Marathon I: Copenhagen

Finally a post on my first marathon.

When I was at University I was quietly training for a marathon but then on a long run sustained a pretty severe knee injury which held up my running for a while. It was a long time before I got back in to proper long distance running, about 10 years to be precise.

Inspired by my parents (both of them!) I've always tried to keep up my fitness, mainly through running. I ran a lot while I was at University, sometimes running around the perimeter of Hamilton, it would take about 3 hours.

When I moved to Sydney I ran to and from work but didn't ever get in to much of a routine or run any big distances.

When we moved to London, it was hard to get in to a running routine for the first couple of years as I had a 1 hour commute on the train to and from work, and worked pretty long hours which didn't leave much time for running.

However, when I changed jobs I found I was able to run home from work which made it possible to get in to a good running routine. The short run home from work from memory was about 13k, I also had options to extend the run with one route getting up to around 22k.

As I wasn't 100% sure I'd be able to get the training done without injury I didn't really tell anyone I was training for a marathon until I was already doing 30+km training runs.

At this point I'll just leave the rest of the blog to an email I sent after the marathon...

I've been doing a fair bit of running for the past year and late last year figured if I could keep up the running and continue to extend the distances I ran, eventually I might get to a point where I'd be fit enough to do a marathon. With Dad committing to doing a marathon this year I didn't need any more inspiration than that to see if I could do the same. 

So when we got back from the wedding I began to step up my running, without really changing my lifestyle too much. I only ran 3, sometimes 4 times a week, generally with a long run on the weekend when Jackie was working and running home from work twice a week (between 14 and 22km depending on the route). 

I'd scoped out the options for marathons over the year, a lot of marathons "sell out" ruling out most of the big name marathons, however the Copenhagen marathon looked like a possibility, with a flat course, open entry and no pressure on the number of places meaning I could leave it relatively late to decide if I wanted to enter. 

On April 16 I completed the online application (still no firm commitment as payment wasn't required), and on April 17 I went for a 35km jog which went quite well and capped a week in which I ran 97km over 4 runs. So we booked flights and accommodation and I arranged to pay the entry fee. Training had to be taken a bit more seriously now!

A light training week followed with just 2 runs, it was about this time I invested in a new pair of shoes, allowing enough time to wear them in and get several training runs done with them.
The following week, 3 weeks out from Copenhagen I ran home from work twice and then did my 35km run again, a bit slower this time to make sure I felt I could do another 7km.

It was about this time I started having pains in my right foot, which I'm quite certain was a result of walking 2km every day from station to work in my flat work shoes, so highly unfashionable but necessarily I started wearing running shoes to work.

I started scaling back my runs from now and taking care of my dodgy foot. I felt I could cover the distance so long as nothing went wrong but my main worries were now related to getting to Copenhagen - european airspace has been intermittently closed due to volcano eruptions in iceland. Also I wasn't so sure I'd registered properly as I hadn't received my start card in the post which I required to pick up my number and chip. 

The final weeks I was a bit nervous and excited, I really just wanted to get on and do the run. As the day got closer I got more nervous about my ability, quite unsure whether I was underdone.
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the volcano didn't cause a problem, I had no issues picking up my number and chip, I ate and drank all the right things before the marathon and had a good nights sleep the night before.

I was still pretty nervous about whether I was going to be able to do it. So while I wanted to wait until having completed the marathon before calling Dad to surprise him with the news of my achievement I put in an emergency call for some last minute advice, which reverberated in my mind all the way around the course, "don't go out too fast", "make sure you're able to talk, everyone else will be puffing around you but make sure you can still talk" "late in the run all those people puffing will be walking". And it pretty much worked.

I started out steady, making sure I stayed behind the 3:45 pace setters. There were supposed to be close to 14,000 people running the marathon, I think more like 12, 000 started, either way it was a lot of people and it was quite crowded, the course unfortunately took us through some bottle necks which was a bit frustrating, at one point where the run looped back on itself I realised that there were far fewer runners just in front of the 3:45 pace setters so at around 18km I think,  I set about passing the pace setters, which resulted in a much clearer run, which made it a lot easier to run faster, for the next 20km or so I don't know how many people I passed, many of them walking, but it was certainly a lot and I was feeling great. 

Jackie got a great photo of me at 29km, feeling very chipper and this continued for quite some time, as every km went by I was beginning to wonder how long it was going to be before it started to get tough. It wasn't long before I found out, I got through 35km easily enough, it was at this point that I realised I'd never run this far before but was still feeling ok.

