I've just gone up to a new age-group so my wife shouted me (well, us) a trip overseas to celebrate. She said I could choose a race and I decided on doing the half at the Melbourne Marathon.
I'd had a bit of a scare a couple of weeks out when, after my last long run, followed the next day by a longish ride, I got some nasty pain in the sole of my foot while walking down to the gym. My first thought was a plantar problem which would be potentially season-ending but with some careful management it came under control fairly quickly. I held off seeing a podiatrist as they'd probably tell me things I didn't want to hear (eg don't race in Melbourne).
I'd also had some calf problems for a few weeks, really annoying as my physio had said the particular muscle concerned can't be stretched. As a result of that I'd skipped a few workouts and had been massaging it quite often to help it as much as I could. The foot was the last straw and since I'd done all the work I needed for the race, I threw out the programme and took total rest until race day.
The rest plan didn't account for a few days of being on my feet in Melbourne before the race so they were aching a fair bit, although they tended to feel good in the mornings so I wasn't too worried. It doesn't help that my sneakers were already worn out but I hadn't had time to buy new ones.
 Flinders St Station(Click to enlarge) |
I ran into a small problem at the race registration - the entry process assured me that my race pack would be mailed out to me. It never arrived so I went into the race pack pickup area to see if they had it there. They couldn't find it so they referred me to next-door where I can have a new race bib printed. But on the way there I bumped into my wife's aunt who had come across to do the race (she'd also done it the year before), and she told me they had a separate box where they keep the packs for international athletes. If only they'd told me! So I went back and told them I was from overseas, they checked the box and there it was. So they do need to be clearer during the entry process that your pack won't be mailed out, and it might have helped to have a separate pickup desk for internationals.
The nice thing about such a large race is that it attracts plenty of good dealers to the expo area. I was tempted to buy a couple of things but in the end I decided against it, apart from an official event cap which I'd planned to buy anyway. There were some good deals though, in hindsight I probably should have bought some gels to bring home as they were priced pretty well. I'm not happy with the price of gels here.
Race day came and it was fairly crazy down at the start. I've never been to such a big event before with 11,000 people just doing the half (and 32,000 across all events). The race is very well organised but they did need to put about a million more toilets in the area. A lot of guys were climbing up into the garden to water the plants and I ended up joining them as the queues were just too long with the start being only a few minutes away. The Chch marathon tends to have the same problem despite having lots of portaloos and I doubt you could ever put enough in to cope with the pre-race demand.
My strategy was to run conservatively and if I felt good I'd push the pace a bit for the last 5 km. I followed a similar plan in Chch but had put the gas on at the halfway mark instead. It took a couple of weeks for my hamstrings to recover from that so I thought it'd be better to push over a shorter distance this time, especially with the calf and foot problems I'd been having. My only goal for the race was to finish under 2hrs without injury, and even that was pushing it given my pace during training. It's incredibly frustrating as my personal best is 1:44 which I set about 5 years ago and I haven't been able to really push a race for over 3 years now.
I squeezed into the start area, which was pretty tight due to the amount of runners, and waited for the start. After the gun went off it took a couple of minutes to reach the start line but that's fairly typical and I'm used to having to run easy for the first couple of km before the field thins out and it becomes easier to pass.
But with this race, the field never thinned out. For the entire duration it was wall-to-wall runners as far as I could see up the road, and when the course turned back on itself it looked exactly the same for as far as I could see behind me. It was absolutely incredible but the aid stations were a bit chaotic.
I missed the first station because I didn't quite see it coming and was on the wrong side of the road. People didn't bother to throw their cups off to the side so they were all over the road which was a bit annoying. I walked through all of the aid stations to make sure I got the fluids in. It doesn't cost much time and it means I don't get half the water up my nose and the other half down my shirt.
I surprised myself a bit with my pacing, I was sitting quite comfortably on about 5:30/km so I decided to just hold that perceived effort. My calf tightened up early in the race but it wasn't too bad so I just ignored it. Pace-wise I needed to be doing about 5:40/km to make 2 hours so I had a good margin.
At 15km I was feeling good, even a little bored, so I was eagerly anticipating the 16km marker so I could start pushing a bit harder. There was an aid station about there so I waited until after that before upping the pace to about 5:00/km which was about all I could do with a reasonable degree of discomfort.
The marathon course is largely separated from the half - along St Kilda Rd they were running on the other side to us and they'd started an hour earlier so I could see the guys heading for about a 3hr finish coming past. Quite impressive but I needed to concentrate with all the people around me, especially as I needed to pass a lot of people now that I'd cranked up the pace.
There are a few turns towards the end of the course, and a short section of this has the marathoners joining us which must have been frustrating for them because of the sheer number of runners that are going slower than they are (2hr half vs 3hr full at that time). When coming back to the MCG there is a bridge that we run up which has enough of a gradient that it starts to hurt a bit. I just thought back to my hill intervals and kept pushing.
