My first half marathon: Dunedin 2004.
I started running 15 years ago, with the idea that I would get fit enough to do the army entrance test and join the army as a psychologist. The army didn’t eventuate but the running continued.
Initially, I loved the feeling I got after a long run (definite ‘runners high) but it was the weight loss and the ability to eat whatever I liked that really got me hooked. I did my first half marathon less than a year after I started running, but after that I seemed to get a range of injuries so it was not another 4 years until my next half marathon. By then I had moved cities and the weight had crept back on. I got back into running after a close relative died suddenly of a cholesterol related heart attack and I found out that I had inherited that familial high cholesterol. I was using running to manage my weight and hopefully decrease my risk of an early death.
I remember talking to a friend of my parents, who knowing I had done a few half marathons, suggested I try run a marathon. I told him that I could never run a marathon because it was more than just double a half in terms of training and effort. However, the idea was implanted and when I moved to England I decided that training for and doing my first marathon was the incentive I needed to stay in England. I signed up for the Edinburgh marathon and that was the beginning of my marathon journey and a marathon journey is just what it has become.
I don’t remember when I got the idea to qualify for the Boston marathon or when I thought it was something I was capable of doing, but for the last 30 months or so it has been a goal that has stubbornly alluded me. My first attempt was in Christchurch 2017. It was a typical freezing Christchurch day, less than zero degrees on the start line but that didn’t faze me. I was running well, and on target for the first 26k, when the race turned a corner, into a headwind with driving rain. I was already running in a long sleeved thermal but just couldn’t keep warm. As I got colder and colder my speed slowed and I finished 5 minutes off a BQ but I wasn’t too upset since it was a 5 minute PB in such awful conditions, and after a debrief I knew it was the conditions that had made the difference. In less than a week I had found my next marathon and had talked my partner into coming with me to do it. According to my google search the Mt Charleston Revel marathon was downhill and more than 50% of participants gained a BQ on the course. Mt Charleston is just out of Las Vegas, America so I didn’t have too much difficulty convincing Vince that we should head to Las Vegas for a week and do the marathon.
Final few metres of the Christchurch marathon in the pouring rain.
When training for Christchurch the year before I had used Hansen’s Marathon Method in training. It was 6 runs a week, with a lot higher mileage than I was used too. What had attracted me to this training plan was the shorter long runs. They peaked at just 27km and the idea of not having to do 3 x 32k long runs was extremely appealing. In 2018, I began a new job and with the demands and stress of that I was not able to manage 6 runs a week, so I started looking for a different training plan. I found a plan “Run Less, Run Faster” that looked ideal, however, with some minor tweaks. It required three main runs a week, with two cardio sessions. I was already swimming 2 to 3 times a week, and had been cycling as well (in 2017 I also started doing triathlons) so including cross training was not daunting to me. The running included a speed work out, a tempo run and the traditional long run. I dreaded going back to the long 32k runs so I used the tempo and speed runs from the Run Less, Run Faster programme and combined that with the two weekend runs from Hansens (they always had a Saturday run followed by a longer Sunday run to simulate running the last kilometres of the marathon rather than doing the long run on fresh legs).
Mt Charleston arrived, and the conditions could not have been more different from Christchurch. There was a cool start at the high altitude but the temperature would be over 30 degrees Celsius by the time we had got to the finish line and the bottom of the mountain. In preparation for this both Vince and I had been doing weekly sessions in a sauna. It was to help with the higher temperatures and the altitude. At the expo, we were talking to one of the event organisers who asked us about our race strategy. Mine had been to just run at a consistent pace. She suggested we take it easy for the first 4 miles, where there was a slight uphill then from Mile 4 to 21 put on the pace, that section was all downhill. The last 5 miles were mostly flat but she said by that stage they will feel uphill so bank so time for those last 5 miles. So, on race morning, that is exactly what I did. I took it ‘easy’ for the first few miles then turned on the “gas” but by Mile 13 (halfway) my quads were burning, by Mile 15 I knew I was in trouble and by Mile 17 I had been reduced to a shuffle and had nearly pulled out. I stumbled across the finish line in a sobbing mess more than 40 minutes later than I had been hoping. If I am honest, I was gutted. I have never ‘failed’ to achieve a goal I have set myself before, let alone fail twice in a row. Upon reflection (or the download of the run to Strava) I discovered a valid reason for my blowout. There were several kilometres or miles that I was running at a 4:30 pace (keep in mind that a goal pace for a 3:40 marathon is 5:13). I had been running at the pace that Vince needed to run at for his sub 3:10 (which he got!).
At the start line a couple of days before the marathon.
