of carboloading and aim for 10g of carbohydrates for every kilogram of weight. So for a 70kg runner that’s 700g of carbohydrates a day for three days pre-marathon. Assuming the marathon is on a Sunday you’d start gorging of carbs from Thursday onwards. Please don’t go overboard by also gorging on sugar and fat; it is actually quite difficult to hit your carboloading target so some thought needs to go into your diet for those three days. Also carboloading only works if you are fully hydrated at all times, your urine should be clear and virtually drinkable (I’m assuming clear is virtually all water but have never actually tried drinking it, I leave that to Bear Grylls and my mate Ghosty) There is also a train of thought that you should deplete your glycogen stores pre-carboloading but this has shown not to be the case. With nutrition I am not expert (hard to believe I know?) so do your own research, what works for me may not work for other runners. Due to my Wife’s cooking I have an iron stomach and have never been adversely affected by any products while racing. If there’s a volunteer holding a packet of ‘X’ I’m taking it, c’mon it’s free why wouldn’t you ?
The marathon itself is the icing on the cake after all your months of training. The last 42km of your training, the race itself, is where you can enjoy yourself. This is why we do what we do. Don’t be scared by the challenge, more excited about the journey and the final destination. Of course there will be hard times along the way but always remember with every step you are nearer your end goal, the race is the real thing not a training run, with every step forward there is one less step to go.
Finally the most important tip of all, running a marathon is more mental than physical on race day. Some time during the race you will question why you are running and the easy option will be to slow , this is our good friend fatigue and he is here purely to protect your body, sent by the mind who is not convinced you can finish without blowing a head gasket. Every marathon I have ever raced I have wanted to stop , actually just about every race I have ever run I have wanted to stop, so far I never have. This is what Tim Noakes called the ‘Central Governor’ ( https://runnersconnect.net/central-governor-theory/ ) If you can master the mind, you can master the marathon’. I just made that up but I’m probably not the first to say it ? Anyhow, positive assurance/thinking is gold when you are running a marathon. See yourself finishing in the time you want and play that over and over again when you are in need of a pick-me up, think of all the things you have given up to be where you are and the sacrifices you and your family , and friends, have made to get you to this point in time. Use these thoughts to propel you to the finish. Every runner has their own mantra or reason that when the chips are down will help move them forward. All marathon runners need to find their mental toughness, it is pivotal to success but rarely mentioned in training programs. I’m mentioning it here and if you take nothing else from this post but this it has been a success. Research the central governor, it could be the difference between success and failure, if you can convince your mind you have everything under control you won’t be hearing from fatigue anytime soon.
Next Sunday I, hopefully , will be lining up for my 10th Perth Chevron City to Surf Marathon. This will be a first for me for a number of reasons. It will be the first time I have ran the same marathon event 10 years in a row. I was a similar streak for the Perth Marathon last year but was denied by a calf tear and missed it, funnily enough it was to be my 13th Perth Marathon and I missed it again this year because of plantar fasciitis. Maybe next year ? At the moment I reckon I am 50-50 for the City to Surf marathon but that didn’t stop me turning up for a photo shoot and an article that will appear in the local newspaper this weekend. Never been one to shy away from some great (or any?) publicity.
The main reason for my reluctance to commit to the City to Surf is a bigger streak I am currently on with my number of sub three hour marathon finishing g times, currently sitting at 27 in a row. Of course if I run the City to Surf and DNF I lose both streaks where as if I don’t run the City to Surf and wait until my PF is completely cured I reckon I got 10 years running sub 3 hour marathons. (or there about’s…) So do I roll the dice or take the easy option and stay in bed next Sunday and just pretend the City to Surf never happened. ?
Thinking about it just now I realized this would be my 13th City to Surf in a row, if you count the two half marathons I did the previous years before the marathon was added to the agenda. Must be a ‘13th’ thing, it really is an unlucky number ? Then again I’ve ran with ‘666’ on my chest on a number of occasions and have always ran well, funny that ? ( or not if there is in-fact an after life, a small price to pay for the number of sub three marathons surely?)
I am currently two sessions into a three session Extra Corporeal Shock Wave Therapy treatment plan with the final session scheduled in for next Monday, the week of the marathon. The foot will then be strapped up by the Doctor and I’ll start downing Voltaren like smarties for a few days. Please note I am by no means condoning taking anti-inflammatories ‘willy-nilly’ but in my case it is a risk I am willing to take, risk and reward people, risk and reward. As I always say to my many Daughters, ‘Do as I say , not as I do’; does that make me a bad parent, probably ? I’m confident with a shed-full of anti-inflammatories , the EWST treatment , the foot strapping, orthotics (unfortunately I don’t think the Nike Vaporflys 4% are built for orthotics so on race day I’ll probably run naked, that’s naked in relation to wearing orthotics!) and my high pain threshold (?) I’ll be able to finish and finish under three hours.
