Portland 3 Bays Marathon (pb 3:36:46)

This was not just a race on Sunday (30/10/05) morning but a whole weekend experience, preceded by months of hard and mostly solo training. About a week earlier I finally made the decision to have a go and run the event. At that point I felt that I had done all the training necessary to successfully run, complete and recover from the gruelling 42.195 km. Previous Marathons I have only completed two other marathons and they were both the Melbourne events in 2001 and 2002. Both those marathons; I was not completely satisfied with. The first in 2001 I ran the first 21 km in about 1:39 and felt good but then about 28 km mark I fell in a heap and walked for quite some way with intermittent running here and there. I do remember running the last 2 and bit km's home. My finish time was 3:59:29. I was so disappointed with myself, even though I had heard and read from others that I should have paced myself which meant going slower at the start. On reflection I believe the main factor for falling in a heap (hitting the wall) were my tactics – simply too fast at the start. My recovery seemed to take ages. The following year (2002) as far as tactics were concerned I paced myself right from the start, running slower than my natural shorter run rythym. This event, for me, was more disatrous that the previous year, again I fell in a heap at the same point, probably a little earlier 26 – 27 km and finished with a time of 4:30:26. My tactics were right in a sense if I had put the kilometres in in training. I simply did not train as hard as I did the previous year. In the intervening years I did not run another marathon. In a sense my confidence was shot. I was trying to rationalise what went wrong and then it crossed my mind (quite a few times) that maybe I'm only making excuses, that I had done everything that I could have and it probably will not get any better. Even though that thought crossed my mind I cancelled it out with this thought “NO – I can do better – and I will”. Training for Marathon - 2005 So along comes 2005 and I set my sights on running the Melbourne Marathon (http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/main.htm) My training was going well until about 9 weeks prior to the event. I sufferred a bout of the flu, coupled with headaches. This kept me from training for three weeks. I made the decision to only run the half marathon at Melbourne, which I did and ran 1:36. It was frustrating watching the full-marathoners finish, I was thinking that I should have been one of them. I didn't want my training to go to waste and so checked the running calendar out at the Cool Runners web site (www.coolrunning.com.au). The next marathon on the calendar was the Portland 3 Bays Marathon on 30/10/05. That was it, I tentatively committed myself and was wondering if four weeks were enough to be well and truly ready. From running the Melbourne Half Marathon I ran numerous training runs including 1 x 15 km, 1 x 20 km and 2 x 30 km around the Yarra and Werribee Rivers. This also included the fact that I tapered for the week prior and only did two short runs 8 & 6 km's not fast. During this time I also included at least 200 sit-ups after every run. I thought if I'm wanting to improve on my previous marathon times I will have to do something different in training. I think the main difference is that I now appreciate the value of nutrition and hydration. I have sufferred from many headaches over the years and I now believe the bulk of them were due to the effects of dehydration. For the last 8-10 weeks I have religiously been consuming at least 2-3 litres of water per day. As regards food I have basically cut out the bulk of crap food and when I have the urge to snack it's usually fruit. On all my long runs I wear a fuel belt which holds four 200 ml water bottles. Also has pockets, one for my mobile (others would use it for an MP3 player), one for keys and the other for my energy gels. Since the Melbourne Half Marathon I've trialled “PB Sports” energy gels. On long runs I consume an energy gel every 30 mins and flush it down with half a bottle (100 ml) of water. I've worked it out that from the two hour mark that it's advantageous to consume the gel every 20 mins and take on water more frequently. I think the energy gels serve me better than only using a sports drink, such as gatorade. Training completed – ready to rumble Okay, training was completed and I felt on top of the world, I was edgy and ready. I had the mindset that I was going to beat my personal best of 3:59. My goal was to finish somewhere between 3:40 – 3:50. I thought that was achievable and not unrealistic (until the carbo party). We (dad and I) arrived at Portland about 3.30 pm and booked into our motel room. We checked out the start/finish and carbo party locations. They were more or less within walking distance of our motel. We were going to drive the course but forgot all about it until about 6 pm and then decided it was too late, we had a carbo party to go to. I'm glad we didn't drive the course. Carbo Party We arrived at the carbo party, a little