2nd of October, 2022
The lead up
In the past, I have been pretty diligent in writing about my marathon experiences, for my own benefit and reflection but also to tell the story to anyone that will listen. The last marathon I wrote about was my 4th experience, the 2021 Barossa Marathon. Since then I have run another in Murray Bridge, and I ran again in the Barossa in May this year.
I was disappointed with my Murray Bridge marathon. Despite a great time of 3:04:15 and finishing 3rd overall, I hadn't improved my PB that I'd achieved earlier that year. I also hadn't achieved my goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, which I had a really good crack at. I did start writing a post about the run, but never had the full motivation to finish it.
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| Murray Bridge Marathon 2021 |
My effort at the Barossa in May this year was even more disappointing. I went in with a disrupted preparation having had Covid and not being able to get as many of the longer training runs in as I needed. Despite this, I again had a crack at the pace needed to run a sub 3 marathon. I went through halfway in under 1.5 hours, but knew I didn't have the effort required to keep that pace up. I burst into tears in front of Naomi, Mum and Dad at about 26km in as I admitted to them (and myself) today was just not the day. I ended up finishing in 3:17:42, still my 3rd best time from 6 marathons, but not an enjoyable experience.
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| Still smiling after the 2022 Barossa Marathon |
Marathon runs are such a tough, and risky event to find the optimal balance to achieve a “perfect race”. To run a good marathon, you typically need at least 3 months (probably more if you are looking for a 3 hour run) of training under your belt.
Following a marathon it takes a good 3-4 weeks to recover fully so that you can get back to training at the right intensity to work towards another! That's a minimum of 4 months of the year dedicated to 1 race. If that race doesn't go to plan, bad luck, those 4 months could be considered wasted. However, my advice to anyone running a marathon is that those 4+ months are not wasted, learn from them each and every time you try to achieve your goals, and your goal can eventually be achieved!
Following the 2022 Barossa Marathon, I was somewhat dejected. I thought perhaps I was never going to be able to achieve my sub 3 goal. I had run so well in 2 marathons last year (6 months of reflection on the Murray Bridge Marathon puts it in a whole different light, perhaps I will finish that post) and suddenly had added another 10+ minutes to my time, that was huge! How could I possibly get back to anything close to 3 hours like I had last year?
I had signed up to the Melbourne Marathon, I had 4 months of training, minus the 1 "recovery" month post Barossa. Really only 3 effective months of training to get under my belt. Knowing I was underdone for the Barossa, I knew the minimum 3 months was again not ideal preparation!!
Around the middle of my training program, I had a 20km trail run planned in the Grampians for my 30th Birthday. Unfortunately that event fell right around when ideally I would have been doing my longest training run. I was adamant I wanted to do that event however as a special occasion. However, with the guidance of Riley Cocks (RunAsOne Coaching) who prepares my training plans, I actually ended up with 2 weekends in a row of events/races, with the Adelaide Half Marathon the weekend before.
I ran the Adelaide Half Marathon coming off almost a week off from running due to a cold. I got through it somehow and in hindsight it was probably a good run for my mentality in training. The Grampians event the following week was amazing and I had a fantastic run through the Wonderland Trail running up to the Pinnacle and back down the other side. The weather was wonderful and it all just felt great!
Despite 2 decent hit outs (somewhat successful in different ways) I still wasn't entirely confident that I had the distance load I needed in my legs to push through the barriers I couldn't in the Barossa.
Next up I had 2 weekends in a row of 32km runs, however I did think they may fall too close to my run, not allowing me enough time to recover. I think that certainly was a mistake I had made in the Murray Bridge marathon having gone too far, too close to the event in training and not feeling fresh on race day.
2 weeks out from Melbourne I entered another event, the City to Bay. Again, I was sceptical as to whether I should be racing this or not. At this point it is worth noting that on my coaching survey we fill out for the RunAsOne coaches to use as a guide to each months personal training plan I had put the following:
Adelaide Half Marathon?
City to Bay?
Other events?
I was so unsure about what I wanted to race, and left it up to the experts to decide for me. Izzi did make a comment that she thought that was quite funny having seen such uncertainty come through!
Riley ended up putting me down for every race anyway! It turns out this was probably one of the best things for me. I ran a very good City to Bay race and for the first time since possibly the Murray Bridge Marathon, I felt confident that I could in fact go sub 3 in 2 weeks time. Upon reflection, running the City to Bay was probably one of the best decisions to run this given how good it went.
