The conclusion…

Final training and lead up

Monday no lifting weights allowed so I went through some glute activation/strength exercises which isn’t too stressful.

Tuesday 3 x 1km reps. Basically this didn’t go to plan. First rep was on pace and then I dropped off pretty significantly. This session was a real mental blow to me. I went from feeling confident about to Sunday to suddenly worried that I’ve lost to much fitness in the taper and that I’m struggling with my breathing.

Rest day on Wednesday. I did my foot and calf exercises. Felt pretty stressed after Tuesday but received good encouragement and advice from Chelsea, Sharon, Christopher and instagram friends which was helpful although still hard to stop stressing.

Thursday morning a 20 min run at goal pace. Chelsea gave me the OK earlier in the week to do 30 mins if I wanted to. I did 10 mins out and back and then decided to keep going to 30 just to get a better feel for how I was feeling. Didn’t feel amazing, didn’t feel bad, just felt ok. In the evening I filled the bath with cold water and some ice cubes to ice the legs. Thursday dinner start of increasing carbohydrate intake. Chelsea also suggested trying an app called headspace, which I did actually find helpful to feel more relaxed.

My final training run Friday morning. 20 minute run at goal pace. I’m not sure these runs are a great indication of how I’ll feel race day because of the lower calories and I’m running without eating anything beforehand. Anyway I felt ok and think I’ll feel better on Sunday with a good carb reload from today onwards. Note: I wrote this paragraph on Friday and decided to leave it unedited.

I also went down to the marathon expo to have a look around. Ended up buying a few things (archies thongs, nuun hydration tabs, ryder running sunglasses.. oops). It was exciting to see the melbourne marathon arch and at at this point I would say I was now back to feeling more excited and nervous rather than stressed.

Saturday final day before the marathon. Really feeling the pre race nerves now. My focus for the day was on meeting my carbohydrate requirements and making sure I had everything prepared for tomorrow. I went down to the Werribee track for a little while to watch some events and it was nice to run into Sharon and Adrian and also chat to a few other people who wished me good luck.

Running

1%-ers

Melbourne Marathon 2017

I’m not a morning person but I woke easily marathon morning. I slept very lightly, tossing and turning and kept waking up during the night. With the excitement and nervousness of marathon day finally here it was very hard to sleep.

Mechelle arrived in the morning at 5:10am to find me struggling through my breakfast. Through all my long run training I’ve always had two pieces of toast with jam. Race day however the nervousness had me feeling sick, the best I could manage was one piece of toast. Not ideal but better than nothing, the carb load should be enough to get me through so it shouldn’t be a big problem.

We met up with Brigitte and Sharon with Brigitte as driver so we could just be dropped off and not have to worry about parking. We arrived with heaps of time and were ready to go in the starting area at 6am, an hour to spare. It was cold, I didn’t really plan for standing in the cold for so long. Mechelle was double layered and lent me her jacket which I was thankful for.

The benefit of arriving early was that we were able to get a good starting position. No slow start for me!

I was still feeling nervous right up until the start. But once we started running the nerves disappeared. I felt good and happy running and best of all target pace felt like I was doing an easy jog. It reminded me how easy it is to go out fast with fresh legs and the excitement. I’m pretty sure I got passed by hundreds of runners but knew I would catch many of them later.

About 6km in it was nice to see the Western Aths support crew at the turn into Lakeside Drive. Around the lake I had a chat to one guy asking where I was from because of “Western” aths. It turned out we had similar goals, it was also his second marathon and his first was similar to mine so an interesting chat. He ended up pulling away from me while I stuck to target pace and I’ll probably never know how he went in the end.

After the run around the lake I had water girl Brigitte join me at about 13km and run with me for a little bit. It was very nice not having to worry about the water stations and trying to drink from cups. Brigitte would pass me my water bottle which made the drink situation a heap easier. Also happened to run into a guy who Brigitte knew and he asked if he could run with me for a bit. Sadly he wasn’t going too well but ran a few kms with me.

The next section of the course is probably the most uninteresting from 15km to 30km along St Kilda beach road. I could see how it would be awful if it was windy, thankfully we had great weather and I was able to enjoy it. It was good to see Alistair out on the course running the opposite direction looking strong. At the 22km mark I saw Brigitte again and was able to get another drink and restock my gels. I carried 2 gels from the start and would use 2 more that I grabbed from Brigitte.

Around 25kms in Sharon yelled out to me as she came past the other direction, “Go Ben” I think it was. I wasn’t quick enough to see her to really say anything back but it was good to see her running well.

The next milestone was the 30km mark.. a few different things going through my head knowing this was now venturing beyond what we had done in training (30km runs at marathon pace), the first hill up Fitzroy street, and also the point where Brigitte would run with me from. At 30km I was still feeling pretty good just starting to feel a little bit tired and was on goal pace, 5:18/km average pace on the watch.

