For the 2009 Adelaide marathon I had my most disorganised preparation of any of the 8 marathons that I have run. Given that I got married on 8th August and only arrived back from our honeymoon on the 22 August I think you can see why.
My main focus for 2009 has been my ultras, which in itself has seen me lose quite a bit of speed, but couple that with very little running in the preceding 3 weeks and it didn't forecast any great predictions for a good marathon time.
For the first time ever I didn't have any race plan at all other than to get to the end. I am certain that prior to the start I had almost resigned to the fact that I'd run a personal worst. This didn't bother me one bit as I was just happy to be running the marathon.
We lined up for the start, the gun went off signalling the start and I pretty much just aimlessly set one foot in front of the other. I must say that it's actually quite refreshing not having any goals at all.
The k's were ticking by quite nicely and I was comfortably running 5min/kms. I had an unplanned toilet break but other than that I felt great.
I soon however noticed something that was quite foreign to me and that was a general soreness developing in the legs after around 23km. It was the kind of soreness that I usually get in the very late stages of the marathon. The soreness really got to me and soon I seemed to be just ambling along at what didn't appear to be any great speed at all. It didn't phase me though as I wasn't running to any schedule at all. More than anything it was just annoying.
The k's ticked by at regular intervals and soon we were well into the River Torrens section of the marathon course. Here I experienced something else that was foreign to me. Usually on the marathon I can coast effortlessly down the undulations of the Torrens, but I was actually so sore that I was gingerly running the downward slopes. It was quite clear that my complete lack of long k's on hard roads, combined with a pretty much blown out pair of road shoes was really pounding my body quite badly. Usually I have a nice and freshly broken in pair of road shoes for the marathon, but this time I was really caught out with having to run in an old pair of shoes.
My progress really slowed and I could soon see that I was going to run a personal worst time. Normally this would bother me but this time I didn't care at all. I was just happy to be out running a marathon.
Eventually I arrived at Santos in a time of 3:49:24. This was some 30 minutes slower than last years time where I set a personal best! Things can surely change in the space of 12 months!
Given that I had a disorganised preparation for this marathon, and my focus on other goals this year, I was quite happy with a solid finish. The worst thing about this marathon is that in the days after the race I suffered from soreness far worse than I have ever experienced before, even after my North Face 100 race!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Adelaide 6 Hour - 18 July 2009
Well this is quite a belated blog, but I thought that it was worth putting some words to paper regarding this event.
Quite a few people know that the Adelaide 24 hour has moved to Queensland, and as a result there are no timed events to have a crack at in Adelaide. To try and somewhat fill the void, a keen runner, Ben, decided to see if anyone would be interested in a 6/ 12 hour run around the Uni Loop in North Adelaide. It turned out that there was not enough interest in the 12 hour, but 10 runners were keen to enter the 6 hour. I had often though about the 24 hour and thought that I may as well put my hand up.
Leading up to the event I really didn't know what to expect as I had never done a timed event before, and I wasn't sure if I would get bored running 2.2km loops for 6 hours. The 10 of us lined up at 6am in the dark and set off on what was for most of us something completely new.
I didn't really have a race plan other than to take it easy and make sure I had something to eat/ drink every 2nd lap. It didn't take long to see that time would actually pass by quite quickly. Soon the sun had risen and the Uni loop started to come alive with weekend exercise fanatics and dog walkers.
Everyone settled into their own pace, with Brett and Dave flying off into the distance. As the hour approached we got ready for a direction change. It may not sound that exciting but running in the opposite direction really did change the feel of the run. It also added quite a bit of interest as the faster runners passed us in the opposite direction and I passed those who were running slower than me.
As the day progressed the Uni Loop continued to provide changing scenery. And by that I mean that different people were now out exercising and different sporting teams were playing on the central sports fields; including The Adelaide United Soccer team. Other distractions included timing the turn around so that you didn't have to run in the anti-clockwise direction which had the "climb". Ok, those of you who run the uni loop may ask where the hill is but after 50km it feels like a hill!
During the run I didn't really have too many problems and I was continuously running calculations to see what distance I would achieve. As the final hour was upon us I was almost resigned to the fact I would not reach 60km and was just aiming for 58-59km.
Nearing the end of the run Cliff passed me and I told him "I was toast" and had nothing left. I was really starting to struggle to maintain a run until I happened to look at my GPS watch and figure out that I wasn't that far from hitting 60km. All of a sudden it was like someone had flicked a switch. I have never ever experienced such a dramatic change in the way I felt. I went from barely being able to run to not feeling any pain at all and running like an absolute maniac. I went screaming past Cliff and as I started my last lap I also went flying past Dave who just looked at me and started laughing, most likely wondering what drugs I had just taken.