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| 2022 City to Bay |
Melbourne
I travelled to Melbourne alone on the Friday. Naomi had originally planned to come with me but had other important commitments to attend. By the time we realised she could have come across on the Saturday, flights had blown out to be overly expensive and she had already booked a flight over for the Monday (as we were then travelling onto Broome for a week off!). The cost just wasn't worth it unfortunately.
I stayed the Friday night with a family friend and then moved into a hotel/apartment on the Saturday night as I figured I needed my privacy to ensure I get enough sleep as well as to do the important race morning prep such as using the toilet in peace. I checked into the hotel at 2pm and didn't leave. By that point I had already racked up almost 10,000 steps which is possibly far too many for the day before a race, so it was time to rest!
Race Day
Race morning consisted of getting up at 4:45am and getting in some warm oats to finish off the carb loading for the past 2 days. I headed off at about 5:15am on the search for an e-scooter (I'd purchased a 3 day pass to save walking everywhere). Evidently 5:15am on a Sunday morning in the southern CBD of Melbourne is an interesting time to be searching for a scooter. Eventually I found one and was on my way to the MCG.
On the recommendation of Naomi and some of her training partners, I paid the extra $100 for the "Very Important Runner" (VIR) event package. Surely some people must have been put off by the name (I wasn't), because $100 for this package (on top of $150 for the race itself) is cheap as chips.
Prior to the race, we had access to one of the MCG bars where it was warm, there was food, coffee, tea, water and Gatorade available, there were clean toilets and you had a beautiful view of the finish line inside the MCG. We could also leave our bags there where they would be secure and not amongst 30,000 other people outside. It was a somewhat peaceful and calming way to prepare yourself for the race ahead.
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| The view from the VIR Room |
At 6:30 we headed out as a group. Mark, a great runner from our RunAsOne group also had access to the VIR room. Mark and I had discussed our race plan the day before and to my surprise we were likely to be trying to hit very similar pace targets.
This was Mark's first marathon and despite him being quite a way ahead of me in most training sessions, I had pipped him in the City to Bay so this pre race plan chat had boosted my confidence that perhaps we could work together for a sub 3 goal.
I don't typically like running with other people in a marathon. Riley had said to stick with the 3 hour pace group (the pacers carry a massive flag which apparently got quite tricky in the breeze a few times). I thought this may be a good idea, but I also just like to stick to my own plan and my own "feel" for the race.
The VIR package provided us with a "Preferred Start" which essentially means we started at the front of the whole race. This was great for Mark and I as this meant we didn't need to push our way through the pack to get to where we needed. The 3 hour pacers essentially started near the front as well.
What was interesting though was that a lot of people in VIR were more than likely running a lot slower than a 3 hour pace. I can't imagine it would have been a great start to the race to be trampled by thousands of people trying to get past you, but good on them anyway I guess.
The Race
The race started at 7:02am (it was meant to start at 7:00, possibly an important detail for those tracking my time against the clock). Off we go.
The start of a marathon is possibly one of the most important parts of the race in my opinion, especially in these massive events where you just get taken by the crowd. It is important not to go out too fast (I've done that more than once before). It is important to find your pace and stick with it. It is rather difficult to do so amongst 1000 other people around you all trying to do the same thing, or all going out too fast...
Somehow I found myself behind the 3 hour pacers. I am not really sure how as I was in front of them at the start line. As I mentioned before, I didn't really want to follow the pacers as such, and my feelings around this were highlighted when I realised the group behind the pacers was massive. There were 150-200 people all trying to keep up with the pacers so it was very hard to find a consistent cadence and to get into some sort of groove. The place to be was definitely just in front of the pacers. Now I just had to get there!
My first kilometre went pretty much to plan. I would have been happy with about 4:20min/km and it ended up at 4:13min/km. However, Riley had noted to me the day before that the Melbourne course is about 600m longer on a Garmin watch which meant that each kilometre marker on my watch would tick over some time before the official kilometre markers on the course. Ultimately I probably did run bang on a 4:20min/km. Step 1 of the race plan - tick.
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| Me and Mark, possibly around the 35km point. |
Over the first 4-5km I slowly made my way up in front of the pacers, finding gaps where it was safe and practical to do so. Once in front there was much more space and I felt a lot less claustrophobic. Mark had also managed to find his way to the front of the pack, either on his own or having followed me I don't know. I'll note importantly here, we were at the front of the 3 hour pack, definitely not at the front of the marathon pack...
From this point, it did kind of feel like Mark and I were running together. We chatted a few times after about 6km just about how we were feeling and what was happening around us. Not long conversations, just little comments about the race. I'd made mention to Mark that one of the last kilometres we'd probably ran too fast and needed to slow it down a bit (3:58min/km).