Fitness wise I am also rolling the dice as 3-4 months of only running slowly and on grass or trails will certainly have taken the edge of my general aerobic fitness. To compound the problem I’ve not run for nearly two weeks as I try and give the foot time to heal while I under-go ESWT. The only saving grace has been my Elliptigo which I have been using for the last week. I’m hoping this will keep my aerobic fitness level at sub3 levels. For anybody who needs a running fix without the pounding this , at the moment, is probably the best thing to use. (http://www.elliptigo.com ) I rode a 2 hour hills session on the GO today and it certainly gives you that feeling of a good ‘long run’ without the pounding that normally entails.
On a totally different subject this Thursday, 23rd August 7pm -9pm, I’ll be at the Run Nation Film Festival showing at the Luna Cinema in Leederville. ( https://runnationfilmfestival.com ) If you’re in Perth come along and say G’day. The film is currently doing the rounds in Australia so check out the website for your nearest showing. I watched the 2017 version and there were some great short stories, my favourite was obviously the runner who attempted the 48 hour track ultra with little or no training, it was brilliant. !
Yesterday I ran 17km in Kings Park in perfect conditions but limped to the finish after my plantar fasciitis flared up and I ended up just about crawling back to the office. I then spent the rest of the afternoon sulking at my desk as my right foot reminded me why you shouldn’t run 17k at lunch when you have plantar fasciitis. Treated myself (?) to a couple of Voltaren anti-inflammatory tablets and scurried home in a bad mood.
While I was in the changing rooms at work my colleague Sascha came in after his run and asked me “when does this start to become fun?”. He, like me, had had a poor lunchtime run and wondered, after over 6,000k’s of running (thanks Strava.), why he was still to experience the euphoria of running. In that time he had ran three marathons, over a two year period, but his last marathon was a disappointment. After the Perth Marathon in June Sascha has struggled to maintain the intensity of his pre-marathon training program but with another marathon less than a month away he is going through the motions. Unfortuantely going through the motions can come back and bite you , normally around the 32k mark of a marathon. With marathon training you need to be all-in from the first run to the last (the race itself). There’s no half-hearted effort as this will only lead to failure, you cannot hide from a marathon.
Sascha’s ultimate goal is the holy grail of most runners, the sub three hour marathon. This is one of the main running yardsticks by which runners can be measured, the other major one is, of course, distance. We’ll start with the sub 3 goal. Personally I chipped away at my times to get my first sub 3 marathon finish. It was in my 11th marathon when I achieved this time and I had dropped my times incrementally until then. I started at 3:54 (three times !) then 3:26, 3:25, 3:19, 3:12, 3.09. 3:06 and finally 3:05. It was the Perth City to Surf in 2009 when I ran my first sub3, was what more remarkable was the fact I ran this time without my now trusted “speed beard”…..see below. (Also the days of skins for racing, now mainly for recovery but always worth having a pair in your closet. https://www.skins.net/au/ )
This year I will run my 10th City to Surf and marathon number 44, in total, and will be hoping to break sub 3 for the 31st time, for me it’s about keeping that sub3 streak going for as long as possible. The image below was from last year where I managed a reasonable time mainly due to the course being 500m’s short. Funnily enough at the time I wasn’t that worried about the length of the course, just enjoying the finish straight, my favourite part of any marathon.
So is Sascha justified in being disappointed that, after over 6,000km’s of running, he feels his running has stagnated to such a point he questions why he is doing it ? If marathon finishing times is his main goal then yes he has grounds for a ‘please explain’ moment. In this case he needs to look at his training as personally I feel he is repeating the same training runs daily and not varying pace or distance. He is stuck in the trap that many runners fall into in that they are not building enough distance , albeit slowly, to build their aerobic engine; while at the same time wearing down their mind and body with runs that are too fast to be truly aerobic but too slow to be anaerobic (like thresholds, tempos or VO2 max runs) To quote Albert Einstein “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. I’ve mentioned this to Sascha on a number of occasions but he always ignores me, this came back to bite him recently at the Perth Marathon when he went out ahead of the 3hour 15minutes bus and came home many minutes behind it. Has he taken my advice on board post-Perth Marathon, at the moment no so we’ll see what happens in a few weeks at the Perth City to Surf. Confidence is low but he has a few weeks so maybe reading this post will energise him ?