About 20 seconds after I passed Dave the hooter sounded to signal the end of 6 hours and I went to the closest cone and took that reading to the lap counters. My GPS was telling me that I had covered 59.97km so I knew it was going to be close. Unfortunately, when the results came out I discovered that I had covered 59.8km...I was 200m shy of 60km!
Some people may think that I would be incredibly annoyed...well I was but I had such a fantastic time that I wasn't that bothered by missing out on 60km, besides it'll give me something to aim for next year.
To summarise this event I have to say that it was a big surprise to me. I did not expect that I could get so much enjoyment out of an event where you run around the same track for 6 hours. It was never boring and there was always something going on around the Uni Loop. To all those who may think it does sound too boring then I'd encourage you to give it a go and then make your mind up. I must give a big thank you to Ben for putting on such a great event and I hope that we can run it again next year.
Here are the results:
Brett 68.2km
David 64.1km
Glen 59.8km
Cliff 54.8km
Ben 56.8km
Graham 55.5km
Colin 55.0km
Kym 52.8km
Terry 50.6km
Sue 41.7km
Quite a few people know that the Adelaide 24 hour has moved to Queensland, and as a result there are no timed events to have a crack at in Adelaide. To try and somewhat fill the void, a keen runner, Ben, decided to see if anyone would be interested in a 6/ 12 hour run around the Uni Loop in North Adelaide. It turned out that there was not enough interest in the 12 hour, but 10 runners were keen to enter the 6 hour. I had often though about the 24 hour and thought that I may as well put my hand up.
Leading up to the event I really didn't know what to expect as I had never done a timed event before, and I wasn't sure if I would get bored running 2.2km loops for 6 hours. The 10 of us lined up at 6am in the dark and set off on what was for most of us something completely new.
I didn't really have a race plan other than to take it easy and make sure I had something to eat/ drink every 2nd lap. It didn't take long to see that time would actually pass by quite quickly. Soon the sun had risen and the Uni loop started to come alive with weekend exercise fanatics and dog walkers.
Everyone settled into their own pace, with Brett and Dave flying off into the distance. As the hour approached we got ready for a direction change. It may not sound that exciting but running in the opposite direction really did change the feel of the run. It also added quite a bit of interest as the faster runners passed us in the opposite direction and I passed those who were running slower than me.
As the day progressed the Uni Loop continued to provide changing scenery. And by that I mean that different people were now out exercising and different sporting teams were playing on the central sports fields; including The Adelaide United Soccer team. Other distractions included timing the turn around so that you didn't have to run in the anti-clockwise direction which had the "climb". Ok, those of you who run the uni loop may ask where the hill is but after 50km it feels like a hill!
During the run I didn't really have too many problems and I was continuously running calculations to see what distance I would achieve. As the final hour was upon us I was almost resigned to the fact I would not reach 60km and was just aiming for 58-59km.
Nearing the end of the run Cliff passed me and I told him "I was toast" and had nothing left. I was really starting to struggle to maintain a run until I happened to look at my GPS watch and figure out that I wasn't that far from hitting 60km. All of a sudden it was like someone had flicked a switch. I have never ever experienced such a dramatic change in the way I felt. I went from barely being able to run to not feeling any pain at all and running like an absolute maniac. I went screaming past Cliff and as I started my last lap I also went flying past Dave who just looked at me and started laughing, most likely wondering what drugs I had just taken.
About 20 seconds after I passed Dave the hooter sounded to signal the end of 6 hours and I went to the closest cone and took that reading to the lap counters. My GPS was telling me that I had covered 59.97km so I knew it was going to be close. Unfortunately, when the results came out I discovered that I had covered 59.8km...I was 200m shy of 60km!
Some people may think that I would be incredibly annoyed...well I was but I had such a fantastic time that I wasn't that bothered by missing out on 60km, besides it'll give me something to aim for next year.
To summarise this event I have to say that it was a big surprise to me. I did not expect that I could get so much enjoyment out of an event where you run around the same track for 6 hours. It was never boring and there was always something going on around the Uni Loop. To all those who may think it does sound too boring then I'd encourage you to give it a go and then make your mind up. I must give a big thank you to Ben for putting on such a great event and I hope that we can run it again next year.
Here are the results:
Brett 68.2km
David 64.1km
Glen 59.8km
Cliff 54.8km
Ben 56.8km
Graham 55.5km
Colin 55.0km
Kym 52.8km
Terry 50.6km
Sue 41.7km
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