Two years ago I declared on this blog: that's all folks! That was after the Rotterdam marathon, when I slowed down to a walk for several times during the last 7 km. I reasoned, then, that marathons were taking too much out of me. Then I thought, no, this is not right. It can't be that my last marathon should be a quasi-failure. I'll have another go at a slower pace, without any time pressure, just run all the way from start to finish.
Various mishaps including some injuries, hot weather and a strong bout of demotivation kept me from fulfilling my wish. Then came a landmark Birżebbuġa 5k on a hot and humid August afternoon in Malta, which I barely managed to run through. It was there and then that I decided that I would build up to a marathon. I aimed for Paris on 12 April, but this was fully booked by January, so I had to choose somewhere else... I opted for Vienna on the same date.
Not without further setbacks... during a usually harsh Belgian winter (thankfully, without too much icy conditions) I built up to 3h 17m, which I ran 3 weeks before the marathon. During my taper I ran a 16 km race on the second weekend before last and a 90 minute run in Malta the last weekend before the event. The very last week I felt very sluggish - it was almost as though I had forgotten how to run.
I'm now thinking that a 3 week taper is too long for me. But that's something to consider (maybe) the next time.
I had decided not to look at my watch at any time during the race. I would just run with the flow and take it easy. It's what I did almost throughout. A look at my 5 km splits shows how consistent was my pace:
| KM 5 | KM 10 | KM 15 | KM 20 | KM 25 | KM 30 | KM 35 | KM 40 | KM 42 |
| 00:25:29 | 00:25:46 | 00:25:39 | 00:26:15 | 00:25:49 | 00:26:33 | 00:28:05 | 00:27:56 | 00:12:44 |
Quite clearly, weariness struck somewhere between 30 and 33 km, although I didn't realise this at the time. I was determined and happy that I was cruising to an easy 15th marathon finish.
One thing I didn't like about the Vienna marathon was that a relay marathon takes place on exactly the same route at exactly the same time. You don't notice this much except at the handover points, where crowds of runners wait for their companions to show up. During the late stages of the marathon, however, these relay runners do create a problem. Three hours and 35 km into a run, with your leg muscles understandably not at their very best, sprightly upstarts come up from behind, fresh from their doing nothing, and overtake you at breakneck speed. I knew I had started to slow down a bit, but I didn't know whether I was being undertaken by fellow competitors who were doing the marathon like me, or whether it was the relay runners running at their fast 10k pace.
At the 39 km mark my curiosity had the better of me. I was happy with my performance so far, and wanted to estimate my finishing time. 3h 24m. That could well give me a 3h 35m finish, a fantastic time! A minute or so later I realised I had made a bad miscalculation. It was THREE, not two kilometres to go. It was a terrible blow psychologically. I was already bracing myself for a final flourish, only to realise that I still had more than 15 minutes to go!
The long, straight final 2 kilometres were long, straight, slow and never-ending. It was really difficult, and I thought I wouldn't even make 3h 45m. But I did keep running and never even considered slowing down to a walk.
I crossed the finish at 3h 44m 20s net time. Full time is a bit more - the time taken to reach the starting line at the beginning. I had achieved my target by running from start to finish.
As is often the case with these large city marathons, the walk from the finish to the clothes containers was much too long. You're dead on your feet, and all the way you are thinking, over and over, "never again!"
Long distance running permitting during the hot summer months, for my next target I'm very much interested in the Maratona del Lago del Garda - along the banks of the lake with the mountains of the Alps to serve as backdrop...