I wasn't 100% sure where the finish line was but the distance on my watch was getting close to 21km so I knew it wasn't too far away. You don't see it until you round a bend with only a couple of hundred metres to go. My official time was 1:56 so I'd met my target and I hadn't had any big flareups - especially the foot - so I was satisfied with the run.
The finish area is quite busy to say the least, but it didn't take long to get my finishers medal. I had to wait to get some of the fruit and drink that was on offer, but only a minute or two. I just don't like to stand still after a run like that because the muscles don't like it!
One thing that amazed me from the results is that the front pack of the full marathon passed the halfway mark in 1:06:23, but the winning half marathon time was 1:06:42. If that's not remarkable enough, the marathon winner finished in 2:11:30 which means he ran the second half in 1:05:07. I wonder if the full marathoners should get the prizes for the half as well.
The next day my legs were pretty stiff and I was regretting that 5km effort. I wore my compression leg sleeves with my compression tri shorts on as well, as the sleeves tend to slide down when I walk. The shorts worked well to keep the sleeves in place, and together they formed a poor-mans compression tight (they are far too expensive for my liking).
We then had a few more days seeing the sights of Melbourne with more aching feet. I managed to get a couple of swims in, first at the Melbourne City Baths in their lovely old heritage building - it's unusual as it's 30 metres long. My programme had said 30 mins but I added a couple of minutes to get the distance up to 1500m. A few days later I had another swim session but this was more structured so I took the tram out to the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre. This has a very nice 50m 8-lane pool but the temperature is a few degrees cooler than my local pool. I consider this to be a good thing but it took a bit of getting used to. I really do wish we had a pool here at about 20°C for triathletes and open-water swimmers. I didn't do any more running in Melbourne as the legs needed plenty of rest.
 Melbourne City Baths(Click to enlarge) |
After our time in Melbourne we spent a day on the train to get to Adelaide. We only had one night there but I squeezed in an easy run in the morning, although my calves were both still a bit sore so even 6:00/km pace was an effort. I managed to run past the Australian National Duathlon Champs which were about to start when I was on my way out. I had a nice run up and down the Torrens River, then it was back to get ready for our next train ride - we were taking The Ghan up to Darwin.
The trip to Darwin takes three days and we stop for excursions in Alice Springs and Katherine on the way. I was hoping to get short runs in those locations but the excursions are designed to get you back about 30 mins before the train departs, and you have to be on the train with 20 mins to spare. So no running there which was a shame. The excursions were very good though, and the weather was pretty hot at 37°C in both places but very dry so it was quite bearable in the shade.
We arrived in Darwin to cooler temperatures but much higher humidity. At this time of year it gets up to 33° every day and down to about 24-25° at night with humidity about 60% during the day and over 90% at night. In the morning you can just about slice a piece of air for breakfast.
Of course, with those conditions it was a perfect opportunity to have a hot run. I set off planning to do 30 mins but ended up doing 45. Normally I don't bother taking fluids for anything under an hour but due to the conditions I carried two bottles on my running belt, and still came back feeling pretty well dried out. After a drink I threw my togs on and headed for the pool. It was nice having a swim at 8pm when it's 27° outside. The water was even warmer and it's an unheated pool (the ocean there is about 30° and the pool would have been close to that, if not slightly warmer).
After a couple of nice days in Darwin we flew down to Sydney on the longest flight of our trip. It normally takes about 4:30 but I think we were closer to 5 hours as we'd had to pick our way around some thunderstorms.
With 3 nights in Sydney I had plenty of opportunity for a run despite our busy schedule. I was also hoping to get a swim in the North Sydney Olympic Pool with its view of the bridge, but couldn't fit it in. The Sydney Marathon was one of the options I'd considered instead of Melbourne as you get to run over the harbour bridge. I'm actually glad I didn't take that option as it turns out there's a footpath so you can run across the bridge any day of the week.
We were staying at The Rocks so I had an easy warmup down to Circular Quay, then ran around to the Opera House and along the waterfront to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, then tried to find a more direct route back to Circular Quay (via the Opera House again, as it turned out) then an out-and-back on the bridge. A very enjoyable run, if a bit longer than I'd planned.
So now I'm working my way through the post-holiday blues, not helped by the state of my legs. Before the trip I was worried enough about my foot and my calf to the point where I've pulled out of the Rolf Prima Half Ironman which is on tomorrow. Actually, I'd been procrastinating with my entry so by pulling out I mean not entering.
I have taken a couple of weeks rest, although I have put in a handful of easy sessions to see how things are going. I restart my structured training on Monday. But I'm on tenterhooks. It looks like I'll be training through the calf problem and I really don't like training through injury. The foot is doing ok, it feels a little tight occasionally but I haven't had any major issues yet. I'm just really paranoid about it so between the two problems I'm not in a very good place. One injury could easily put me out of Wanaka. If that happens I'll probably stop structured training for the season and not go back to it until I've built more confidence in my body and got my running back to the point where I can run a race hard.