For a race review of Revel Mt. Charleston click on this link
I still desperately wanted that magical BQ so four weeks after my failed attempt at Mt Charleston I toed the start line at the Christchurch marathon again. This time Vince was going to pace me. After two failed attempts my head had started to play havoc with me, I was full of doubts. Unfortunately this race did not go to plan. I had been experiencing hip pain on and off again for a while, and during my third attempt the pain got so bad that I made the decision to pull out at the 23k mark so Vince could go on and finish (he was in the middle of completing 4 marathons in 4 months for his 40th birthday). We celebrated his 40th that very weekend. Yet again, I was gutted and had it had really knocked my self –esteem. In hindsight, attempting the marathon distance 4 weeks after a really difficult marathon was probably not the best idea.
While we had been running the Christchurch marathon the second time (and complaining about the cold) we decided that my next attempt would be the Gold Coast marathon in Australia. Like Christchurch it boasted a flat course, but it was without the twists and turns of Christchurch and the freezing cold temperatures. I decided to go back to the Hansen’s Marathon training plan but only run 5 times a week instead of 6. I also stopped swimming as much so I could give everything I had to my marathon training.
In the build up to the Gold Coast marathon I did a couple of half marathons as training and to gauge where I was at (I am also aiming to do my fortieth half marathon on my 40th birthday later in the year- but that’s another story). In April and May I ran two half marathons; one was my third fastest time ever (1:45:11- which is 14 seconds off my second fastest time) and the other was a 1:46 that I ran comfortably and with a negative split. I was gaining confidence and running better than I had in over four years (Vince had never seen me run so well).
Finishing the Gold Coast Marathon
For a race review of the Gold Coast Marathon click on this link
Unluckily I had a ‘run in’ with a cyclist 4 days before the marathon. I was doing a penultimate run along a bike path near my work, and was about to turn around to head back when a cyclist came up behind me and we both ended up sprawled on the ground. He was fine, and I was fine, just a bit bruised. I didn’t think too much of it, yes I had a meaty bruise on my thigh but I hadn’t done any muscle damage so I figured I’d be O.K.
I was calm at the start line of the Gold Coast marathon (which was a big contrast to my previous marathons). My plan was to run with the 3:40 pacer and I had been assured that she was very experienced and would be running at a consistent pace (and I had taken the pressure off myself by telling myself that regardless of the outcome I would go and race at Boston)- who was I kidding I really wanted that 3:40 (or at a stretch I would have accepted a sub 3:45 since that was meant to be my qualifying time for 40- 44 years- however, they decided to reduce the qualifying time by 5 minutes to make it harder to qualify!!!!).
I stood behind the pacers and just concentrated on staying with them. However, 15k into the race I was already starting to tire, and my legs were hurting. The pacers were getting faster and faster and we were hurtling along at a pace that was on average 7 seconds a kilometre faster than needed. I made the decision to slow down, and pace myself. I saw Vince not long after that, and he was looking great. He was just behind the 3:10 pacer, and had yelled out encouragement to the 3:40 group assuming I was in the big bunch of runners (there was at least 30 of us). At that stage I was about 50m behind the group but still on track. I was still on track at the 25k mark but was really starting to struggle. I knew that I was not going to be able to keep the pace up and had settled on my B goal of a PB. By 30k the wheels had well and truly fallen off and I was just hoping to finish. I did make it to that finish line, in 3:56. Far from what I wanted but I did manage a 25 minute improvement on my Mt Charleston marathon.
Still no BQ!
I saw the pacers at a later turning point in the race, they were alone, and none of the runners I had started with seemed to be with them at the 38k point of the race. We think they were going for a 3:40 gun time rather than a 3:40 mat time which meant they would have to run another 2 minutes 30 secs faster than 3:40 (which explains the hurtling pace they were going at early on). I wonder how many people’s races were affected by their faster pace. I know the girl I was talking with at the start line (she was an Australian from Melbourne, married to a kiwi who went to high school in the same town as I did- whereas I am a Kiwi living with an Australian from Melbourne). She was also after her first sub 3:40 and I saw her with the pack at 16k when I started to slip back but later looked up her result and she finished in 4:06. I am not sure what happened with her race but I hope the faster pace didn’t cause any problems.
Where to now? I don’t know if I’ll attempt another BQ, or even head to Boston with the tour group next year (although I could go and BQ at Boston). Part of me really wants to qualify and ‘earn’ my spot, another part of me knows that I can run that pace and that life is short so I should go to Boston while I can. I am still deciding. I think I will work on increasing my speed so that a 5:10 pace is super easy. I will try and get a PB in the 10k and possibly the half. I PB’d my 10k during a earlier half marathon this year (47:10).
I am getting there- I have made so many improvements this year already. I am meditating on a daily basis, I have started yoga to increase my flexibility and I am doing body strength exercises. I am definitely gaining more confidence in my abilities, and I have an amazing partner, who not only is my biggest supporter, but is a great coach too.
My coachio supremo: @run.vince.run