cafe known as 'Port of Call'. Heaps of pasta had, after which a 9 time Portland 3 Bays Marathoner, Lester SMITH (CSIRO), gave a speech. Well he mentioned the hills as did the others. It was also mentioned that it is not a course that endears itself to PB's. All I seemed to hear was how steep the the hills are. I was now starting to doubt my goal of running 3.40- 3.50 and I hadn't incorporated any hill running in my training. We were all presented with our race numbers, mine being number 25 in red. Red indicated full marathoners and black numbers represented other events (half marathon & relays). For those not in attendance at the carbo night, they could collect their numbers along with the timing devices. To make matters worse daylight saving kicked in this weekend and we effectively lost one hours sleep. Race Morning I was up about 5.30 am and straight away into cereal, toast and coffee. Checked in at Hanlon Park about 7.40 am and received my electronic timing device, choosing to wear it around my left ankle. Most others preferred their left ankle as well. Start The actual start was about 800 metres away, so that was sort of an unexpected warm-up. The marathon started at 8 am and the front runners were off and I never saw them again until I finished 3 hrs 36 mins 46 secs later. Did I mention the course was hilly. God, it was hilly. On some the smaller hills, they were still hills, the organisers had jokingly placed signs such as “This is not a hill” and “You think this is a hill”. Considering I hadn't really incorporated any hill type running in training I felt quite good and as it turned out I kept a relatively even pace going up the hills, down the hills and on the flats (can't remember too many flat sections). I think the consumption of energy gells really helped me as I never felt like hitting the wall. During the event I was still a little concerned about the hills. At the half way mark I was feeling okay and comfortable with my pace but was thinking, 'when are these hills going to take their toll'. Before I knew it I was at the 30 km mark and still feeling comfortable (within reason) and again wondering, 'when are these hills going to kick in and stop me'. At this point I decided and convinced myself, 'the hills are not going to beat me'. All I had to do was not do anything stupid ie. increase pace dramatically. I don't think I would have run the time I did if it wasn't for my dad. He followed me around the course from about the 11 or 12 km mark. He was in his car. I was carrying my fuel belt along with my mobile phone and the plan was to communicate via mobile to meet at certain points. Well that didn't happen, using the mobile, as he seemed to be there every 5-10 mins, taking photos, encouraging comments and supply of water as and when I needed. This meant I could consume my energy gels according to my time schedule rather than waiting for an aide station. Don't get me wrong, I still utilised the aid stations. Even though I carried my fuel belt I wasn't carrying any water, it was only that the fuel belt had pockets which enabled me to carry my PB Sports Engery Gel. I carried 9 gells and consumed 7 of them. About the 40 km mark I ripped off my fuel belt and gave it to dad as I didn't need it from that point on. It was truly a great event and the atmosphere between runners and walkers was great, everybody encouraged everybody. All the volunteers did a wonderful job and even the residents along the course were terrific. Finish As mentioned I finished in 3:36:46 a new PB. I was quite happy with my overall performance and evenly paced myself all the way. My even pace is reflected in a relatively even heart rate, which averaged 142 bpm and maxing out at 192 bpm very early in the event. To further corrobate my even pace my 10 km splits are as follows:- 10 km 51:05 (5:06 min/km) 20 km 51:50 (5:11 min/km) 30 km 51:04 (5:06 min/km) 40 km 50:08 (5:00 min/km) 42.195 km 3:36:46 (5:08 min/km) The above facts and figures were extracted from my Garmin Forerunner 301. I uploaded the data to the Motionbased website and from there exported various chart types. I only had one slight problem and that was my left shoe rubbed my ankle – which I felt about 30 km for 5 or so mins and then the pain went away. Well the ankle was bloody at the end; another runner pointed that out to me. Another slight injury problem or should I say potential injury is that my left knee (outside – probably a medical name for it) was a little sore. On some parts of the course there was a certain camber where the right foot landed higher on the road than the left foot. I'm sure this caused the soreness in my left knee. Post Marathon We finished at Hanlon Park (where the briefing was held in the morning). Had a 10-15 min massage, then a relaxing 10-15 min hot shower. The organisers put on a great spread for us in the club rooms (sandwiches, cakes, tea, coffee, soft drinks). I stayed for the presentations and immediately afterwards had to leave as dad had to get home; he was working the following day. I'll be back next year and certainly will be trying to convince other runners to attend.