So how can Sascha achieve his sub3 ? There are no short cuts in running marathons , he will basically have to either train harder or smarter; preferably both. Marathons reward training and “trust in your training” is a mantra I live by. Put in the hard work and you will be rewarded, this is a fact. (bar injury of course) If you are stagnating you need to look at your training and work out ways to change the outcome by changing your routine, either add distance or pace with a caveat of only adding pace after building the aerobic engine. In Sascha’s case I need him to probably add 10-15% a week to his daily training totals as well as adding a 10k tempo and a faster long run on the weekends, simple really. To really help his cause he should run twice a day a few times a week because, IMHO, nothing improves running better than running more. Finally he needs to get out of the runners trap of running his slow runs too fast and his fast runs too slow, ending up running yourself into the ground and into the arms of our mortal enemy ‘injury’.
Right back to the title of the post, why do we run? Every runner has a reason for putting on the trainers and getting out there, there are too many to list but you do need a reason. A run for no reason is not going to be an enjoyable experience, actually it probably isn’t even going to happen, truth be told. It’s not as if you’ll find yourself in the middle of a park , dressed in your running gear , wondering how the hell you ended up there, looking around in a daze ? Each of you needs to remind yourself once in a while why you do what you do and I hope it is because you just love running, it really can be that simple.
Of course you can make it more complex, like all things in life, by adding goals and motivational targets but these need to be secondary to your love of running. If you don’t love it you will eventually stop, common sense really. I’ve seen it so many times over the years when good friends have just disappeared off the running radar (this is now called Strava http://www,strava.com ) Like a good marriage you need to keep the relationship, with running, fresh and exciting, and this for me is why I race marathons and the odd ultra. These events keep me coming back for more and I’m as excited about my run tomorrow as my run yesterday or even my first run many years ago, this is why I keep doing what I’m doing….this is why I run.
Entries for one of the best trail races in WA opened this week and of course me and the boys all entered immediately. ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) The race itself is on Sunday December 16th , 2018 and this will be the 14th running, I think, and it’ll be my 10th time. (In a row if you don’t mind. Only Nate ‘Dog’ Fawkes has run all races with Jon “Trailblazer” Phillips second with 12 finishes..) This race is a perfect end to the year and sets you up for a long Xmas break before the Australia Day Ultra in January. We always stay the night ,or weekend, of the race at Dwellingup which is such a beautiful place and the race itself is a feast of trail running. I have written posts on my last two races , probably worth a read…. https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/12/19/sometimes-6-inches-is-enough/ and https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/12/18/its-not-a-good-trail-race-unless-you-get-lost/ There’s probably more on the blog, just type in “6 inch” in the search dialog box. Anyhow if you live in WA , or even Australia, you need to run this race, trust me it is that good. So many good memories over the years, well mostly good, I do tend to get lost on a regular basis but that’s trail running I suppose.
I think the photo below was 2015, Jon was made to wear pink arm bands after falling in the only puddle on the whole course the previous year. He out did himself later in the race by falling in a ‘rut’ up the ‘escalator’ hill, it was big enough he had space to lay down for a rest as Michael ‘Barts’ Barton jumped over him. The following year he was forced to wear some rock climbing rope as punishment for his latest misdemeanour. Also in the photo is Jon ‘trailblazer’ Phillips giving us his best ‘blue steel’ stare. Jon has finished 12 times, a try WA running icon.
In 2016 I grew the biggest beard I could for the race in an attempt to be more”trail ready”, it didn’t help as I think I got lost even with two Garmin watches. No worries, the 6 inch is more than just a finishing time, it’s a trail running , life changing, experience. More about the journey than the destination.
As regular readers of my blog know I’m a Marathon runner first and foremost. Of course to compliment the marathon I also race anything from 4k upwards as good old fashioned ‘fast running‘ is one of the many ingredients needed in the successful marathon running recipe book. It is also good fun running fast and I recommend all runners throw in the odd tempo or threshold session once they have finished with building the ‘running engine’ with the main ingredient in any running recipe, distance. (Can you tell I’m writing this post hungry with all the cooking analogies?)
Once in a while though it is also good to test yourself and dip your toe into the ultra world. I run the 6 inch annually ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) but it is an ultra really in name only, the distance varies from 46k to 48k depending on trail closures and the RD’s warped sense of ‘evilness’. You never know when a new hill (or wall as I call them) will appear! A few years ago my running buddy Ron Mcglinn created the Australia Day Ultra (ADU) , a 25K/50K OR 100K race on a 12.5k flat loop. I missed the inaugural year which featured the closest finish in racing history with my good friend Tony ‘the T-train’ Smith running over the top of Andy Wait. Andy had held off Tony until the finish straight and after, 50 kilometres, it came down to a good old fashioned sprint. What a finish and as you can see from the image below it didn’t end well for Andy. When the T-train runs over the top of you the only way is down… great racing lads. Funnily enough I had the same experience the following year when Tony was running me down on the last 2-3 laps, luckily I had enough to hold him off and grab the last podium place but, trust me, when the T-Train is chasing you it focusses the mind !
