mcmatt
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A Tale of Two MarathonsSomewhat delayed but I thought would let you know about the 2 marathons I took part in this year.
Paris 6 Apr 2008
My first marathon, my first race longer than 10k. Although I had been hoping for a slightly better time, the time is a reflection of the two months off running prior to the event due to injury. The injury was caused by a musculoskeletal imbalance, my left leg being a bit shorter than the right meant that if I tried running in anything other than circles of 4.23m radius my legs got all confused and hurt allot! The increased mileage and Wednesday evening Harrier runs during the winter brought the problem to light and although not great timing I was glad to have the imbalance diagnosed. Some fairly intensive (read painful) but effective physio meant that I could actually run most if not the entire marathon and no reoccurrence of the injury to date. (Fiona Gough, PhysioFocus Stirling highly recommended)
Paris was wonderfully well organised, everything went really well for me – except the last 12 kms. Paris put on pace runners, on application you state what time you expect to run - you are provided with colour coded race numbers and wrist bands and are herded into the appropriate cage at the start. You then follow a person who has a large flag attached to them and who runs at your target pace – easy.
I managed to follow him for 30km and then my legs just stopped working. It was a real shame, I still felt full of energy and in good spirits but the lack of long training runs really showed and no matter what I did I couldn’t get my legs moving faster than a painful shuffle – even with the delightful French ladies shouting ‘Allez Allez Mathieu!’ at me (not that they knew me personally of course, they print your name on your race number). In all honesty I found the last few miles boring as I couldn’t run and felt that I had lost the challenge - up until I slowed I was on for a 3hrs 45min. However I finished and did feel a quiet sense of accomplishment at that.
I managed 20401st of the 28844 runners who finished and 7794th of 10302 in my gender/age category in a time of 4hrs 22min 37sec. Apparently there is video footage and stills of me available on the Paris 08 website – not very pleasant viewing I would imagine.
Moray 7 Sep 2008 – 3hrs 38mins
This one went a little better!
I managed to get a sustained training period in with some really good long runs and a full taper. Given my experience in Paris my biggest concern approaching the race was what would happen at 30kms, but as it was I went through the distance without even thinking about it.
I felt so much more comfortable in this race and reviewing my heart rate data confirmed this. In Paris I had spent over an hour above 90% maxHR, in Moray it was less than a minute. At 13 miles to go I was feeling very good and was averaging around 8:30 min miles. Around this time I was passed by a young guy who was running a wee bit faster than me – I managed to hold on to him for the next 8 miles and increased my pace by 15 – 25 seconds per mile. No French ladies shouting at me this time, however my wife Jo, able to drive around the course, was more than a suitable replacement and along with Elaine Moffat’s – also running – husband Alan and daughters and a smattering of the local population there was encouragement at various points along the course.
At 5 miles to go I had a bit of a moment – why am I here type thing, got a bit emotional and then sorted myself out – during all this I lost touch with the guy I had been following but knew at that stage that I would finish and would run the whole way. It got a bit painful for the last 3-4 miles with cramping in my upper hamstrings at every footfall and my pace per mile dropped off to as low as 9:45 at one point. Managed to pick up my pace towards the end with my final mile (it was mostly downhill) at around 8:15.
A very different race and atmosphere – I think there were probably as many folk finishing in the same minute as me in Paris as finished the Moray marathon in total. I managed 3hr 38min 08sec, 55th in a field of 129 and 19th of 37 in my gender/age category. I felt a lot better physically after finishing this race and was very pleased with my time.
As an aside and for those of you wanting to increase your 10k pace –September 2007 saw me running the Stirling 10k in a lifetime PB of 51min. Two weeks after Paris and I managed the Kinross 10k in 47:30. One week after Moray I managed the Stirling 10k in 43:03. My training for the whole year has been focused on distance so all you 10k’ers get out there and try a marathon!
It is getting close to my 1st anniversary of joining the Harriers, the first running club I have been a member of and it has been a great year of running for me. My training schedule meant that I was not able to attend as many of the club runs as I would have liked, however those that I did make have really helped my running and confidence as well. I would like to say thank you to everyone that has made me feel welcome on the club runs, provided advice on running marathons and also those who waited for me – particularly at the back of the Knock on cold winter evenings!
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ian
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Well done mcmatt - 2 excellent performances. What's next on your race schedule?
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