Booked Portland 3 Bays Marathon

Finally made my mind up and I've just booked a twin room for my son and me at Portland. Apparently the motel, William Dutton is just a block away from the start/finish (Hanlon Park - Henty St). The only drawback with the accommodation is the vacate time of 10 am on Sunday. It would have been nice to be able to utilise the room to shower, freshen up and relax a little before heading back home (4.5 hr trip back to Werribee). We'll be arriving at Portland about 2 pm and have established that we'll have to take our own breakfast, as the motel breakfast starts at 7.30 am, a little too late for me. I'm told that showers are available at the start/finish, so I'll make use of them. My son will be with me and the plan is that I'll give him a spare mobile and I'll carry one with me. This way he'll know exactly where I am on the course and not wondering how much longer he'll have to wait. I'll also put him in charge of the camera, car keys and I suppose I'll have to give him some money for the shops. Until next time.

Saturday Long Run - 30 km

Ok, it's Saturday morning, up at 7 am and had breaky straight away. Planned 30 km run, but then I had also just run 20 km on Thursday gone. I'm not really sure if a one day break is enough but then my whole schedule went out the window this week. My midweek long run was suppose to be on Wednesday but I couldn't make, so Thursday it was. I picked today (Saturday) for this long run for one reason. Manchester United are playing tonight, live on Fox at midnight - must watch it. If staying up late until 2 am then no way will I be running first thing on Sunday morning. Yeah, I know, this is not an overly valid excuse/reason. Well, 9.15 am and I was off. I basically ran the same course I ran last Saturday but this time I extended the start by running along one of my short course (7 km) runs which brought me close to my starting point and then headed to the Werribee River and back. All up the distance being 30.85 km. I should have learned from last Saturday that hot Mexican pizzas and long runs do not mix. Again, about the 16 km point I was fortunate to be passing a park with toilets. Let me say, I made good use of them. My heart rate for this run was relatively even, maxing out at 161 bpm and averaging at 136 bpm. Stats 30.85 km, 1:44:09, pace 5:19 min/km. Water intake : 0.8 kg. Gel intake : 0.175 kg. Total intake : 0.975 kg (let's round that to 1 kg). Weight prior to run 80.3 kg and immediately after 77.2 kg. That's a loss of 3.1 kg or 3.86% of body weight (remember - #2's at the 16 km mark). On return home then did my obligatory 200 sit-ups and then into the spa.

Midweek long run - a day late

I was planning to run my midweek long run yesterday (Wednesday) straight after work (about 4 pm). Well that got stuffed up, work interferred with my plans and didn't finish until 6 pm. At that point I was semi-tired and hadn't eaten properly all day. It wasn't a normal working day for me. So yesterday was an unplanned rest day. So today straight after work at 3.40 pm I was in Fawkner Park, Melbourne, all ready to go, except with my new Forerunner GPS I was waiting for signals to be acquired. It seemed to take forever, well a good 10-15 minutes. I think maybe the fact that it was completely overcast and raining is not a good combination for GPS signals. I am starting to get frustrated not being able to run when I'm ready. There's only so much strectching one can do, though to fill the time I continue to stretch away, maybe that's a good thing. GPS signals acquired, fuel belt on and I was off. I planned to run at least 20 km alongside both banks of the Yarra River. The course took me through Fawkner Park to Anderson Rd and onto the Yarra heading towards Flinders Street. This has to be one of the most scenic runs anywhere and I'm in the heart of Melbourne. At this time the Yarra is a little busy place, heaps of rowers, runners and cyclists. On crossing the Flinders Street bridge I ran alongside the other side of the Yarra River passing Grange Road, at that point 5.8 km registered on the GPS. I wanted 20 km and so a little bit of mental arithmetic had to be done. At Grange Road on crossing the bridge and returning along the banks of the Yarra I estimated about 5 kms to the finish. I therefore calculated that I needed to continue in the same direction before turning around to the 11 point something km and so rounded up to 12 km. At the 12 km mark on my GPS I turned around and headed for home (starting point) tracking back on myself until the Grange Road bridge. I crossed the bridge and ran along the other bank of the Yarra. Overall the distance ran was 20.61 km for a time of 1:48. One of the problems running on the northern banks of the Yarra is that the track at points is directly alongside or under the freeway. This effects the GSP signal and at points the signal is lost. I also lost a signal around the Anderson Street area both heading out and returning. In actual fact I think the distance ran is probably closer to 21.5 km. It was raining for the entire run, not really a problem as it wasn't cold. It did though highlight a little problem as regards my PB Sports energy gel. When its wet and raining the gels are very awkard to open. I couldn't simply rip the end off as there was no grip. In the end I used the next best thing, my teeth. I'm glad I didn't find this out for the fisrt time in a race or important run.