In 2017 I raced the 100k for the first time and my journey was recorded by Rod Donkersloot on his website http://www.whywalkwhen.com , his video is available at https://vimeo.com/201134104 , worth a viewing. The race went well and I managed second place after most of the field in front of me dropped out. In an ultra it really is survival of the fittest and you can gain significant places just by continuing. Time becomes secondary to distance in an ultra, it’s not when you finished, it’s just finishing. I was thinking about this on one of my runs yesterday and came to the conclusion that time matters less and less as you add distance. For example in a 5k run time is all important , where as finishing is just assumed. This is the same up to around the half marathon but after that, for the new runner, it’s about finishing. The non-runner doesn’t really care about time for a marathon upwards as they have no idea, normally, what a good or bad time is, just finishing is enough to gain kudos. Actually as your distance increases the longer you take becomes even more impressive, it’s a double kudos scenario around the drink fountain at work afterwards. As always I have digressed from the subject.
ADU 2018 was just about the perfect race, which funnily enough was the title of the post I wrote describing the experience, https://www.runbkrun.com/2018/01/23/australian-day-ultra-just-about-the-perfect-race/
Everything went well and as you can see from the finish line photo below I was very happy to finish and , trust me, the runners high does improve with distance !
As the race starts at midnight sleep depravation can become an issue after you finish. I was dragged from my hotel room for the presentations early , after arranging a late check. Just as I beginning to dose off the T-Train rang me and informed me they were presenting the trophy’s early. This proved to be a mistake on Tony’s part (??) and I ended up waiting another two hours in the blazing heat of an Australian summers day. Not happy and by the time the presentations came around I was just about comatose, as the photo below shows. I then had a three hour drive home to look forward to, the joys of ultra running ?
Right, finally, the point of this post. I received in the mail yesterday my certificate confirming that I had broken the AURA ( https://www.aura.asn.au/ ) record for the 100k for the 50-54 age group. Truth be told I remember seeing one of these certificates years ago and thinking to myself I would love to get one. It may have taken a few years, mainly waiting to get into the 50-54 age group, but I finally have one. This certificate is not just reward for the race itself but for everything leading up to the event. The early mornings getting up in the dark to run alone, the lunch time sessions in the heat, the tempo and threshold sessions where you fear for your life and the long runs that seem to go on forever. It is also for everything you give up in your pursuit of your goals, that could be quality time with family, potential career aspirations, social nights out with friends or just other hobbies that are sacrificed. As I have said many, many times “Running is an honest sport”, it rewards effort but also punishes runners who do not give their all; nobody has ever finished a marathon and said they did no training and surprised themselves ! (Unfortunately?)
It’s not about receiving certificates breaking records, although that is a nice to have, it’s more about setting yourself a goal and achieving it. Ultra races give you that sense of achievement and you will find out things about yourself that may, or may not, surprise you. Emile Zatopek was quoted as saying “If you want to run a mile, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon”. There is an ultra addition to this quote of course, “If you want to speak to God, run an ultra”. I personally have been lucky enough not to speak to God just yet but you never know what may eventuate in the future ? I would suggest speaking to God wouldn’t be an issue, it would be hearing his reply that would unnerving ?
The Ultra crowd also seem to be more sociable than the shorter distance runners and I would put this down to an earlier point about time not being as important with greater distances. There is certainly more of a feeling of ‘belonging‘ with the ultra scene and there seems to be a more relaxed atmosphere as the burden of achieving set times goals is secondary to surviving the distance. There is a ‘in this together’ sense of comradery there is sadly missing in smaller distance events. Anything less than a marathon really is you against the clock, above a marathon it’s you against yourself, with the time secondary. In Western Australia at the moment we are blessed with a new breed of Race Director who are providing amazing events, in amazing locations. Dave Kennedy ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) , Ron McGlinn ( http://australiadayultra.com/ ) and Shaun Kaesler ( http://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) are leading the way in making WA a hot-bed of Ultra running activity, and long may it continue. Australia wide there is the AURA ( https://www.aura.asn.au/ ) and it seems there are races available nearly every weekend, so many opportunities to talk to God, you’d be mad not to really ?
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…
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.
One of the benefits of my blog continuing is once in a while I can retrieve a post I have written and use it as a filler on a new post. It this cheating , in a blogging sense, I’m not sure but can justify this practice as a lot of readers to the site are new and would probably have missed the post the first time round. Anyhow the post below describes the feeling all runners go through after successfully completing a ‘goal’ race, the ‘runners low’. After my insights into the runners low I have added an article on goal setting from one of my favourite runners Meb Keflezighi, whose book ‘Meb for mortals’ should be a staple diet for all runners. He is also a big Ellpitigo fan, albeit he is probably well paid to use the product.
