Now I really didn't have any other ambition about this Easter Monday marathon than doing it as a long training run. Until a coworker heard about it and challenged me to go under his 3:26 time. Even though I wanted to tell him I wouldn't try to go for a specific time I guess he expected me to crush it easily enough and would take my "training run" approach as either an excuse or a belittling brag or perhaps both. So I quietly agreed. And I think that ruined the race.
I was at a good weekly mileage at that point with 90% of my runs on lovely snow packed trails and had only just started up some shorter runs on the few bare spots of asphalt I could find. The race route was really just outside my doorstep and consisted of a 10k loop around the river on road and some icy gravel paths. I had managed 2 loops of it before getting bored and going home on a training run in the previous week.
I woke up not feeling motivated and not feeling great, in fact I had to go to the toilet three times in the morning. The weather was crisp as I decided for shorts, fleece sweater and gloves. Because of the icy parts I went for the trail shoes even though they really don't make that much of a difference. Ice is Ice.
I got to an ok start with the 143 other runners, being really careful of my previous idiot starts and decided to keep the pace around 5 min per km. My legs felt a bit stiff and my shin acted up again, though not as bad as in the Egersund half marathon. The icy parts were as terrible as I had feared, but other than that it was a beautiful sunny day. I noticed a lot of people enjoying themselves and I was behind a couple of guys doing the half marathon chatting away, apparently having a great time - that's when I realized I wasn't enjoying it at all. Just after 10k I had the first thoughts of quitting. I felt fine physically, but my mind wasn't into it.
The half marathon time was 1:42 which is only 5 minutes slower than my half marathon PB and my legs still felt good, but I had to push myself mentally to keep going. I had just recently heard a podcast interview of the legendary running guru and physician Dr. Tim Noaks and his advise on finishing the last half faster than the first, so I guess that was my strategy. I thought I could pick up the pace, but even though I felt like I was increasing the speed my watch told me otherwise. It can be devastating to see that in spite of your increased effort you're actually slowing down. At 25k my legs stiffened up, my feet started to ache and my hips were screaming. To make matters worse I started to taste my own breakfeast and when my Garmin announced 30k I scrambled behind a parked car and vomited. The race was over. I didn't even consider roughing it one more lap and I guess this was the excuse I needed to head home for my warm bed.
All in all it was a miserable race, even as a training run it was a failure, and I really struggle to take out a lesson from it. Was it the surface? The shoes? The training? The diet? Motivation? Or all of them combined? I guess I really hadn't a clear goal or plan for the race apart from it being in my neighborhood. If I had taken it as a training run I shouldn't have had worried about finishing times and splits. I obviously didn't prepare for racing it as I had spent the weekend working a heavy hangover and really neglected road running the weeks before. No, I'll forget about this one and come back next year with a clear goal and sense of purpose. I want that sub-3:30 time, even if I hate looped courses like that.
Though I limped back home in pain my legs and my stomach recovered quickly and I was up and running a couple of days later. For what it is worth my recovery time has dropped considerably the last month.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/291702582
