MarathonI managed to survive my first marathon in fairly good conditions yesterday (generally cool, not as windy as it can be here) and, despite nursing a cold for a couple of days, finished in a respectable 3hrs 3mins 19secs to be 5th overall. The body held up well but the legs were very painful for the last 10km. Tracy came out and captured a couple of pics:
11km to go, still running well
Not looking too good at the finish:
On a 4 lap course my quarter splits were approximately 43:15, 44:15, 46:45 and 49:04.
The run began at 7.30am in near ideal conditions: cool, slightly damp and with little wind. About 55 runners set off at that time ( a few set off with the walkers at 6.30am including 2 heading straight from the run to a flight out to Chile for the Antarctic Marathon - one a wheelchair competitor - and a glutton for punishment who had run 157km last weekend) and I enjoyed my moment of glory in the lead before swiftly being overtaken by the eventual winner, the defending champion and Wanganui Harrier Club's best hope of a win. I ran for a while and had a brief chat with a runner who I'd met at a recent half marathon where we'd run most of the race together before he moved ahead in the latter stages. Once again Pat moved ahead of me and I settled down to a long spell in 5th place on the first lap of 10.55km.
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Route description:We began on the west side of the Wanganui River, running NW on the road to a bridge crossing. On the east bank we continued north in Kowhai Park, turning to run back for several km south through the park. A stretch of road works complicated the first few hundred meters out of the park before we crossed the main Town Bridge so we could loop underneath and cross back to the east bank on the other side of the road (no way of avoiding crossing the road on the east side). Another couple of km on pavement/ sidewalk brought us to a stretch on the main highway before looping under the highway bridge to a pedestrian bridge on the south side. Once back on the west bank we turned NE looping under the bridge for about 1.5 km back to the start.
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During the first go around I passed the early starting runners (and the wheelchair racer manfully getting across the uneven grassy stretch in the park) before beginning to pick up the slower walkers later in the lap. So far so good, feeling good and ready for more.
By lap 2 the weather was dry and still cool but with some wind getting up and despite some calf pain (which pretty much eased off by half way) I continued to cruise in 5th until I was overtaken near the end of the lap. Still feeling fairly good though for the uncharted territory of the third lap (I had never raced more than a half marathon or ever run more than 27km in training) where the course would get busier with first the half marathon runners then 10km and 5km joining us. The halfers were setting off at 9am so I passed by about 2 minutes 30 secs before they set off.
Early in lap 3 I got back into 5th place (the runner who had overtaken me must have gone too fast early as he trailed in a lot later at the finish) but in the park I was surprised to be passed by a halfer as if I was standing still... turns out he was an Olympic representative for NZ in town to supervise his school team in the NZ Schools Athletic Championship, who obviously wanted to stretch his legs. The faster runners on their first laps passed as I ground my way through lap 3 with increasingly painful thigh muscles but few other problems. The wind was a little unpredictable though, a headwind in places, tailwind in others when we seemed to be running in the same direction. I guess it was the effect of the bend in the river and an east wind blowing around a couple of hills .
By lap 4 the sun was out and the day was warm, not bad for me but increasingly tough for slower runners. I suppose the real leg pain really kicked in about the 33km mark, about when we got to the park for the last time and by 35km it was really tough. I had decided to walk at water stations and make sure I took in enough water and energy drinks but the final stop was difficult to restart from, and the final drop to loop under the highway bridge on loose gravel was extremely painful. There were also a lot of people in other races to avoid by now. However I kept going till I was back on the west bank and knowing the end was nigh helped spurred me to try and overtake Pat in the distance as I was gaining, but just as in the previous half he beat me by about 14 seconds.
Tracy was at the finish to greet me and provide coffee and cakes from the nearby River Market to supplement a couple of bottles of isotonic drinks and we settled down in the by now warm sun to watch the rest of the athletes finish. On the whole the body held up well: no blisters, minimal chafing, no hypoglycaemia or dehydration... but the legs were sheer agony for the last 10km and walking was pretty tough for maybe 3 days. Post run we stayed till everyone was finished before visiting our favourite pub, the Fordell Hotel, for a restorative beer or two.