I’ve got my Ellpitigo out of the garage for summer as I intend to use this as a new tool in my final push (?) for a sub 2:40 marathon at Perth in June this year. It’ll need to be perfect conditions but with the Elliptigo and a new pair of Nike Vaporflys 4% I hope to be in with a chance, being 51 in a few days this will be my last chance, surely?
Everybody talks about the runners high, this sense of euphoria one experiences when they cross the line at a major goal event. I’ve discussed what I feel it is, a sudden overwhelming sense of relief, or release, after you achieve something after putting yourself either under pressure or into the ‘pain box’. Anyway, after this ‘runners high’ you can sometimes come a cropper and experience what I term the ‘runners low’.
This feeling is the same in all sports and happens after achieving something you have worked so hard to do. There’s a classic scene (there are so many classic scenes in this movie of course.) in ‘Chariots of Fire’ when Harold Abrahams has just won the 100m gold and everybody else is celebrating while Harold himself is reserved and alone in the changing rooms. What Abrahams is struggling to come to terms with is success after so many years working towards that one 10 second race. All of a sudden he has no purpose, no target, no reason to do what he has been doing for so long. It must be daunting ?
The same can be true for us recreational marathon runners, albeit probably not as severe. Once we have completed the marathon and achieved the ‘runners high’ the next day all of sudden we have no goal. No reason to put in that early morning 5am start, no reason to double up or run a threshold until your lungs feel they are about to explode. There is no purpose after so many months of having something to achieve, a target to overcome. This feeling , coupled with the emotions of the previous few days of finishing a marathon, makes the runners high seem so long ago.
There is hope though and it as easy as getting on the internet and searching for the next goal, the next target, the next reason to structure a long term plan. Before you know it you’ve signed up for another race and it’s back on. Another phase begins towards another goal race which will probably have a target finish time just that little bit quicker than the previous race. Let’s face it we don’t do all this to slow down !
So my advice is to get back on the horse (so to speak, if you actually get on a horse you’ll probably get disqualified, remember this is a running blog!) and set yourself your next goal. It works for me, no off season, the next race is normally a few months away at worst but I know it’s there for me, waiting. Admittedly after a marathon I do feel low for a few days because I love to run marathons and the feeling you get when you finish one is why we do what we do. It has never let me down in 43 runs so far . (and the 20 ultra-marathons have also delivered of course)
Remember we are runners, we need a goal, something to make those 5am alarm calls worthwhile. What else is there to do at 5am in the morning anyway?
Another runner who understands goals is Meb Keflezighi who explains his thoughts in his excellent book ‘ Meb for Mortals’. One of my favourite reads and high recommended. Scott Douglas, from Runners World, has cheery picked some great insights from Meb in the article below.
Goals form your road map to success. You won’t get near your potential without having good goals. We’re wired as humans to dream of what might be and then figure out how to make that dream a reality. I never would have won the Boston and New York City Marathons, plus an Olympic silver medal, without setting the goals to do so. I might have occasionally run a good race, but I wouldn’t have been able to regularly beat some of the best runners in the world. Everything that I’ve achieved physically in running started psychologically, with the simple thought, “I want to do this.”You might say that you don’t want to be like that with your running—you just want to run to relieve stress, not create more of it, and that the rest of your life is plenty goal oriented. But you might not realize that you probably already set goals in your running. You don’t head out the door saying, “I’m going to run until I get tired.” You have a route in mind or a general idea of the duration your run will be. You probably also usually run a certain number of times each week, and you probably aren’t happy if something keeps you from getting in that many. So you already have some basic running goals, even if you’ve never stated them as goals. Setting more-formal goals may help you enjoy your running even more.
The best goals have certain elements that make your success more likely. Here’s what I think good goals have in common.
A good goal has personal meaning. Nobody ever told me, “You have to win the 2014 Boston Marathon” or “You have to make the 2012 Olympic team.” Those were goals I set for myself. When I told myself, “I want to win Boston,” it just felt right. I knew that chasing that goal would motivate me to do what was necessary to achieve it and that doing so would require me to do my best.Your goals should have that same pull on you. They should be things you want to achieve for yourself, not to meet someone else’s expectations. Training to reach a goal requires a lot of hard work. When you hit a tough stretch, either physically or mentally, if the goal you’re working toward has deep significance for you, you’ll find a way to persevere. But if someone else thrust the goal upon you, when you hit tough stretches, you’re going to think, “Wait, why am I doing this?”
Most of us have enough areas in our lives where we have to meet others’ expectations. Let your running be about your own hopes and dreams.
A good goal is specific. Notice how specific the goals I set for myself were: I wanted to win the 2014 Boston Marathon. I wanted to make the 2012 Olympic team. There’s no ambiguity there. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and that helped me decide how I should go about doing it.
