marathon 2 - this time it's...well it's still a fucking long way
I ran my second Melbourne Marathon last Sunday. I've got mixed feelings about it.
I finished, so that's an achievement in itself, so exactly how long it took shouldn't be an issue right? no one ever asks a mountain climber "how long did it take?". They just say "you climbed a mountain!...wow...you're a freak".
But the thing is, this year we trained a lot...A LOT. I ran 4 half marathons then stopped doing them to start doing longer practice runs. We routinely ran 20-odd kms before work. I was better physically prepared for this event than I've ever been for anything. I was really looking forward to bettering my 4h 22min time from last year. I felt like we could well beat Geoff's best ever finishing time.
Then on Sunday, the drink stations ran out of sports drink at about the halfway stage of the race. One of the 2 major sponsors is the maker of the sports drink and they RAN OUT!
You know, for a LOT of sports, drinking sports drinks is a wank. The performance difference it makes is not gonna be significant BUT in an endurance event (which quickly becomes an ultra-endurance event for non-elite participants) it's fucking vital! Inevitably, loads of people suffered. Luckily I was ok but Geoff didn't do so well, to the point where at the 30km mark he told me to run on my own. I didn't. You can't just run off on someone who's done all that training with you and is obviously in pain. So we jogged to 38km together before Geoff got a massive cramp and had to walk, and we jog/walked the rest of the way, finishing in 4h 45min.
I know in the same situation I'd stay with him every time, regardless of how long it took BUT I wonder what time we could've got...Unless we make a fairly sizable interstate trip, we wont get another shot for 12 more months. It's a weird mix of being pretty proud and just a little bit frustrated.
I finished, so that's an achievement in itself, so exactly how long it took shouldn't be an issue right? no one ever asks a mountain climber "how long did it take?". They just say "you climbed a mountain!...wow...you're a freak".
But the thing is, this year we trained a lot...A LOT. I ran 4 half marathons then stopped doing them to start doing longer practice runs. We routinely ran 20-odd kms before work. I was better physically prepared for this event than I've ever been for anything. I was really looking forward to bettering my 4h 22min time from last year. I felt like we could well beat Geoff's best ever finishing time.
Then on Sunday, the drink stations ran out of sports drink at about the halfway stage of the race. One of the 2 major sponsors is the maker of the sports drink and they RAN OUT!
You know, for a LOT of sports, drinking sports drinks is a wank. The performance difference it makes is not gonna be significant BUT in an endurance event (which quickly becomes an ultra-endurance event for non-elite participants) it's fucking vital! Inevitably, loads of people suffered. Luckily I was ok but Geoff didn't do so well, to the point where at the 30km mark he told me to run on my own. I didn't. You can't just run off on someone who's done all that training with you and is obviously in pain. So we jogged to 38km together before Geoff got a massive cramp and had to walk, and we jog/walked the rest of the way, finishing in 4h 45min.
I know in the same situation I'd stay with him every time, regardless of how long it took BUT I wonder what time we could've got...Unless we make a fairly sizable interstate trip, we wont get another shot for 12 more months. It's a weird mix of being pretty proud and just a little bit frustrated.