30 km Training Run

Erratic heart rate right from the very start, though didn't feel tired. About the same time then a slight pain in my left ankle, though that didn't last long and didn't cause any further problems. During the first 10 km stomach uneasiness, just had to find a toilet, which I did at the 10 km mark. Diarrhea no less (that will teach me to have hot Mexican pizza the night before a long run). I'm wondering whether this (diarrhea) was the cause of the erratic heart rate as it settled down after this. Well the run was from home to Werribee River and return. Total distance on my Garmin Forerunner 30.75 km for a time of 2:43:14 which equates to a pace of 5:19 mins/km. During run consumed PB Gel every 30 mins, took 5 packets out with me and water. Consumed all of them. Checked weight on return, weighed in at 77.2 kg a loss of 2.5 kg. Weight on first getting out of bed was 79.7 kg. This equates to 3.14% fluid loss (not sure if this is acceptable or not). This is probably higher than it should be as I did have that toilet stop.

Might not be able to make Portland 3 Bays Marathon

Spoke to my wife earlier in the week about a few days at Portland on the weekend of 30/10/05 so as I can run the marathon on the Sunday. Well, apparently we have a family function to attend on the Saturday night at Seymour, which means I'd cop a lot of flack if I was to run the marathon. My experience with some of our family functions is that some of them are cancelled at the last minute. So I'm still training as if I'm running the marathon that Sunday anyway. Got to do something with my time.

Thinking about 3 Bays Marathon

Ok, my Melbourne Marathon training didn't go to plan due to the flu about 6 weeks prior, lasting about 2 weeks. As a result I trained for and ran the half marathon. Well the half was on Sunday just gone (9/10/05) but I still want to run a marathon. I'm feeling half-way trained for a marathon. The Portland 3 Bays Marathon is on 30/10/05, three weeks away. I've got two weekends where I can run some long (30 km) runs. Midweek running will be shorter runs. I'm a bit concerned that maybe, just maybe, I've run out of time. So my plan is this, run the long runs as mentioned above and at the last minute (week before - just after the second 30 km run) make the decision whether to run the marathon or not. Seems like a good plan to me.

Melbourne Half Marathon

Well the day arrived. I was up at 5.30 am eating 3 pieces of toast (apricot jam), glass of orange juice and two multi-vitamin tablets. When picking up my race kit on Friday from Melbourne Town Hall I purchased a whole box of PB sports gels but have never used them in my training. I considered maybe taking one prior to the run and during, then common sense took over, I didn't. Next week though I'll try them out. My running mate and his wife picked me up about 6.25 am. We had one stop to make at the Arts Centre to pick someone else up and then to Rickets Point. We got there about 7.30 am and it was bloody cold. We parked about 300 meters (maybe more) away from the start. We stayed at the car, in track-suits, did some stretching and then back in the car; as I said, "It was cold". About 10 minutes to the start, off with the track-suits and a slow jog to the start, or as close as we could get as it was packed. The 'cold' was no longer an issue. The race started though I didn't hear the siren or gun, I just saw the pack in front surging forward. I didn't start my stopwatch straight away, I wanted to start it on crossing the start line. Well, I stuffed that up, completely missed it. It wasn't that obvious where the start line was, too many runners. I guestimated that I had run about 400 metres before setting the stopwatch on my Garmin Forerunner 301 (GPS gadget). I soon got into my stride and was running around 4:30 pace from about the 2nd km onwards. Very hard to get to pace for the first km due to the number of runners. About the 16 km mark I had planned to up the ante somewhat but it was also at this point that it was becoming more of an effort. I was starting to feel my calfs tighten. I couldn't up the ante but at the same time I was not going to slow down which I didn't. At the 20 km point, running up St. Kilda Road the finish line was in sight and then put a bit of a spurt on. Well I went through at 1 hr 36 min and some seconds. I'm reasonably happy with this. I had set two goals, first to run a sub 5 min pace and second to run less than 100 mins. My third goal was to break 90 mins but unfortunately this wasn't to be. Update : Official Time : 1:36:58 Overall place 427 of 2823 and 24th in my age group (45-49)