I wasn't too keen on chatting too much (and I am sure Mark wasn't either) as I knew I'd need the energy later. This was another reason I didn't want to run with anyone as I know it is hard not to chat!
Coming round to 12km we got our first glimpse of some of the leaders of the marathon in the F1 Pit Straight of Albert Park. Izzi was somewhere near the front of the women's race, Riley had already passed in the men's race. They seemed to be moving like F1 cars on that straight, or maybe I was already becoming delirious. I gave a big yell out to Izzi, then considered whether that was a good use of my energy or not - oh well.
Turning around at the end of the pit lane I had the first look at how far I had managed to creep in front of the 3 hour pacers. I'd made up a decent gap, but was not confident at all that it was enough. What if they weren't pacing right, what if they started slow and will speed up in the second half when I might slow down? It doesn't matter, don't think about it, you are keeping a great and consistent pace, just keep doing what you are doing!
From those thoughts, I started passing onto the complete opposite thoughts. I kept imagining crossing the line in under 3 hours! I would get a huge grin on my face and some tears welling in my eyes and then I realised I needed reality to set in and stop that nonsense. "NICK, you have 32km to go, yes you've run well so far, but there is a lot to go! Don't waste your effort on thinking about the future, think about the now". I had these thoughts and these grins about 4-5 times in the first 28km I think. I was happy however that each time I was able to bring my focus back to the now.
From 16km in we were onto Beaconsfield Parade in St Kilda (essentially the esplanade). I knew this road reasonably well as I'd spent 2-3 hours running up and down it in March watching Naomi smash her Ironman 70.3. It was relatively flat, but felt long.
Mark's brother was waiting in support for Mark with some electrolyte drink to refill the bottle Mark intended to hold for the entire race. It was quite entertaining being a few metres behind Mark at this point as I got to enjoy the whole kerfuffle of Mark telling his brother to "fill this bottle up with that and run with me while you do it". Mark's brother was not quite able to manage all of that at once and told Mark he would be seeing him with his full bottle when he ran back past in another 7km or so.
Running northwest, Riley was coming back the other way in 5th place. I yelled out in support and again wondered if it was a smart use of energy. Nonetheless when Izzi ran past I yelled out again!
The road was long. we ran out about 4km before we turned around again to head back the other way. There was a very slight headwind on the way out, so it was nice to have a very slight tail wind back the other way, although I do recall thinking that as soon as I turned, the wind changed. Funny how it follows just me!
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| Running along Beaconsfield Parade, St Kilda |
Running back the other way I got a really good sense of just how many people were running this race. Again, I was able to check on the position of the 3 hour pacers. I think I'd made up even a bit more ground on them which had me feeling good. They were still being followed by a large pack of people.
The crowd thinned out a bit (not much) up to the next pacers at 3:10, then 3:20, 3:30 etc. The biggest group however was behind the 4:00 hour pacer. That group was massive. I was running in the middle of the road and decided to move over somewhat to get out of their way as they came in the other direction!
Mark, in his first marathon, asked me somewhere along this road "what are your thoughts on stopping in one of the cubicles for a bit of a wee break?". I gave my honest advice (as I had also been feeling I needed to pee for most of the race) - "if you're uncomfortable, you need to go, but it will take 45 seconds to a minute IF you can even get anything out! Sometimes your body is already in shock and doesn't work in a normal way! I did suggest just trying to go right there and then on the course (I considered it myself), but as far as I know that wasn't an option he took, nor did he end up stopping anyway.
21.1km was coming up. I don't recall it being marked as "HALFWAY!!" but there was a timing mat on the ground. That has to be half. My watch read 21.4km and 1 hour, 27 minutes and 30 seconds. A bit of relief came over me, I had 2.5 minutes in the bank. I knew the second half of the course was hilly, I may need those minutes.
I also knew that in Barossa earlier this year, at halfway I had clocked out. Whether it was because my body was not strong enough, or my mind was not strong enough, I told myself this time I feel good, starting to get sore but this is now where the mental game is going to start. Stay strong, you do feel good and you can keep running.
In the past I have kept a pretty close eye on the pace on my watch. I definitely paid attention to it in Melbourne, but I think I found I just felt "comfortable" at a certain pace, and as long as I was in front of the pacer, my pace was fine. I think also having Mark around the same pace helped immensely.
Perhaps one of us was looking at our watches at different times and we were just keeping the pace. We weren't running together specifically, Mark would break out in front for a bit, then I'd pass him and be a few metres in front for a while. We just tried to keep up to each other if we were struggling in a moment. Mark said at one point along the beach "quite a scenic course isn't it". I responded as energetically as I could at that point "I hadn't noticed". Nice to know Mark had the energy to look around though.