I was expecting Fitzroy Street to slow me down, but surprisingly it didn’t at all, kept on the same pace. Getting back on St Kilda road and around the Arts Centre was a frustrating part of the run where the marathon merges with the back end of the half marathon. So on legs that were now feeling pretty tired it was a lot of energy working around runners who would sometimes be blocking the road, even with Brigitte helping find a path.

Around the 35km mark I began to struggle to hold target pace. My quads were burning and it was getting really difficult. I knew I just had to try and hang on best I could. Brigitte was doing her best to keep me distracted and keep me going. Along the Tan was the most challenging part of the course for me. My slowest split of the run a 5:40 as I worked my way up the incline. Honestly at this point it was just a struggle to keep going and hold on as best as I could.

Once back on to St Kilda road I was still hurting and struggling but knew the end wasn’t far off. I had had just had my last gel and had water dumped over my head and was ready to finish. The final section along Flinders Street and down to the MCG I was able to get back down to 5:20 pace and finish off the last 500 metres with all I had left in around 4:55 pace down that last section of road and the final lap inside the MCG.

It was such a good feeling crossing the finish line, no matter what the time was it felt great to be finishing.. I was done and very happy to cross that line! But to also know I had finished well under the 4 hour mark and knowing everything had worked out as best as it possibly could on the day was a very rewarding feeling.

My official time is 3:46:53 which I couldn’t be happier with! A 30 minute improvement from my first marathon back at Gold Coast and a completely different experience! As I slowly walked through the finishing area exhausted it was good to see Adrian and Sharon. Sharon absolutely smashed it finishing in 3:27:33, a 33 minute PB. It’s a testament to Chelsea’s programming that we both made such huge improvements. Adrian was impressive, despite having a less than ideal lead up and stomach issues during the marathon (needing to stop 3 times), he still finished in 3:43:54.

It’s been another epic life changing journey. I don’t know what it is about marathon training, maybe the long term commitment and challenge it puts us through. I have learnt a lot along the way. I’ve had to deal with setbacks, fatigue, injury, crap sessions, mentally and physically tough challenges. In the end it was all worth it and very thankful it all came together on the day because I know how easily things can go pear shaped.

After gold coast marathon I wasn’t really satisfied knowing I could do a lot better. Now after Melbourne I can say I’ve done a marathon that I’m very happy with and proud of.

Coming up

I’m fairly sure this will be the final blog post now that the marathon journey is complete. What’s next.. well first up recovery, the next few weeks are:

• 1st week: Rest
• 2nd week: 2 sessions
• 3rd week: 3 sessions
• 4th week: 4 sessions
• 5th week: 5 sessions

The sessions are 35-45 minutes of easy running. It will be nice easing back into things.

A good start to the recovery efforts out to lunch for mexican after the marathon, a celebratory beer with my mentor Christopher, and lasagna with family.

And today after a fair amount of difficulty getting out of bed and getting my legs to work. I’ve had a nice day off work having chai tea with a friend, out to lunch with Mum and Alex, and down to Werribee South beach for a walk and some water recovery.

Also I just found out I won a competition with my physio Pure Physio which includes a free 60 minute massage, so that’s going to be a huge help!

Post marathon goals… nothing too set in stone at this stage but hoping to get some track season in before the season is over. Falls creek training camp. Wangaratta 10km. Focus on cross country season.

Will I do another marathon? I’m not sure. I feel like I could just leave it at that and be satisfied now. But then again this time around the marathon was a much better experience, still a bloody hard challenge, but much better and more enjoyable overall. So maybe one day I’ll be tempted to do another one…

Thank you

First of all thank you to those reading this, I’m happy I could share my journey and really glad I decided to document it along the way. Hopefully you enjoyed following along.

Chelsea / ExHealth couldn’t have done it without you. Your programming, weekly analysis, adjustments, mentoring, trouble shooting.. I know a huge amount of time and detail goes into all of that and I couldn’t be more thankful.

Sharon we have shared this journey, all the long runs, the hill reps, the nerves, emails and messages checking how each other were going. It’s been a pleasure and so happy we were both able to get the results we worked for!

Brigitte so thankful for your support on the day, driving us in, being at different points on the course to pass me water and gels, and of course running with me the last 12km was such a big help. Plus all our training runs together!

Mechelle thanks for all your support throughout the training and on the day. Very appreciative and sorry you weren’t able to be out there racing too but I know you’ll be back soon.

Pure Physio for getting me through foot soreness. It was honestly a major concern for a while but with a number of different strategies and treatment I was able to keep my training going and stay on track for the marathon. Highly recommend for anyone who needs a physio in Melbourne.

Western Athletics, there are too many people to mention but so many training partners, friends, support and encouragement throughout training and on the day. A great club that I’m proud to be a part of.

Summary