You know it's cold when you see a heat shimmer coming off the athletes on the starting line.
This has to be about the coldest run I've ever done. Not that I'm complaining; extreme conditions make running much more interesting. I'll run in just about any weather and enjoy it. But it is getting a little frustrating as it's been a while since I had a warm race.
The whole event seemed to go a lot smoother for me this year. The organisers opened another entrance to the car park and it worked wonders for the traffic. I got into a short queue for the portaloo, nowhere near the wait I had last year (probably because I got in earlier and this was a small set away from the main area). Now that they seem to have sorted out all the problems it's almost a shame they're returning to the city next year, but to be honest I do think the airport course is a little boring and it's very exposed to the weather so it'll be good to see it back in town next year.
After the comfort stop I took refuge in the event marquee with the reasoning that it'd be heated for the sake of the staff, which it was. It wasn't massively warm in there but it felt good compared to outside. I think it was about -4 or -5°C that morning.
I decided to get out and start warming up fairly early. I just jogged up and down the road behind the starting area. 10 minutes later the crowd was gathering and I was as warm as I was going to get for now. Warm enough to find my wife among the spectators and strip down to remove my polyprop. Bit of a problem with dressing in layers when you put your warmest layer on first. Maybe next time I'll wear a padded jacket instead, but I did think I'd need the polyprop for the run. I usually do in that temperature when training. I couldn't feel my toes at all and my fingers weren't much better, but it did feel warmer in the crowd much like a waddle of penguins in the Antarctic winter. That was when I noticed the heat shimmer, looking both in front and behind me.
Thankfully they kept the race briefing fairly short; the only thing I remember was the warning of ice on part of the course but I doubted it'd be as bad as they made it out to be. The wait for the start was also fairly short so it wasn't long before we set off.
I ran this race pretty much as a training run but also as a target to put my injuries to bed. A year ago I'd run the full marathon with a very hurried 12-week buildup. It was too much too soon; the thin ice I'd been skating on during the buildup gave way during the marathon and I crossed the finish line with a stress fracture and a massive flareup in my achilles. I could barely walk for a few days afterwards.
Because I wasn't aiming for a good time I didn't stress out during the start; I know it tends to take a few minutes for everyone to get going then a couple of km for the field to start stretching out. Normally I get a bit annoyed at the slow pace, and especially with walkers who start among the runners (which wasn't really an issue this year, thankfully).
My nutrition plan had to change fairly early on; I'd planned to take a gel at the first aid station but didn't know that it was actually the last aid station and wasn't open for the outward leg. No big deal, nutrition isn't too important at this distance so I just waited until the next station. The reason I waited for aid stations is that I wanted to get some water down straight after the gel. I took two gels during the race and for all the other aid stations I took Powerade instead of water. I also had a couple of Em's Power Bites during the race as I usually get hungry on long runs so I ate them proactively somewhere around halfway.
Despite the organiser's strong recommendations there were loads of people listening to music. One guy with big headphones almost got to run the full marathon when he didn't hear the volunteers guiding us to the half-marathon turnoff. I remembered that point last year as it was when the course became a lot quieter. This year I followed the hordes around the turn. On the return leg I spent a km or so next to a girl who loved her music so much she was singing it. Only in bits so I don't know what the song was, but it provided a good incentive to keep my pace up and put her a bit further behind me.
My race plan had been to run the first half fairly easy to avoid pushing the legs too hard as I hadn't had as much training as I'd really like, and it's only a B-race for me anyway. I was aiming for around 5:30 to 5:45/km pace; I actually ran a little faster than 5:20. I usually tend to go a bit harder than intended but I felt comfortable so I stuck with it (which is what I usually say to my coach after doing a training run harder than I should have).
Once I reached halfway the plan was to pick it up to around 5:30 to 5:15 pace. I stopped looking at the watch and just went at a comfortably-uncomfortable pace. I think I knew I'd feel a bit guilty. A little later I finally looked and found I was running close to 5:00 pace. I thought "this is a bit quick" but decided to stick with it and see how long I last. Given that's the pace I ran a 10km time trial a few weeks back I figured I'd probably blow up somewhere and use the last couple of km as a cool down. I'd found it hard enough to hold that pace without an 11km warmup. But pushing through the hurt is something I've been wanting to develop and I don't often get to do it in training so I welcomed the opportunity to suffer a bit.
During the first half I'd found the ice was a little worse than I expected but not too bad. The organisers were certainly justified in highlighting it so strongly. We returned over that patch on the way back and my faster pace meant it was much more treacherous. I could feel my feet slipping as I ran and I kept changing my line on the road to try and find better grip, without success. I think it affected the distance reading on my Garmin watch as it had matched the course markings almost exactly on the way out but it read about 250m long at the end. I use a foot pod because GPS gives me a really unreliable pace figure and I needed something consistent when recovering from the injuries. In the absence of a proper 400m track I'd had to calibrate it using GPS so I'm glad to find that it's accurate now.
Sure enough I started to feel it with about 5km to go but there was an aid station just a few hundred metres up the road so I slowed down and had a little break while I got some fluids in. I was taking all of the aid stations at a jog as I really struggle to drink from a cup while running. I was actually doing better than expected; I'd planned to walk them like I did in Wanaka. After that I felt good again and my pace resumed. When I had a couple of km left I decided against slowing down; I can cool down for as long as I like after I finish! So I held my pace while starting to really look forward to the finish line.
When I made the final turn I decided I'd pick up the pace gradually as I got closer to the finish line, but I couldn't be bothered sprinting. Well, the girl next to me decided she wanted a proper sprint. It's funny how you always have to match it. I held her off for most of it until I decided I didn't want the injury risk so I let her go ahead. I think she probably would have had me anyway so this isn't my ego getting in the way!
My target had been 1:50 to 1:55 - I'd have only been unhappy if I'd gone over 2 hours so I'm happy with my 1:49 time. I made sure I cooled down really well for the sake of my legs. I've found in training that it makes a huge difference with the achilles as a tight calf will pull on it and make it hurt so I always pay careful attention to a good cool down and stretch. It was a little tight / sore that evening but has felt really good since then. The only problem I've had from the race is super tight hamstrings. I've never had issues with my hamstrings before (probably due to technique issues) so it's been an interesting experience. They're just coming right now a week later after daily stretching and use of the foam roller. A "recovery run" a few days after the race was pretty hard going even at 6:30/km pace. A good reminder of why I felt guilty about pushing the pace.
Looking back at my records it's actually the slowest flat road marathon I've ever run, but only by a few minutes. I'm quite pleased with that given the background and I can only hope to remain free of major injuries from now on. It'd be nice to get into good enough condition to start threatening my 1:44 PB. I used to dream of going sub-1:30, that might be a few years away yet.
Next up for me is the Melbourne Half Marathon. My wife said I could do an overseas race for my birthday as I'm "going up an age group" this year. It's another "B" race with the Rolf Prima Half Ironman 4 weeks later, which itself is a "B" race before I start smashing out the big miles for the Lake Wanaka Half.
