Sunday, April 30, 2006

Pain

Brisbane Marathon Race Report

I guess the title gives it away. Straight into it ... and I was comfortably into the race and moving at 4:30 min/K, as I had done in the last two marathons. If anything, it was a little quicker and the first 7 km were at 4:27 pace, but I was heating up fast and saturated, sweating more than normal. I eased up a little as the pace was what I wanted, but was more effort that it might otherwise take. I looked at my watch and noted right on 45 min at the 10k marker.

I knew that it was all over for a PB in this race already, as I felt the need to back off in order to ensure a finish. It could have been the heat and humidity of 92% or the effect of running the Canberra marathon 3 weeks ago. Dropping down a gear enabled me to find a better rhythm and covered the 4Ks to 14 at 5:03 min pace. By 14k, I felt good again and took my shirt off leaving the soaked rag splattered against a wall where it remained for me to pickup after finishing (I didn't think anyone would want it!).

Before hitting 20k I had lost power and was pushing myself hard to keep for slipping off the pace too much. My focus was the pavement a couple of meters ahead of me and a friend that passed later told me that I looked like I was doing it hard. Frequently I would give an extra surge to stop myself from really slowing down. I had soreness in my hamstrings and bum, glutes or whatever the top of legs is called. It was the pain that I have felt at the end of a long run and where I would be sore the next few days. But folks there was still 20Ks to go.

I battled against slower down further and rode the pain through K marker after K marker. Around 30K I got one of those caffeine energy drinks and walked the 100 metres up the hill, taking a brief moment to regain composure and launch into the finish. At this stage I had covered half of those last 20K and all the cliches apply like "staring down the barrel of defeat", "digging deep", etc. I can not overstate the amount of work I was putting in .... really hard work. For the full run there was never a time where I drifted off in my concentration and ambled along.

The final 10K were just over 5min/K, towards the end I was passing other runners. I can't say I felt good but the sense of achievement was strong. Finish time as 3:34 although that wasn't as important today. I was very excited and delighted with this one. 20 rounds in this fight and I was still standing.

15 Comments:

Blogger Lora said...

AWESOME! Congrats!! Way to keep your head on and adjust.

Got graphs??? (kidding--i don't understand them anyways!)

11:08 pm  
Blogger E-Speed said...

humidity is a bear to run in!

Great job!

12:03 am  
Blogger Habeela said...

Sometimes the mnost important achievement is to be still standing at the end of the day. Congratulations! Way to make it count!

12:34 am  
Blogger Tammy said...

Suh-weet! Yet another glorious victory for the Black Knight Army! Way to dig deep toast man! Thanks the the inspiration... I will need it soon.

1:55 am  
Blogger Tesso said...

You are amazing that you can back up just three weeks after Canberra and still notch up a pretty decent result. I think every now and then we need a tough marathon to make us appreciate the good ones. Congrats on winning the battle.

And how good was it that the finishers t-shirt matched your fancy pants :-)

8:08 am  
Blogger Ginger Breadman said...

Great job! Your race summary does a good job depicting how the mental challenge of a marathon is every bit - if not more - challenging than the physical accomplishment. Sort of a big mind game. Thanks for the reminder about marathon nervousness - I guess it's a good thing.

8:28 am  
Blogger Rob said...

A Sterling effort ILT. Three weeks after Canberra I struggled with the Half let alone a full marathon.
You had every right to be excited and delighted. It was a real "grit and determination" race for you.

9:14 am  
Blogger Bolder said...

well done mate.

i appreciate the hard decision you had to make to drop down a gear, but wisely in order for you to finish the race.

9:23 am  
Blogger Robert Song said...

I kind of know how you were feeling in the race. I was feeling much the same but luckily I was only doing the Half. I would have struggled to go the whole way feeling like that. Man that's a lot of Grunt!

9:29 am  
Blogger D said...

Slowing down and still finishing with a time like that is outstanding Toastman!

4:26 am  
Blogger Unknown said...

Nice job Toast! I was expecting a slower time the way you described it. There must be an ultra in Australia that you can do in the next week or two.

10:44 am  
Blogger Chelle said...

Well you never would have known, seeing you finish that you'd had a bit of a struggle out there. Well done for even taking it on, let alone doing so well.

1:37 pm  
Blogger Clairie said...

You superstar you!

That is a great result Toastie. To go through the pain the whole way and fight the demons and come out on top with a decent finish is totally awesome and inspiring.

Next time you invite me along for a long run you might need to let me know in advance that it's a BLOODY MARATHON. Who knows, I may have just cancelled my sisters wedding.

7:42 am  
Blogger Scott said...

Well done. I appreciate reading about the fight.

10:03 am  
Blogger Papa Louie said...

Good mental review on all the hard work you did to get you through the race. Congratulations on your finish.

11:55 am  

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