It was late spring last year, a few weeks after having completed my ninth marathon in Antwerp, as I was doing my customary midday break run in the Parc Cinquantenaire, that I calculated the date when I could run the next marathon, which would be my tenth. It added up to late February... of course, Malta! What could be more appropriate for a tenth marathon, than a return to my home country?
I immediately resolved to prepare to run my tenth marathon in Malta in late winter 2009. Except that I was forced to stop training for close to two months because of a hamstring strain, which reduced my fitness to zero. It was only in August that I could start training again, starting from scratch. Another quick calculation: if all went well, I could still JUST possibly make it to build up to the Malta marathon on 1 March. So I began my comeback, which proceeded without too many problems right up till the big day.
Marathon Day was a blustery cloudy Sunday with a temperature around 10 to 15 C. Quite OK, except for the wind that was a bit too strong. As we anxiously waited for the starting gun, I said hello to a number of friends and acquaintances, whom I rarely meet nowadays given that I've moved to Belgium. At exactly 8 a.m. we were off.
I was aiming to finish in 3 hours 30 minutes or less, so I needed to run each kilometre in a handful of seconds less than 5 minutes. This I managed from the very first kilometre, while concentrating on not forcing my pace, but rather to let it flow naturally. Successive distance markers showed erratic times, indicating that they were probably not placed very accurately. However, the average trend of my timings showed that I was gaining slightly on the 5 minutes per km pace, which was exactly what I wanted.
Unlike other occasions, I completely disregarded my rivals, and never made any effort to keep up with them or to overtake anyone. I just kept concentrating on not forcing my pace, and monitoring the time at each distance marker. The worst part, in fact, was the second visit to Ta' Qali, just after midpoint. It was there that I exceeded the 5 minutes per km target by quite a bit for several successive kilometres, and I feared that I was tiring and beginning to slow down. The openness of the area also resulted in a strong headwind, which made the going harder.
Then we turned into the long main road from Ta' Qali towards Imrieħel bypass - the final third. It was here that I really came into my own. I got a strong boost from the fact that I recovered my normal timings. My carefully planned training was serving me well, as there was no sign at all of tiredness. The ever-dreaded 'Wall', where at around 32km you have used up your muscle fuel reserves, your legs turn to jelly and running seems like an impossible task, was nowhere in evidence. Attard, Imrieħel bypass, Ħamrun bypass, Triq Diċembru 13, Blata l-Bajda, Portes-des-Bombes, ... A long succession of kilometre markers went by, and at each one of them I literally shouted in elation as I kept gaining on my target time, all the way to the finish at the Sliema Ferries. I crossed the finish line with both arms raised, with the clock at 3 hours 26 minutes 35 seconds.
It was a great triumph. I don't think there's a bigger satisfaction in long distance running than to finish a marathon at a strong pace and well within your target time. I'm very happy to say that I achieved this on my tenth marathon. For me, it was the perfect marathon!
No comments:
Post a Comment