Here’s a time example. At the beginning of 2001, one of my goals for the year was to break the American record for 10,000 meters. The time I needed to beat was 27:20.56. It doesn’t get much more specific than knowing to the 100th of a second what I needed to run to meet my goal. That specificity told me exactly what pace I needed to run in the race and what times to hit in workouts. Thanks to the guidance provided by my specific goal, I was able to run 27:13.98 that year, an American record that stood until 2010.
Now consider if I had stated my goals more generally: I want to run well at Boston. I want to run faster in the 10,000 meters. “Run well” is so much more subjective than “win.” How would I know during and after the race if I’d run well? And how would I know what to do in training to meet that goal? Saying simply that I wanted to improve my 10-K personal best is more specific than the Boston example, but it still wouldn’t have been as motivating.
So include an element of specificity: “I want to run 30 seconds faster for 5K” instead of “I want to run faster,” or “I want to run 5 days a week” instead of “I want to run more.”
A good goal is challenging but realistic. Your goals should require you to reach outside your comfort zone while remaining within the realm of possibility. If you’ve run a 2:05 half marathon, then making your next goal to run a 2:05 half marathon won’t be all that compelling. You’ve already done it, so how motivating will it be to do it again?
But you shouldn’t go to the other extreme and say, “I want to lower my half marathon best from 2:05 to 1:30.” Your goal should be attainable within a reasonable time frame. You might eventually get down to 1:30, but it’s most likely going to occur in stages: from 2:05 to 1:58, then 1:48, then 1:43, and so on. Long-distance running is not the sport for people who crave instant gratification.
Making a Boston victory my goal was realistic. In my case, I had finished third and fifth in previous Boston marathons, so winning the race wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. Trying to win certainly required reaching, given that the race was held 2 weeks before my 39th birthday and I had the 15th-fastest personal best in the field.
An example of a too-ambitious goal for me would be saying, “I want to break the world record.” That would mean taking more than 5 ½ minutes off my personal best in one race. That’s unlikely at this stage in my career.
A good goal has a time element. It’s human nature to be motivated by a deadline. Having a date by which you want to reach your goal helps you plan how to reach it (“My marathon is in 14 weeks, so I need to come up with a training program to get from today to race day”) and provides urgency (“My marathon is in 14 weeks, so I better get training!”).
When I was training for the 2014 Boston Marathon, I told my wife, Yordanos, that it was my last chance to win the race. If at that stage of my career, I’d said, “I’d like to win the Boston Marathon someday,” it never would have happened.
There’s a sweet spot for how far away your goal should be. If you say, “I want to run this year’s New York City Marathon,” and the race is in 2 weeks and you’ve been running twice a week, well, good luck. But if you say, “I want to run the 2025 New York City Marathon,” that’s so distant that it’s unlikely to motivate you to work toward it.
For most runners, 3 to 6 months is a good range for achieving a main goal. That’s enough time to do the work to achieve it but also close enough to remain motivating on a daily basis.
To work toward that goal, set shorter-term goals. Decide where you should be at the end of each month leading up to your goal, and then break those months into week-by-week progress toward that month-end goal. Every week, evaluate your progress. Are you making the necessary headway toward your goal? Or did you get stuck? If you haven’t progressed enough, then you probably need to postpone your goal. Look at this as a learning experience rather than failure. Ask yourself, “I said I would do this, but it hasn’t been happening, so what do I need to do differently?”
A good goal keeps you motivated. I write down my goals so there’s no question of what I’m aiming for. There it is in black and white: “I want to do this, I want to do that.” If you’re like me, you’ll find that regularly seeing your goals is a way to keep yourself honest.
Tell a few close people your goals. Doing so makes it easier to keep making the right choices to meet a particular goal. If you tell your training partner you’re going to run your first marathon, it will be easier to keep your running dates together. You don’t want your friend to say, “Wait, you’re canceling our run? I thought you were training for a marathon.”
In the months leading up to the 2014 Boston Marathon, Yordanos would say, “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” when she thought I was staying up too late. Family and friends will also support you when you hit the inevitable rough patches. I’m not advocating telling the whole world your goal. Stick with a small group of people who you know will care enough to want to help you reach it.
With everyone else, underpromise and overdeliver.
I’ve raced the Australian Day Ultra the last two years and managed a podium on both occasions. The first year I ran the 50km and nabbed a third place after dropping down from the 100km after a few bad runs in training had drained my confidence. I figured to run 100km I needed confidence in my ability and without this I wasn’t sure I’d complete the distance. As it turned out it was probably the right decision as even on the 50km race I fell off my goal pace early and had to work really hard for a 3 hour 38 minute finish with the T-train (that is Tony Smith) chasing me to the finish, and trust me having the T-train in hot pursuit is not pleasant, the man is relentless ! Last year I stepped up to the main event and off the back of a good training block ran 8 hours 4 minutes and a second place finish. It was a great day and as much as I enjoyed the experience (I use the word ‘enjoy’ loosely) I vowed not to return and retired on the spot !