As we ran further and further down the esplanade, the clear blue skies we experienced at the start of the race started to somehow morph into a fog. It was mentioned to me later that perhaps this was just all in my head and I was the one getting foggy, but others recounted the same eerie phenomenon down past St Kilda.
It was strange, but it was also timed perfectly. Had the sun been out I think I would have been starting to get pretty warm and overheated. The fog brought a coolness and possibly delayed some of the fatigue by a couple of kilometres.
Finally at around 26km in, we turned again and headed back up to St Kilda Road. I was feeling pretty good for the first part after turning around. Another running friend (who has completed 11 Melbourne Marathons now) mentioned to me pre-race that there was a steady rise in the course at Luna Park. I knew the spot, but when we got there I must have been feeling pretty good as the hill wasn't that noticeable to me. Perhaps I took it too quickly however as soon after this was the first time I started feeling more than just fatigued, and started to get in my own head a little bit.
There was definitely some fatigue around one of the drink stations in that section as I grabbed a cup of Gatorade and completely missed my mouth, with quite a substantial amount ending up in my eye. My next cup of water I then deliberately poured over the eye as I wasn't really sure what effect Gatorade would have on eyes normally, let alone 2/3 of the way into a marathon. It was a good distraction for a kilometre or so though as I kept laughing to myself that that second cup of water must have looked somewhat like the "Drinking Problem" from Flying High.
From about 20km I had kept telling myself "right, now let's just get to 30km and then we can think about the rest". It was a good plan for most of it, but it felt like it took forever to get to 30km (it took about 42 minutes between 20 and 30km...). In hindsight I was continuing to run at a steady pace, and I think I was continuing to build a bit of distance in front of the pacer. Mark and I didn't talk much, if at all past about 28km - he was quite possibly feeling very similar to me!
At 30km in, I was feeling ok, but not great. With 12.2km still to go and the prospect of facing those hills ahead, I felt like sub 3 was possible but at this point I was starting to do the maths in my head. It is hard to differentiate whether I was doing the maths to know whether I could just soak up the moment as it was a sure thing, or whether I was trying to do it to see if I could slow down for a bit and rest (not a good option, but it certainly crossed my mind a number of times).
Nonetheless, because of the extra 600m above what my Garmin was going to tell me, and also being over 2 hours into the race where my average heart rate was apparently 180bpm I just couldn't do the maths properly. Perhaps also I was in disbelief that I was actually going to do it today! Very different to the visions of crossing the line I had in my head in the first half of the marathon!
As we passed Albert Park, the marathon course joined the half marathon course. This was a complete farce in the design of the race. All of a sudden all the marathon runners had to run through a huge pack of half marathoners to ensure we were able to hold our pace.
We had joined up with the 1:50 half marathon group who were running quite a bit slower than everyone in our pack. The course did deviate after about 500m or so, but again joined up after another 5 or so kilometres. Not a great section of running, but Mark and I had managed to somehow stick within the vicinity of each other through the packs, our pace was good and we were still on target!
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| A pretty good description of the feelings I was having at this point. |
Most of the way back up St Kilda Road into the city I was just counting down the kilometres. Not the best of head spaces to be in, but one that is quite common. It was a struggle, but somehow looking back I managed to keep a relatively consistent and great pace. A few thoughts that crossed my mind in this section of the race are:
"Naomi is going to give birth in 3 months, you can put up with this pain for another hour!"
"Naomi finished an Ironman while pregnant, you can finish this race while not pregnant!"
Thanks Naomi.
It was also pleasing each time I crossed a timing mat. Although no family or friends were able to come out to see me on the course, there were quite a few watching me on the tracker. Each time I crossed a mat I knew I was keeping a consistent pace that they would be able to see. In previous marathons (New York 2019 for example) these trackers would not work as well as I blew up as the race went on and I'd arrive at the timing points minutes after it predicted I would.
In Melbourne, I knew I must have been close to consistent on each, and I imagined everyone cheering each time they got a notification I went over the timing point. Whether they were or not doesn't matter, it was the boost I needed for a few hundred metres each time.
35km in and we are running under St Kilda Road (with the half marathoners...) and into the Botanic Gardens. Better described as up the hill into the Botanic Gardens. The 36th kilometre of the race was somehow my equal fastest (3:58min/km).
After this however I knew there were 3 relatively small, but comparatively big hills to get over in this section, and then I would be onto the final stretch of the run. "Just get this done and the rest will be easy" I told myself.
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| What a joy it was to be running with the half marathon runners... |
Hill 1, tough, ouch, I feel slow, I think the pacer is about to catch me, let's do some maths again, could I walk this hill? Don't be stupid just keep running...
