Question:As someone who will be doing mine in the not so distant future, I'm interested
in hearing your stories about this.
So, tell us about your first marathon -- from the fresh "race-report"
perspective, or your current perspective, or both. Or if you haven't run a
marathon, just sit back and enjoy the thread (-;
Here's a starting point. These questions are optional of course -- just ideas
to help get the ball rolling.
describe the event -- how many people were there ? Was it well organised ?
What was the weather like ? Were there many spectators ? Was it low key like
a quiet trail race, or loud and hyped like the big city events ?
how was your preparation ? how long had you been training before the race,
and how much milage did you do before it ?
did you run other marathons after that ?
if you set specific goals, did you run as well as you expected to ? What is
your advice to the first time marathoner who is setting goals ?
since you've probably had more experience since then, can you reflect on
the experience ? Anything you would have done differently given 20/20
hindsight ?
Answer:
There were about 30,000 people (London Marathon, 1993). I was 21, and it
was my first ever running race (and last, until autumn last year).
The atmosphere was brilliant, and the organisation was good too. At the expo
they'd run out of bags for us to pack our kit in, but they were there as
promised on race morning.
The morning was sunny, in April, and it wasn't at all cold standing around
in kit at 9.30 in the morning. A pretty good temperature, though it did warm
up later. The start at London is packed with runners, so there was no room
for spectators, though there were LOTS later on.
I lined up, in my racing kit consisting of some pretty old cross trainers, a
a pair of distinctly unsuitable thick shorts coming down to not far above
my knee, and a fairly heavy cotton t-shirt. The anticipation was incredible.
We were almost at the start. Finally, the moment arrived - and it was my
turn for the portaloo. Needs accomplished, I asked a marshall where my
start pen was. "Just join in" she said. The race had started while I was in
the loo. Not that I could really tell, the crowd of runners wasn't moving
that fast! I was quite thirsty by now, having had little to drink all
morning, but the first water station wasn't for 3 miles.
On some basis, I'm not sure what, I'd predicted myself a 3.25 finishing time
back in September. Race preparation had consisted of a rigorous diet of a
couple of 10K runs a week (all run pretty much as fast as possible,
obviously), with three or four longer runs of 21K, covered in about 1h30 [1]. My only
saving grace is that I occasionally did a rowing outing, then went sculling
by myself, then went for a 10K run, which did amount to about 3hrs of exercise,
albeit not completely continuous.This was probably crucial in my reaching
the finish. My lack of training didn't actually bother me though - I considered
myself pretty fit, and had no doubts I'd run the whole way, and just gut it out.
I was rather surprised to cover the first mile in more like 13 minutes due
to crowd pressure, despite frequently sprinting up the pavement (sidewalk to
merkins) to make up ground. The second mile wasn't a bit quicker, but still
considerably off the pace. After perhaps a mile and a half we got moving,
and I settled in to race pace, or probably a bit quicker in an effort to
make up time. At three miles we had the first water station, and I drank most of
the bottle.
I don't remember much of the next 10 miles, except a guy I knew from
college, coming alongside at 5 miles or so, and whizzing off after explaining his
race plan to me - 5 miles @ 7minutes/mile, walk for a bit, repeat, and aim
to get under 3 hours. I contemplated the maths of that over the next few miles,
and decided it didn't really add up. He finished in something well over 4 hours,
though I didn't see him when I passed him.
Just before Tower Bridge there was a run through shower. I was getting
pretty hot by that stage, so went through it. Going over the bridge was, apart from
the incline (London is pretty flat, so it did feel a bit like a hill :) ),
really quite cool. I think I got there just before the elite runners went under it about 10 miles
ahead of me, though I couldn't really see anyway.
There was a little mat at half marathon distance - they were trying out a
new chip that they'd given to select runners, and if they ran over the mat, it
would give them a split time in their results. I guess this was the forerunner of
the ChampionChip. I forget my time there (no chip for me!) but I have a feeling
it was 1.45ish, so basically on pace for 3.25 (giggle) allowing for the
delay at the start.
Hitting halfway was interesting, as I now knew I was running further than I
ever had before. Despite that, the next few miles went tolerably well. I
seem to remember it starting to get pretty tiring around 18 miles. At about
20 miles I noticed that my heart rate was dropping - I'd been wearing a
heart rate monitor all the way through, and I was unable to sustain the 165 I'd
been doing, and was now down to sub 160. My feet were feeling pretty sore,
and my thighs were very sore, especially on the backs. I did try walking for
50 yards, but it didn't actually hurt any less, so I started running again.
I think I was being passed by quite a few people at this point.23 miles was about the low point. I was exhausted, though still running, No
idea what pace I was doing. As I ran past some spectators (they lined
the course all the way round) one commented "Look at the expression
on that rower's face". Pretty sure that was me, as I was wearing a rowing
t-shirt.
Finally, I reached the sign that said 800m to go. I lifted a bit,
but I still couldn't see the finish, and 800m is quite a long way at
the pace I was doing then. At the 400m sign though, I could
actually see the finish. I managed something of a sprint, overtook
probably 50 people, and crossed the line in 3.45. I even remembered
to raise my arms for the photo.
After that, I got my medal, listened to the guys next to me discussing how
someone a few places further up had run from the finish to the start before
the race, and then collapsed in a heap. I wanted to cry, I felt so drained.
I inspected my feet, found a couple of broken toenails - guess I should
have cut them before the race.
Post-race, I couldn't walk downstairs for three days. After that I
recovered quickly - I was rowing after four days, and set a PB
on the ergomenter after 7. I didn't run for anything except very
casual "I'm feeling a bit fat, think I'll jog round the block" running
until last Autumn though, a gap of 8 years. It was a very painful
experience.
At the time, I was a bit disappointed in my time. Now, I can't quite
believe I managed it. I think my goal of 3h25 was perfectly realistic,
and I'd have had no trouble getting it had I done even a very cutdown
marathon training plan. Had I trained more seriously, I think I'd have
astounded myself. My mistake was setting my goal based on my fitness
and what I thought my potential was, and not on how much training I
was doing.