It was around 38km where I started thinking that it's only 4km to go and that pretty much means I'm there, right? Then I thought about Martin Crowe, on 299 against Sri Lanka. And watching the 'From Cloth Cap to Helmet' video where he describes how he'd mentally figured he was at 300 already, and then whoops, he's out. So I realised, 1k at a time, don't get ahead of yourself. 

I was definitely not keeping up the pace I had for the previous 20km and I think I did a couple of 5:40 kms at this point, which was a lot slower than I had been doing. But I realised that I was still passing vast amounts of people who were walking or not moving at all. Sure a few people were passing me but I was still in good enough shape to keep running. I came down to the final kilometre and was struggling to muster a final spurt but in the 500 or so metres of the finishing shoot, with all sorts of Danish cheering which made no sense to me whatsoever I was able to put the gas on, passing a couple of poor souls getting helped to the finish by the military! I was in such deep concentration that I didn't see Jackie, although she got a couple of great photos and was cheering profusely.

Coming down the finishing shoot with my hands in the air, the Danes might have been worried that I thought I'd won the bloody thing but I had such a huge sense of achievement that I really did feel like I'd won on the day. 

It was quite sentimental, and the whole run I was recollecting with fondness supporting Dad running marathons when we were younger, it felt odd to be on the other side, now doing the running. 

Jackie was amazing support, not just during the run but leading up to the day when I was getting stressed and nervous. She made sure I ate the right things and was well hydrated and she was there, cheering and screaming at all the points we'd agreed before hand, telling me I looked good, which in fairness I think I probably was considering, even time for a quick kiss on route, all the runners around me were very jealous, as were all the other supporters of course! And she was there at the end, not flinching when I gave her a big sweaty hug and a kiss!!

My final, official time was 3:40:15, much better than I'd ever dreamed I could have done. Apparently my half marathon times were 1:50:48 and 1:49:27, placed 2306 out of 9141 finishers.

I'm now hoping to do the Berlin marathon in September, although as all open places for that have been allocated I'm going to try and run for a charity to get a place. 

So yeah, that's the story there. 

Going to Paris next week to watch French Open which should be good. 

Berlin Marathon 2010

Marathon II

Nearly 10 years after the fact but here's a post about the Berlin Marathon which was my second marathon. The post below is based on an email I sent after the marathon partly as an update to those that had sponsored me as I was running to raise money for MS Society.

First a bit more back story. I had completed my first marathon in Copenhagen in May (I'll do a post on that soon), it had gone relatively well and I was keen to build on the fitness I'd built up to do another marathon, and to see if I could go faster. It would be a push because I was pretty shattered after Copenhagen. Berlin was a good option, renowned as one of the worlds fastest marathons, one of the 'marathon majors', also had a friend running it too. I had missed the open entry but was able to get in on a charity entry and I chose to run for MS Society, a charity we fund raised for at Gisborne Boys High School.

We had already been to Berlin once, for my birthday in 2009 I think, it was a good trip but Berlin probably wasn't a city we had expected to visit again but a marathon was a good excuse. We stayed in the same hostel as our first trip. It was a backpackers hostel the room we had (on both visits) was like an apartment with kitchen and plenty of space.

To celebrate the marathon we carefully planned an solid Greek holiday to be added on after the marathon which was one of our absolute favourite holidays. I'll try get a retrospective post done on our Greek holiday too.

It was Berlin in October, it was cold, it wasn't a fun prospect making our way to the start line, first via train and then walking. From memory I think I reassured Jackie that it was ok to spend more time sitting in warm cafes eating pastries more than following me around.

Copenhagen had been about 15,000 participants, this was more like 40,000 so the start was huge. Tip was to bring a jumper to wear while waiting to start so I brought an old jumper for this purpose. Given the rain I wish I had followed other people in wearing a rubbish bag to stay dry too. First rookie error. Second rookie error was getting too excited when the starters gun went, ripping off my jumper and flinging it off to the sidelines, I then had a 10 minute wait until we started to move, and at that point it was very slow moving. I felt quite silly but I wasn't the only one in this boat. Perhaps we all should have huddled together to share body warmth!

Anyway, we got going, below is the marathon report I wrote almost 10 years ago (this was before I had a GPS watch)...