Hill 2, ok, we've broken away from the half marathoners again, less people around, just push up this hill, good, good. We turned a corner and I tried looking out for the pacer behind me. I couldn't see them, that must mean that they are right behind me - oh dear! They are going to catch me, I can hear them behind me.
Hill 3, with excessive grunts coming from a neighbouring runner with headphones in - honestly overly excessive grunting/squealing up the hill - it got in my head and I yelled out "Shut Up!!" he had headphones in so didn't hear me, and then ran past and ahead of me so whatever he was doing was working for him I guess... Ok Nick get to the top of this hill then you're almost home!
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| Mark and I still together, with an elite? |
By this point I was pretty eager to finish. I had no idea where the pacers were, I thought they must be right behind me and were ready to pass (they weren't). I just kept running. There were a few unfortunate (and oblivious) half marathon runners that got in the way. I possibly hip and shouldered at least 3, but there wasn't much else I could do.
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| Running back along Flinders Street towards the finish |
Weaving though I saw Mark ahead take the footpath to the side. It looked more open so I followed. It was better, but still not great. Having to jump kerbs at this point in the race was not ideal.
I had stopped taking on water/Gatorade at this point. Prior to this I had taken fluid on at every drink station (approximately every 4-5km). I had also taken on a Gel every 30 minutes (a difference to all previous marathons in which I would only take them every 45 minutes or so, a great decision to change in hindsight - and a decision I only made the day before, lucky I brought 6 gels with me!).
At 41km into the race I felt a toenail on my right foot lift up and then every step thereafter felt as though that same toenail was stabbing into my foot! A great pain. I thought to myself, ouch, that hurts but bad luck, you need to keep going now. At least it didn't happen 10km in! It obviously continued to hurt but I can't really remember it after a few hundred metres.
The MCG came into sight and although I knew my legs were sore, and I was pretty out of breath most of that went away knowing all I had to do was a lap on the MCG. Through the race we went and onto the white mat laid out I assume to protect the grass. I ran to the right of the mat to make sure I ran ON the MCG, only to realise we then kept going around the boundary where we just ran on the grass anyway.
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| Finally coming into the MCG |
Even at this point I don't think I could fathom the maths. I had 4 minutes to run around the MCG. I was pretty sure I would be fine to get in under 3 hours but I was stressed, I certainly enjoyed the lap, but also just wanted to get to the finish line!
I ran around the boundary and there was a huge crowd in the stands next to the finish line. I hit the first row of supporters and started to feel the adrenaline. I think I did a little fist bump (see the video) and then heard family friend Rob in the crowd give me a huge yell! I didn't know he would be there but that moment in time was right about the perfect place for him to be.
All of a sudden it clicked I was about to achieve something I had been working on for 3 years, or more.
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| On the very last stretch to the finish |
I am not one to have such big goals or bucket list items so to speak, perhaps because I have been focusing on this one for so long. But does it feel good to have that one, big goal and then to finally achieve it.
I "sprinted" to the finish. I considered soaking it up, but that time was so important to me I didn't want to let it slip away. I crossed the line and let out a bit of a yell. It was done. I was absolutely elated. I finished in an official time of 2:57:41.
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| The relief of crossing the line! |
Mark had crossed about 12 seconds ahead of me. He along with Riley (4th overall) and Izzi (2nd female) were all there celebrating in the finish line compound. It was great to celebrate with them. I hung around in there just soaking it all in. Rob came around and down which just cemented the family/friend connection right there and then. Everyone had been tracking from home but to see someone at the finish line is something else.
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| At the finish line with Riley, Mark and Grace from Run As One |
Post Race
Eventually I made my way back up to the VIR room where we had access to food, showers, massage and honestly the best thing was just to sit in the stands on level 2 between where people enter the MCG and finish their race and just take in the atmosphere and reflect on what I had just achieved after so long.
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| No caption needed |
Upon taking my shoes off I could see the damage to my toes, they hurt, but it didn't matter.
There are many, many people that I have met along the journey of 7 marathons and each marathon has been a completely different experience. I haven't met a single runner that hasn't been supportive and it has been great to be part of a running community for a couple of years now.
Endurance events also involve sacrifice and support from family and friends. There have been events I have accidentally missed in the past due to training or events (my sister's engagement announcement to the family is probably the biggest that comes to mind) and there are days when you've done a long run and don't really feel like helping with the chores around the house or going out for lunch that day.
Despite all of this, at the end of the day, each and every one of those people I may have let down has congratulated me on achieving my goal and for that I am extremely thankful. That support along the way and now is so very much appreciated.
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