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Melbourne Marathon - RunMarathon


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Melbourne, Victoria
Australia
Melbourne Marathon
18C / 64F
Precipitation
Total Time = 5h 06m
Overall Rank = 4709/heaps!
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 124/lots!
Pre-race routine:

Went to bed at 8.30 and slept til 4.30 – very impressed with this, certainly made progress in the nerves department
Alarm goes off at 4.30am. I had my energy bar for breakfast and a cuppa. All good. Drank gallons of water – weed a hundred times. Nicki arrived at 5am and off we went. Arrived in the peeing rain and parked the car – could have stayed in the warm and dry but we needed a the toilet again! So we headed off to the MCG. Found the portaloos – first ones to use them so nice and clean – but DARK! Made sure I got the vaseline all the pertinent areas and we dropped our long sleeved tops off – starting to acclimatise to the chilly morning. Finally the rain stopped.
Event warmup:

Headed down to the start line – Nicki headed further forward and 7am the siren went. I crossed the start line at 7.02am and started my 6min/1min run/walk strategy (JEFF GALLOWAY)
Run
  • 5h 06m
  • 26.22 miles
  • 11m 40s  min/mile
Comments:

I remembered to run slower to start – first 14km had to be slower than target pace otherwise sure to run out of steam. Man that first 14km took a long time! Was happy to see the 10km marker. Chatted to some great people – incuding two Irishmen doing their first one with the same Jeff Galloway book – their strategy being 4min/1min and they were faster than me – I bade them farewell at 20km.

Once out of Albert park we headed down to the beach where it was blowing a gale, a full on headwind I felt I was running backwards. On this stretch the runners double back so I saw Nicki – going great guns keeping up with the 3.50pacer. About 200m behind her Bree and Aleesha. It’s so nice to see a friendly face!

Hit the turnaround and there it is – a tail wind – awesome I was flying along.

By now I’d tried to pick up my pace this middle section supposed to be faster for me – er not! Had a couple of kms that were faster but not many. I was pretty much dong my 6min/1min and that was just over a km. Probably doing 6.30 kms. I got to 21km pretty fast so was happy with that. Now my next target is 28km at this stage I saw Nicki again who gave me the gun to head sign – this is her wall at 26km. Bree and Aleesha were in front of her now and travelling well. I also felt a bit off – not awful but it’s the mental wall they all talk about. I know that if you just keep moving it’s fine. This stretch of 24km to 30km seemed extraordinarily long and a slight incline and this was where the five minute downpour hit us along with wind – yucky. I kept seeing on the opposite side of the track this old dude who was a Spartan 30. Which means he’s done 30 Melbourne marathons! We kept smiling and waving to each other. He was way ahead of me. Anyway got to the 30km and that’s when it always hits me, I can do it, only 12km to go. I can walk it home from here and still get under 6 hours! I must confess to a kilometre walk here. I was just done.

24km – 30km also had no drink station, they’d packed up – furious. Lucky some lady was handing out ice lollies. I had a lemon one. After that there were heaps of drink stations. So up through the park we headed – a bit up hill. By now I’ve caught Spartan runner and we’re chatting. We’ve got 8km to go and it’s hurting but mentally is fine. He said we can walk from here and we could have and we were possibly going faster that way! BUT I stuck to my guns 6min/1min. I saw the 38km sign and I suddenly got a burst of energy and decided to hit it harder. 3km out this other guy says we can beat 5 hours – looked at my watch 18mins. No way was I going to be able to smash out a sub 6min km for 3.2km. I waved goodbye to the sub 5 hour marathon – after all my target was to beat last year 6 hours 6 mins. In my head 5.30 I thought was a realistic target.

A few downhills on the final 3km which was lovely. 40km and a few tears – joyful ones, I can smell the finish! I lost Spartan man he sped off! And suddenly I’m turning this corner and a spectator says – 200m to go. I checked my watch oh my GOD, 5.06 is going to be my time, I cannot believe it! What a boost, I crossed the finish line – the commentator said what a finish and what a photo coz I had my arms in the air and a huge smile on my face. I was so excited!

Turns out Nicki super-Ironman-athlete was just 4 minutes ahead – she said at the end she was thinking “jo’s coming gotta keep going!”
What would you do differently?:

go a little bit faster....
Post race
Warm down:

So race over – off I go collect my medal, showbag and an apple and Gatorade. Yum. We collapse onto the grass – some poor guy having CPR right next to us. We’re in a better place than he is.

A slow walk back down to collect our bags – we spy the massage area and it’s empty – why the hell not. Two people massage my legs – ouch but heaven. Fifteen minutes later we head back to the car and off to the pub – chips, gravy, lemonade and wine. We are fine – we live to fight another day. Home and straight into the shower – no chafing (a small personal victory!). Onto the couch crisps, a cuppa, mars bar and rugby on the telly. Snoozed the afternoon way watching rugby really!


What limited your ability to perform faster:

The weather really and possibly went a bit too hard the first 14km. Had I known I was going to come so close to 5 hours I would have dug deeper.

Event comments:

Sum up – would I do it again, not today but yes I would. As soon as I stop hurting I’d do it in a heartbeat. I now have a new target – sub 5hours and I can do that in the right conditions and the right training.

As someone said to me with time the numbers fade but the achievement remains.



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Last updated: 2011-10-25 12:00 AM
Running
05:06:00 | 26.22 miles | 11m 40s  min/mile
Age Group: 124/lots!
Overall: 4709/heaps!
Performance: Good
Course: Round Melbourne city, along the beach (nasty headwind) - around the park - baby swans very cute. Nice to double back and see the elite Africans hurtling past faster than I can sprint!
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 3

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2011-10-25 9:55 PM

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Elite
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Subject: Melbourne Marathon


2011-10-26 12:12 AM
in reply to: #3738265

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Veteran
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Melbourne
Subject: RE: Melbourne Marathon

Awesome job mate!!!!

Great effort, and great write-up.

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