The Canberra Times Marathon
Sunday, April 13th 2014 at 6:30am
www.runningfestival.com.au/course-details/marathon/
Pre-race - We arrived on the Saturday and the weather was surprisingly good, a little bit windy but nothing to worry about, and the sun was shining for the first time in a week. We drove part of the course and it was great; beautiful scenery with historical monuments. I was really excited to see a new, beautiful, scenic and interesting route. And it seemed relatively flat. There was a section around 25km that was down and up with some turns etc. and some hills again somewhere between 32-37km. (By the way, if you're looking for an accurate, formal race report... this isn't it. My memory is terrible and my sense of direction is even worse, so I'm simply sharing what I remember and how I felt.) This seemed like the perfect race! I was used to running hills near where I lived so the hills didn't seem too brutal. I'd trained hard through summer and landed a day with ideal conditions. Weather is a big deal to me, I hate being cold and don't like running in heavy rainfall.
I was so nervous the week leading up to Canberra. This milestone - my first marathon - had been on my bucket list for years and I didn't just want to finish a marathon but I wanted to run a decent time. Perhaps a Boston qualifying time (3:40). And I'd been training my butt off for months leading up to this (with the help of Shaun from Brewsters Running (www.brewstersrunning.com). I'd run over 30km at least 10 times and over 35km about 5 times. I'd also run 40km a month out. Anyway, I was feeling ready but nervous because I knew I had to keep the pace up to get somewhere close to my goal of 3:30-3:45. Plus I was continuing to manage injuries - hip and achilles issues. And I was scared my legs were going to pack in, if I pushed too hard. The night before race day, I slept lightly but woke feeling rested and ready.
Race day - I set my alarm for 5am (not that I needed it) and Brad accompanied me down to the start line by 6am. After a few toilet stops, some warm up stretches, last minute adjustments and some jelly babies (why oh why did I eat those jelly babies), I made my way to the start line with the other 1400 people. As usual my knees and teeth... actually my entire body, was shaking with nerves but luckily I didn't have to stand there long before the gun went, and we were off and running. The first 5km seemed quick but I had a stitch, possibly from nerves so I made myself slow down a little. The next 5km was a bit slower, so overall for the first 10km I averaged 4:45min/k pace (47:40). I felt comfortable heart and lungs, and legs but I'd been feeling a bit sick in the guts and those sugary jelly babies had been repeating on me since the beginning of the race. So stupid of me to eat them when I'd never eaten jelly babies prior to a race before. And then to add to my lack of experience (polite way of saying I had a second moment of stupidity)... I had a gel at about 10km even though I knew the drink station wasn't until 12.8km. I had a drink bottle with electrolytes but I didn't want to stop and get it. I didn't want to lose time, so I decided to wait for water. Gels really need to be taken with water or they repeat, and considering I suffer from reflux, I should've known I'd feel sick. From 10km-20km, I felt sick but ok. I averaged 4:55min/k pace (49:11). At 22km I forced myself to have another gel because I didn't want to hit the wall. I still don't know what I'd do if I found myself in this situation again. Having the second gel made me feel sicker but obviously it's not ideal to run 42km on a single gel. Then I hit some hills and turns, and it took the wind out of my sails a bit. From 20km-30km, I averaged a 5:01min/k pace (50:19). I saw Brad & mum (my lovely support crew) at about 32km and I still felt reasonable. I felt nauseous but not terrible. I couldn't stomach another gel, so I tried an amazeball from Runners Kitchen (www.runnerskitchen.com.au). But I couldn't even handle that. I considered stopping and being sick, and tried to calculate whether it'd take longer to stop and be sick but then be able to push the pace, or just run conservatively. My default is to run conservatively, so that's what I did. From 30km-42.2km, I averaged a 5:12min/k pace (1:03:34). Even though my pace had dropped significantly, I was surprised how many people I passed, especially around the 35km mark. Many first time marathon runners train on the flats only. Obviously the hills hurt them. My heart and lungs, legs and most importantly, my headspace... were great. I felt happy and strong, except for the part about wanting to spew! I'd initially said to myself I'd pick up the pace at 40km but I left my sprint until the very end. I ran fast for the last 400m or so, I was tired but I had a bit left in the tank and I crossed the finish line with an official time of 3:30:47! (I know I know... 47 seconds!) I finished strong and felt amazing (even the spewy feeling disappeared).
Post-race - After the race, I was walking around pretty freely. I had some chaffing in spots but that was my only issue and it was very minor (until I got in the shower! Ouch!) I was surprised and grateful that my legs held up well. And I wasn't too bothered that I'd felt sick during the race. I was so stoked to say that I ran my first marathon in 3:30, and that I finished strong (exactly like I wanted). The next morning, I got up at 6am and went for a 4km recovery run. I didn't plan that, but I was on such a high that all I wanted to do was run forever :-)
Lessons -
1. Don't try something new on race day i.e. eat jelly babies
2. Always have water when I have a gel
3. Trust my abilities more, in other words, run faster!
Race feedback and will there be a next time -
The race was awesome; great course, scenery, undulating, lovely volunteers, plenty of drink stations (although most people have gels every 10km so it would be good to have a drink station every 10km), great atmosphere and plenty of merchandise tents. The atmosphere was much quieter than Melbourne's runs, which suits me perfectly. I like the way they ran the 5km and 10km race on Saturday and staggered the starts for the half marathon and marathon on Sunday. There was no congestion and it wasn't too busy or overwhelming. There wasn't a show bag but I received my Canberra marathon medal and some fruit. Overall I rank this run a 10/10 and I would definitely run it again! I'm incredibly grateful for my wonderful first-marathon experience.
Course Map
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