Wall? What Wall? - Sydney Marathon 2010

The build up
It was exactly a year ago, that I did my first marathon - the Sydney marathon 2009.
One of the first things I realised was that my plans to do a marathon to ‘just finish’ had suddenly changed - I wanted to be back for the Sydney Marathon in 2010. My official time in last year’s Sydney marathon was 5:14:33. I would always cherish that day as a very special one and have fond memories of it. I would like to think that was the day I learnt and proved (to myself) that boundaries do not exist – if they do (more like, if you think they do) and if you do want to break them out of passion, they can be broken with determination, self belief and of course, a good solid plan. I remember every emotion and action that happened on that day, almost to the minute!! I don’t regret anything about that day and definitely not ashamed of the slow time – It is very obvious that marathon is one of the toughest races you can do and I respect every marathon finisher! But when I did come back to run the Sydney marathon, I wanted to be much faster. By ‘Faster’ I only mean……
I wanted to run it fast enough to atleast keep up with the pacers..
I wanted to run past all water/aid stations (specially towards the end), when the volunteers were still in full swing and not shutting up
I wanted to run it fast enough to see and cheer the leading wheelchair athlete and the lead pack of the marathoners
I wanted to run it fast enough for work mates and friends to stop saying ‘ahh atleast you finished it’
I wanted to run past most cheering spectators before they start thinking ‘ohh there is more of these runners coming?’
Most importantly, I wanted to run the final stretch to opera house when both sides are packed with people cheering you on !!!!
I also wanted to get to the end to have the finisher’s t-shirt in my size and not just get one of the few remaining ones!!!

I think these are all only a natural progression of any athlete and after 2 marathons prior to it (Sydney 2009 and M7 2010), I think I had the right to expect it. This was my only A grade race this year – I was hoping to train specifically for it, have a good build up and achieve a really fast time. When I planned my races earlier in the year, I was hoping I would be at a sub 4:15 marathon fitness in time for the Sydney Marathon. However, my first obstacle (more a learning experience) came when I did the M7 marathon. With only about 8 weeks separating that marathon and the Sydney marathon, I was hoping to write off only a week of training after M7 and slowly start training again for the Sydney marathon for at least 4-5 weeks before I taper for Sydney marathon. However, the complete recovery from the M7 marathon took about 3-4 weeks. I was able to swim and cycle but my running legs simply weren’t ready!
The other obstacle was when I decided that I would be ready to do the Canberra Half Ironman in December this year and may not have to wait another whole year to attempt one. Once I signed up for it, without even realising it my mind decided to get excited more about that and get distracted from the Sydney marathon.
I did do my regular short/lunch time runs, however, as a result of both of the above, I didn’t do many long runs as I would’ve liked to until about 2-3 weeks ago. I opted to cycle more and do some long brick sessions, hoping that fitness will help me with the marathon. As I didn’t feel I had the speed to finish the marathon in 4:15, I was planning to hang around about 5 minutes ahead of the 4:30 pacer. As always, my wishful thinking was that if I hung around the 4:25 equivalent pace until about 30-32kms, I can then step it up gradually and hope for a finish about 4:15 or thereabouts.
Race day:
The marathon was scheduled to start at 7.30am. The runners were divided into 3 self seeded groups. I was in the last group – C. We started about 5 mins after the ‘A’ group. The 4:15 pacers and 4:30 pacers (2 of each), were in the C group. When they started running, both the 4:30 pacers instantly had about 30-40 runners around them – some of them were running so close to the pacers that they looked like they were attached at the hips to the pacers.
I decided to take my time to catch up to the 4:30 pacer and was running about 300 meters behind the 4:30 pacers after my plan to place myself in between the 4:30 pacer and 4:15 pacer was almost instantly scrapped when I realised I had to make my way through the whole 4:30 bus! I decided on tagging behind the 4:30 bus for about 30-32ks and then ‘beat’ the 4:30 bus and get as close as possible to a 4:20 finish. This would mean I would do a ‘negative split’ (Second half of the marathon will be quicker than the first) or very close an even split – This usually requires trusting in your ability and pace a lot and stopping yourself from going too fast too quick. Flipside of starting off slower than the 4:30 bus for me was, if I do hit the wall or tire myself too early, then I could potentially finish around 4:45 or even 5! I made my decision to stick to a slower pace and was hoping to run it all the way to the end.
I got to the half way point (21.1kms) in 02:10:53. At this point, I was only about 100-200mts behind the 4:30 bus and was still feeling fine so decided to continue at my same pace. The 4:30 pacers had the plan of running slightly faster than the planned pace and then slowed down and walked through the water stations. As a result, I was almost 300-500 meters away at times but caught up to them at the drinks stations. This pattern continued almost until about 35kms. I was really happy to have stuck to my plan and pace. I got to the 35kms in about 3hr 45mins. After my brief toilet and water stop, the 4:30 pacers increased their gap with me and were almost about 700-800 meters away from me. I had to do another 7kms in 45mins to finish it in less than 4hr 30mins. On my lunch time runs I usually do about a 6min/km pace and it usually takes about 42 mins to do 7kms. I had another extra 3 minutes buffer and most importantly I was still running and still feeling fit(ish). So I thought even with occasional brief walks, I might just make it under or right on 4:30. I stuck to my pace and continued running. I passed many runners including some ‘A’ group runners (i.e. Self seeded fast runners who are possibly having a bad day) and many ‘B’ group runners – Some of whom I’d seen earlier with the 4:15 and 4:30 bus. In a way, It almost felt like I was passing my old self from the M7 marathon at this point – At the M7 marathon, I stuck to the 4:15 pacer until 32kms and then suffered bad cramps and hit the wall pretty bad and resorted to walking and took many stops after about 36kms. It was a great feeling to ‘pass my old self’ and continue running!!!!
It was only after about 39kms and when I got back to Sussex st, I started feeling sore and tired – but this was the ‘general fatigue’- not the expected ‘hitting the wall’ feeling like my system was going to shut down. I decided to not try to chase a 4:30 finish. Maybe it was the bad experiences from the last two marathons, but I simply did not want to hit the wall at this point and possibly lose a lot more time and finish a lot slower. I decided the next best plan will be to slow down (but still run) and try to finish it under 4:36 (my current PB from M7). This worked well as I ran under the bridge and got to circular quay in about 4:31ish. I had to do about another 200 meters and had about five minutes to get there for a new PB. When I got to this final stretch last year, most people had already left and most others were walking towards circular quay – I also recall, some of the marathon runners seemed like they’d already finished brekkie/lunch and heading home by the time I was finishing . This year – this felt a lot different! I knew I was still in the back of the pack, BUT I’d obviously got there a lot quicker than last time. Both sides of the path to the finish line was absolutely packed with almost all of them cheering the runners on – I almost felt like a celebrity on a red carpet.. I was acknowledging the cheering (as if they were all cheering ONLY for me) and I also decided to high-five almost every kid/man/girl/volunteer/cop who had their hands out !!! – Some of them were forced to because they realised I was on a high five’ing spree !!!
My official time was 4:34:37. A Sub 4:30 wasn’t meant to be.. But I think my highlight of this marathon was I DID NOT CRAMP AT ALL!!! I DID NOT HIT THE WALL!! Most importantly, I had run an almost even pace, throughout!! Maybe it is the experience, maybe it was my diet in the lead-up week, maybe it was my nutrition plan during the marathon, maybe it was the decisions I made during the race in regards to my pace or maybe it is a sign that I should try an ultra marathon :p.. Whatever it is, I am quite happy with the PB and not hitting the wall!!! :)

My garmin output for Sydney marathon 2010