My first marathon

I had set my alarm for 5 am but there was no need.  By 4:30 I was up and raring to go.  I’d been woken up quite a few times in the night by the sounds of the wintry storm that was lashing Christchurch with heavy rain and I’ll freely admit to a few moments of trepidation.

Both my mother and my father were running in the half marathon event.  My dad doing his 6th one and my mother her first ever (Go mum!).  My beloved wife had originally planned on coming to cheer us on but we decided that she and Emma should stay home as the weather was just atrocious.

I had a website open that was reporting current conditions and the temperature was varying between –1 and –11 degrees centigrade as the wind gusted through the town.

Luckily I had come prepared and had some cold weather tights and a long sleeve top as well.  I’d never worn these when out running before and I recalled the advice that one should never do anything new on race day but I decided that being warm was better than freezing and that I would take my chances.

Here I am just before leaving for the event:

We got there about 40 minutes before the start.  The bag drop was very well organised – it looked like they had the air force cadets on duty doing all the work.  Another vital prerace activity is the bathroom visit.  The bathrooms were top notch as we could use the heated indoor ones in the Christchurch Town Hall.  Best prerace pitstop I’ve ever made.

At about 20 to 9 the race director urged us all to get into our starting boxes so we went outside.  The sun was shining and I thought that maybe I was a bit overdressed.  I went out and in a burst of optimism decided to line up with the 4 hour marathoners/2 hour half marathoners.  At about 10 to 9 I was glad that I had my cold weather gear as there was an icy blast of wind and then we got hailed upon.  This was the first time of many that I got hailed upon in that race!

I didn’t actually hear the gun as it were but all of a sudden everyone started to move.  Then we all came to a standstill again as the crowd bunched up.  It took me about two and a half minutes to get to the start but once I did I gave a ‘Hell Yeah!’ and started my very first marathon race.

The Christchurch marathon is a two lap circuit.  The half marathon is one lap and the marathon itself is two laps.

The start of the race was great.  Most race starts are I find.  The adrenalin is rushing through your body and you are surrounded by thousands of other runners who drag you along.  I made a deliberate attempt to go out reasonably slowly.  I figured I would try and maintain 6 minute kilometres for the whole event and that way even if I slowed down somewhat in the second half I should still come in in under 4 and a half hours.

I stuck to this for the first kilometer.  I even stuck to it for the next four kilometers although I did noticed my speed was slowly picking up.  I made a point of walking through the drink stop and making sure I got in a full cup of water.  I’d been warned that even though the conditions were cold I would still get dehydrated if I didn’t take enough liquids in.  At the end of the first 5K I felt great.

I took my first gel at this point and much to my disgust managed to spray it all over my face and arm.  I had a sticky arm and face for the next few kilometers until I got to the next waterstop and could grab a sponge to wipe myself down.

For the next 5K my pace went right up to 4 hour marathon pace.  I was going great and felt like I could maintain this pace indefinitely.  I slotted in behind a group of people who were running very comfortably at the 5:30 – 5:40 minutes per km pace and was quite happy being dragged along by them.  The weather wasn’t too bad at this point.  It was rather windy but the wind was at our backs and so there were no real complaints.

At the 9.5km this all changed when we turned back towards the city.  It was rather windy and I felt my pace slipping somewhat.  Having said that I still felt good and decided I would try and keep it up and still did around about 5:50 kms.  I kept these up until we got to Hagley Park.  The wind was rather bad there as there were no buildings to stop it and I was starting to feel the strain somewhat.  My pace plummeted to 6:30 but at that point I wasn’t too bothered as I figured I could easily make it up once I was out of the gale.

My brother was at the 20 km mark and I quickly gave him my jacket and gloves as I was starting to get quite warm.  It was good to see him and he told me my dad was only 30 seconds or so ahead.

Running through the start finish chute was bittersweet.  It was great to hear everyone cheering and it was great to know I was halfway but on the other hand all of a sudden I realised I was only halfway and I’d already been running for 2 hours and 7 minutes.

The first few kilometres of the 2nd lap were rather strange as I transitioned from running with heaps of people to pretty much running by myself.  Every so often I’d pass someone and to be honest a lot of people looked like they were struggling somewhat and I was still feeling pretty good.  I was a bit surprised by how good I felt.  I was tired and all but still very upbeat.  Normally I hit a patch during my races where I absolutely hate it and start to question why I’m doing this.  I hadn’t hit that patch yet and was hoping not to!