Of course this was instantly forgotten when the event opened up in July and I must have been one of the first to put my name in the hat, how does that happen ? Anyhow the race was put on the back burner as other events came and went but after the 6 inch ultra in December the ADU suddenly became my next ‘target race’ and one that now demanded my attention. I must admit to not being that enameled with taking on the ADU again as the event got closer. To be prepared for this race you have to train very hard over the Christmas period, which is in the middle of a Perth summer, heat becomes your running partner and this makes all runs that little bit more ‘challenging’. It also comes at the end of the race calendar when you are looking forward to a break pre-Perth marathon in June. It can be very easy to drop the ball on this one , which would be a problem of course come race day.
Training wise I was on a good wicket and managed to put in three solid training weeks after the 6 inch ultra. Weeks of 118k, 130k and 154k had me feeling that training wise I was ready, it was just the mental side that needed work. I hadn’t fully convinced myself running again was such a good idea after a solid debut last year. Would I run as well again and was I risking too much taking on the ADU for a second time? These thoughts stayed with me in my 2 week mini-taper (do you taper for an ultra? I wrote a post on that where the answer was no if I remember correctly? ) and even the night before the event I was still questioning my reasons for racing.
I spoke to my Wife the night before the event, from the hotel room before I treated myself to two hours sleep, and made her promise to never let me run the event again. She asked me to make a video of me proclaiming this which I luckily conveniently forgot to do. Anyhow I digress, needless to say I got my two hours sleep awoke at 10:30pm , had some toast and honey with bananas on top, the breakfast of champions and made my way to the start which was scheduled for midnight. So yet again I found myself in a high visibility vest (council stipulations) wearing a head torch staring into the dark about to set off on another 100km adventure.
There was another carrot dangled in front of me, and probably the main reason for my return to the ADU after retiring last year (?). The Australian Ultra Runners Association M50 age group record was a tantalizing target after my 8 hours and 4 minutes debut 100k time in 2017. Bryan Smith, the current holder of the 50-55 age group, was an Ultra Running Legend who died while competing in the Big Foot Trans-Atlantic footrace in 2001, coincidently enough on my birthday, February 2nd. Bryan still holds the Australian record for 1,000 miles (1609km) which he ran in 11 days, 23 hours, the second fastest time anywhere in the world. Although I never knew Bryan it seems really was a ultra running great and he is considered one of the best ultra runners Australia has ever produced. To beat his time would be a great honour.
Right so off we go into the night, I had persuaded my good friend Jon Pendse to run with me for one lap as the T-train was shying away from our pace and was set to run his own race. Last years winner Richard Avery set off like a scolded cat and I could tell he was aiming for a sub 7 hour finish. So myself and Jon settled down into 4:30 min/k pace and enjoyed the unique atmosphere of running at midnight. Due to logistics and volunteers the course is a 12.5k loop 8 times which sounds boring but due to the night start it actually works quite well. The first four laps you run within yourself but because it’s dark you don’t feel like you’re repeating yourself. There is an aid station at the start, after 3k and at the far end of the out and back , so basically you’re never more than 3k from an aid station, plenty of opportunity to eat and drink on demand, an ultra runners dream course really. As I have always maintained an ultra really is an eating and drinking competition with running between refreshment tables. Basically get your hydration and nutrition right and you’re in with a good chance to finish, get it wrong in an ultra and you have a long way to think about your mistake. This year, like last, I had my esky full of ‘tukka’ at the middle aid station so passed it twice a lap. My plan was to use a 600ml drink bottle of electrolyte and a carbo-shot every lap with banana’s, protein bars and revvies ( http://www.revviesenergy.com ) as backup. (I never used these backup options, just too hard to think about and I never got in a state I really needed them.) This worked well for the first 6 laps but after that I couldn’t stomach any more electrolyte so moved to flat coke at the middle and end aid stations with water as backup.
So I managed to persuade Jon to stay with me to about 48k which was very good of him as we were a lot quicker than his target goal pace and I was worried after I left him he’d be swallowed up by the chasing pack. He actually carried on and finished with a massive PB of 45 minutes, a time of 8 hours 6 minutes. This was way beyond what he expected and again backs up my theory that sometimes you got to put yourself out of your comfort zone to achieve ‘great things’. So thanks Jon, as always I enjoyed your company and it helped the kilometres tick by. After I left Jon I knew I had just over 50k to go and would be alone bar passing other runners (and being passed by the 50k and 25k runners) . It was time to buckle down and get the job done. Time wise I was ahead of schedule and lapping the 12.5km loop consistently under the 60 minutes. I think my first 4 laps were all 57 minutes so everything was looking rosy. At the turn around for lap 5 I went past the race leader drinking at the aid station and his race was obviously run. Richard had set himself a goal ‘A’ deliberately with no Goal ‘B’, it was an ‘all or nothing‘ run and unfortunately this time it was to be nothing. A very brave roll of the dice and one Richard will learn from. I suspect next year he will realise his sub 7 hour dream and I hope to be there to witness it, albeit only as he cruises past me on each lap.
