With all races cancelled due to the virus I needed some corona-independent goals and a sub 3-hour marathon seemed like a good option. Only 1% of all marathon runners complete a marathon in less than 3 hours and the proportion is likely to be smaller for those aged 50 so this was a worthy goal.
Most of my marathons have been after swimming 3.9 km and biking 180 km in Ironman races and so not the ideal basis for a fast marathon time. My attempt at London twenty years’ ago was disappointing at around the 4 hour mark but I was suffering from a double hernia at the time. My previous, standalone best marathon was a 3:20 in the Canaries during my build-up to the Marathon des Sables, so this was an important goal for me. One that would have probably made my Dad proud had he been here to see it and not completely bonkers with dementia.
This was also one of my 50th birthday targets and as runners typically lose speed at the rate of 1% a year each year from the age of 40 it was one of those goals that will only get harder the longer I leave it. I have been training specifically for this event. My normal weekly routine was:
Monday – rest
Tuesday – 1 hour of high intensity intervals (1 to 3 minutes at close to maximum effort)
Wednesday – trail run up to 2.5 hours
Thursday – 45 mins easy run
Friday – 1 hour of intervals (slightly longer muscular endurance type efforts)
Saturday – rest
Sunday – long run at marathon pace
I knew I was in reasonable form as my half marathon was 1:23:27 or 3:58 / km and my longest run was up to 38 km at sub 3-hour pace, albeit with some breaks as I was self-supported. I was feeling reasonably confident.
I tapered for a week – the first half of the week I starved myself to try and shed an extra kg and then promptly put in back on in the two days before when I upped my carb intake.
I woke early (as usual) for the attempt and had breakfast at 5:30am – porridge, two slices of toast and jam and a glass of apple juice – my go to, pre-race breakfast.
The river Rhone runs through our local town and the path alongside is perfect for a fast marathon attempt. The only downside is that as the day gets later the wind picks up and accelerates between the mountains. An early start is essential to avoid speed sapping headwinds.
I was not feeling brilliant first thing – a cold has been threatening and I am currently suffering from piriformos syndrome which stops me sleeping and makes running painful. My warm-up was ok, I was reasonably quick for a low heart rate but it was going to be a “suck it and see” sort of attempt.
We set off and with Catie for company on a MTB next to me, the tedium of the first 21 km was alleviated. I was not bothered by the first 20km and hit the half- marathon mark at 1:28:58 which was where I wanted to be. I wanted to build a bit of a buffer as the head winds and fatigue meant a negative split was unlikely.
I took my first gel at 30 minutes and then took another every 30 minutes for the remainder of the effort apart from the last 40 minutes when I took caffeine gels every 20 minutes. I took the gels with water but I think I probably was not hydrating enough as it was hot and my heart rate pattern was unusual.
Normally my heart rates increases and then stabilises for most of my long effort and then only increases towards the last km or so when I it starts to get hard. Today my HR just increased throughout the day although it was not my cardio fitness that was going to cause me problems.
It started to get harder from about 30 km at I was finding it harder to hit my 4:15 min / km splits and my heart rate continued to creep up. We deployed Duran Duran and 80s rock / pop at this point and this lifted my spirits but the legs were beginning to get very heavy.
As my form started to go I kept saying to myself “tap tap tap” to speed up my ground contact time, I reminded myself to keep “falling forward” and using the arms to keep my cadence high. From 35 km it was getting really hard and my splits were slowing but the maths suggested I should be under the 3 hours. Catie did a great job in giving me reasons to keep running – I think if she were not there I would have given up. The thought of having to go through it all over again if I did not make it this time was also a real driver.
At 40km I knew I was going to make but I wanted to finish well but the legs were just not responding. My lungs had a lot more to give but muscle fatigue was severe – I was swearing at myself as the last two kilometres slowly ticked down – and then it was done! My time was 2:59:13 and it was nice to have not just sneaked under by a few seconds. I certainly would not have made it without Catie who was awesome and the Nike vaporflies also probably helped.
So now the goal is to run 2:50 by the end of the season but I have also just decided to “Everest” on the bike this summer as well which would mean riding the Verbier hill 18 times without stopping. Now that might sound a little dull but I am convinced the years of rowing, repeating the same thing over and over again has made me ideally suited to these monotonous efforts!
Expeditions 