The weather was miserable, it was cold and wet which meant that it was pretty tough going. It wasn't long into the run that my shoes and clothes were sodden. That combined with the masses of people meant that I wasn't making particularly good time for the first 10k. My first half was pretty much the same as for my previous marathon (1:50:01 at Berlin vs 1:50:47 at Copenhagen).

It was around 30km that I started to get really cold, which was a bit of a worry because you would think after running so far I would have warmed up. However with my Dad's advice I knew that the race didn't really kick in till 32k, with that in my mind I managed to have my fastest 5k between 30 and 35km. Around 35k I could definitely feel my legs seizing up, I knew I'd be seeing Jackie around 35k and while she managed to get a photo of me smiling I made sure she also got the message that it might take me a while to get through the last few k's and not to be surprised if I don't get to the finish for a while. Sure enough the last k's were tough, but that's the idea I suppose. With support from Marsh and Fi in the final straight I was able to put in a bit of a sprint finish.

Final time 3:37:29 which I was really pleased with.

Screenshot below of the splits from the Berlin Marathon results page

After picking up my finishers medal I went to the designated meeting place, wrapped in a plastic sheet for warmth. Jackie turned up with a pretzel which made me very happy, turns out I was a little blue from being so cold so a hot sausage and a couple of hot chocolates were quickly devoured before heading home for a long hot shower. 

I've attached 4 photos, before, during (around 36k, looking ok but feeling terrible) and after (looking cold but enjoying my pretzel) and a few days later, in the Greek islands!

Before

During

After

And relax, in Sifnos, Greek Islands

I would like to say a huge thank you to all of your messages of support and donations to the MS Society who I was raising money for. I have hit my target of raising £500 and have to say, knowing that so many people had donated so much money gave me the extra incentive to keep running when I really wasn't sure I could keep going. The MS Society support crew were out in force in Berlin which made me really happy that I have been able to help contribute to the good work they do.

There were lots of highlights for the day, finishing the marathon under the Brandenburg gate was surely one as was the celebratory drinks and meal at 'White Trash' restaurant just down the road from where we were staying - if you're ever in Berlin go to White Trash for a meal, it's great (and don't be fooled by the exterior - it's not a Chinese restaurant).

And finally, a huge thank you to Jackie, Marshall and Fiona who supported me along the run even though the weather was miserable and I'm sure they would have rather been sitting in a pub somewhere, the support really made a huge difference on a really tough run. 

Next stop on Team Bush Marathon World Tour... Paris (hopefully)

Kirikiriroa Marathon 2018

Given a goal for this year is marathon related I thought I should catch-up on my  marathon posts.

In the UK I did 4 marathons, I think I blogged the other ones (Just checked, no think I started blogging after the first 2.

Anyway, marathon V was Kirikiriroa, my home town at the time in Hamilton, 2018.

It had been 7 years since my last marathon, Nottingham and while I'd tried to stay fit I had a long road to go to get marathon ready. Marathon training with young children was not so easy. Not least because a 3 hour training run means 3 hours of time missed with the kids. So my training was no where near as intense as when I was in London without kids.

But I was determined to get back to running so slow and steady I got in to it. I was only doing 2-3 proper runs in a week, with quite a few very short runs to work in the meantime.

A new development for my training was that I had a GPS watch, a standard Garmin watch which not only kept my time but how far I ran and mapped my runs for me. I'd resisted getting a Garmin for a while but actually really appreciated having it as it helped with motivation.

The Kirikiriroa marathon runs along the banks of the Waikato River, which is a relatively narrow, quite undulating path. I did all my long runs along here so knew what I was getting myself in for.

I was training to be able to do the marathon in under 6min/ks.

Another thing I tried for this marathon was energy gels. It was hard to know if they were helping but it seems it's the standard thing to do now so I figure it must be the right thing to do.

On the day, our friend Ann picked me up, she was also running the marathon. It was dark when we arrived. The crowds were minimal, unlike any of the previous four marathons, really just a couple of hundred people maybe.

We were quite early, so a fair bit of standing around.

The start was cool, they had a Maori challenge to get us underway which was great. The sun was beginning to rise as we took off.

Hills right from the start, a very slow first km. Slowly in to a rhythm. Hopefully the Strava frame below works which shows the map, time etc. If you're on Strava you should be able to see more details via the link


I made it under 4h 12m which was my goal, I was fading real fast towards the end but was happy in the end.

So I was back on the running wagon, no more marathons in 2018 but two in 2019 which I'll write up soonish, hopefully before I get on to #VIII.