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.