I passed Jon and mentioned to him I was in the lead and he had moved up to second place, all we had to do now was run for another three and a half hours and we’d be podium bound, easy really ? As it was the race panned out as most 100k ultras normally do. The first 50k you should be relaxed and aim to get to halfway feeling good, any other feeling and you are in for a world of pain of course. 50k -70k and things start to get real, 70k – 90k and the race begins in earnest. These 20k or so kilometres is where the race is defined, (similar to the last 10k in a marathon really.) run strong through this part of the race and you set yourself up for success. After running for 90k you can normally find something for the last 10k, ok it may not be pretty but if you get to 90k you are going to finish, eventually. This is what happened, lap 5 was bearable and I started to notice the spring in my step was not as ‘springy’ as in previous laps (is springy a word?) . Lap 6 and 7 is where you dig deep, 25k of pain really and if you can get to lap 8 you are there, after 7 laps you can always find something for the last one, trust me.
Personally when I run a race this long I break it down into smaller manageable chunks or goals. The ADU is easy as it’s an eight lap course (I typed in ‘course’ wrong and the spellchecker changed it to ‘curse‘, interesting?) so straight away you have eight smaller races, for me each 12.5k loop needed to be less than 60 minutes. Add in a halfway split and you have two 50km races. Trust me running 100k takes a long time, surprising that, and you need to be patient. The first 50k really is a jog to the start of the race which starts in earnest after halfway. On both occasions I’ve had great company for the first 50k of the ADU so it becomes more of a ‘Sunday long run with friends’ before morphing into a race. When you initially start the thought of running for eight hours is frightening so you need to just concentrate on enjoying the run and interacting with company, in a similar vein to a Sunday long run. Trying to get into ‘race mode’ for eight hours would be difficult and I admire runners who race from the first kilometre to the last, personally it’s too long mentally for me and I save my racing for laps 6 and 7 when its time to enter the pain box. I remember thinking on a number of occasions will this race ever end ! Eventually though it does…..
I finished in 7 hours 47 minutes and 29 seconds which was an AURA record and good enough for a maiden victory at this distance. (Ignore the clock in the photo below, that is the time of day I’m assuming because the other side showed the race net time? I’ll mention this rookie error to the race directors!) ) Jon came home in second place with my training buddy Tony ‘T-Train’ Smith completing the male podium places. It really was a perfect day. Other notable times for the day was the two first female runners setting times good enough for Australian Ultra Team qualification and the women’s winner, Bernadatte Benson, setting another Canadian record for her age group, beating her time she set in 2015, this was also another course record. Margie Hadley, who ran a strong second place, is one of my favourite runners as she probably runs more than me and certainly more times a day than me. I admire hard work when it comes to running and I don’t think many people work as hard as Margie, there is more to come from this young lady mark my words.
After finishing I did the obligatory ‘I’m retired’ speech again to all who would listen but I feel they don’t believe me as they’ve heard it twice before and each year I keep returning. I must admit it doesn’t take long for me to forget about all the pain of the previous 8 hours after a few minutes and if I see a camera I’m smiling instantly and show boating with my medal, funny that ? I think the photo below shows this.
Best thing after finishing an ultra is the ‘I can eat what I want‘ feeling you can give yourself for a few days after the event. Traditionally for me and Jon this starts at the Dome cafe about an hour after we finish. Pancakes, bacon, berries and maple syrup is the order of the day as we sit down and dissect the race, blow by blow. The last few years it’s always been ‘we ain’t doing that again‘ but this year was different, I think we both knew we’d be back but this was unspoken for the moment. As you can see from the photo below we are two very happy ultra runners in all our splendour with fresh medals proudly displayed for all to see.
All that was to do now was return to the event for the presentations and also to encourage the last few runners on their way. The event started just after midnight but there were still runners on the course when the presentations started just after midday, some with multiple laps to complete. This is Ultra running , where the runners at the back of the pack work so hard just to finish. Running can be a cruel sport but as we are in awe of their determination they seem to be equally in awe of the leaders pace. Both sets of runners appreciate the other and that’s what makes the whole community feel of ultras running. It really is a special type of event where you make great friends and meet great people, as well as getting to run for a long time, it really is the event that just keeps on giving
Finally to quote Dean Karnazes, who knows a thing or two about ultra running, “If you want to run a mile, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an Ultra.”