My first real thoughts of boy this is hard started at about the 25 km mark when I could look across the Avon River and see the runners on the other side.  There was a mix of slower half marathoners and walkers so there were still quite a lot of them but I knew that to get to that point I still had to run another 9km and even then there would still be quite a distance to go.  At this stage the struggle was a bit more mental than physical as I was still feeling reasonably good although my pace was slipping quite considerably.

At about the 26km mark I started to stiffen up a bit.  I could still run quite comfortably but I just could not take big strides.  This would get worse and worse as the marathon progressed but at this stage it was more of an annoyance than a problem.  Up until the 30 km mark I went along quite comfortably if slower than I would have liked.  I was consistently passing people and only rarely being passed by others.  There was a chap doing a run walk and he would run past me and then I would pass him when he stopped to do his walk.  We probably kept this up for about 12 km.

One thing the marathon does is give you plenty of time alone with your thoughts.  I stopped to think about my journey from being a couch potato to running in the marathon and I knew that there was no way in hell I was going to pull out of this event.  It just meant too much to me.  I got on to thinking about my inspiration for all this and it all comes back to my beloved wife.  None of this would have happened without her gentle unwavering support.  I owe her big time.

At the 30 km mark things started to get extremely tough.  I reached the point where I turned back towards the city and back into the wind.  I knew I had this pretty much all the way to the finish so I hunkered down and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other.  To make matters worse it started to snow, hail and sleet down.  This combined with the icy wind meant that I was rather cold and it really stiffened me up.  I made a point of trying to relax my body as much as I can but I think in those conditions it was really beyond my control.  I really started to regret giving my jacket and gloves to my brother as I was really struggling.  I found that my stride was getting shorter and shorter as my hips tensed up and as a consequence my pace was dropping quite dramatically.  I know going into the marathon I’d said to myself that there was no way in hell I could ever go slower than say a 6:45 min per km pace but I watched my pace first hit the 7 min mark and then even the 8 min mark.

To my surprise even though I was going slow I still felt good.  I was so stiff and cold that I could hardly move but my spirits were high.  I was going to finish and it was wonderful.

Would you believe it but at about the 37 km mark the sun came out again and I had to carry my cap for a bit as I was overheating.  By the 39 km mark it was freezing again.

One thing that was great was that all the marshalls and policemen on duty during the event were really supportive.  Quite a few of them commented on the fact that I was still smiling even though the conditions were atrocious.  I felt quite sorry for them having to be standing still in those conditions as they must have been freezing.

Kms 39 & 40 were the toughest of the marathon I think.  I was running in Hagley Park again and the wind was blowing something fierce.  I was extremely stiff and was down to a shuffle but I kept going and I still had a smile.  I was going to finish.

The organisers had put up heaps of posters with motivational sayings on them.  My favourite was: “It’s not that I finished but that I had the courage to start.”  I have to agree with that one.

I got myself through those two tough kilometres by chanting my wife’s name over and over like a mantra.  I told myself that I would give her a call as soon as I crossed the finish line.  I checked my phone and what do you know, there was a message from her.  I must admit I teared up a bit at that point and resolved to get to the finish line that bit quicker.

After I passed the 41 km mark I though I’d better try and shuffle a bit faster as I suspected my brother might still be around and sure enough he was.  It was quite funny as he was standing next to a marshal who said that he’d been waiting very patiently and hadn’t let any foul language pass his lips even when it got bitterly cold.  It was good to see that he’d stuck around and I told him I’d see him at the finish.  I even joked that he might get there before me at my current pace.

The last kilometre was both long and great.  I knew I was going to finish but the finish seemed rather far away.  As I ran down the last stretch I saw my parents and the Sri Chimoy Running Team gathered at the side cheering me on.  My mother is friends with them that’s why they gave me a cheer!  Rather nice of them.  The announcer called my name and I crossed the finish line!  I am now a marathoner!  4:54:53 – a new PR!

I gave my wife a call and I was pretty emotional.  Enough said about that!

It was a brilliant experience in torrid conditions and I learnt a lot about myself and marathon running.  I’ll do another post with lessons learnt.  I think this one is long enough.

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