Marysville Marathon Festival

Sunday was a great day. 50km in the hills of Marysville. It had everything.

The start line was a pink tractor. I stood next to it with zero nerves, just excitement. Next to me was Seb, Dan and Toby. All three of them would end up running great races and finish in the first half dozen. Ahead of them from that pink tractor was the same 50km that I faced but in truth, for them, a much tougher assignment. They were racing, I was just running. I can’t imagine how tough that must be on top of the distance, the mud and the 1.5km of ascent.

If anyone was nervous on the start line it wouldn’t have lasted long. Every single runner missed the first turn off and suddenly a couple of hundred people came to a stop as Toby redirected us. Much laughter ensued and one guy at the tail of the field got a huge buzz as he realised that for a moment he was in the lead.

My plan was to go out slow, keep myself in check until the highest elevation point of the course which was at about the 26km mark. I wanted to finish with just general pain, not the pain you get when you blow up and slow to an ugly, excruciating shuffle.

Heaps of people went past me in those early stages. I was hoping I would see them again later on. For some though it didn’t take long for me to get them back. Once we hit the mud the difference between trail shoes and road shoes was amazing. It was the first time I had worn trail shoes in an event and it was like cruising on roller blades past people just out for a Sunday stroll. Almost felt unfair but I loved it.

Passing people to achieve a higher placing is not a motivation for me. I don’t even know where I finished up and may never know. It’s not important whether I finish 33^rd or get pipped to drop back to 34^th. Having said that though, for much of the run on Sunday I concentrated hard on passing people and people passing me. It serves two purposes.

 The first is that it gives you something to think about. Six hours is a long time to be out there with nothing much to do. The second thing is it just gives you an indication of how well or badly you’re travelling. If you pass people who had moved away from you earlier then you’ve probably put in place a race plan that is within your means and you’re executing it. It means you are staying relatively strong for most of the race.

On Sunday I ran within a couple of hundred metres of a guy and a girl for the last 25kms. It was amazing. Very interesting. We all took turns of passing and being passed. The girl in particular made me laugh. Her Garmin stuffed up and wouldn’t stop beeping. I could hear her coming, without having to look I knew how far away she was. It was like ‘Jaws’ mowing me down. She passed me 3 or 4 times in the second half of the run. Every time she went by me I thought, "she is travelling so well, looking so strong. No way I was going to pass her back". But every time I somehow managed it. It wasn’t a big fist pumping moment of beating her, far from it. It was just confirmation that my race plan was working ‘for me’. Simarlarly her race plan was probably working as well, just different ways of going about it. I was keeping it together at a consistent pace. I was having good and bad moments, not fantastic and disastrous moments. Big difference. It was the first ultra that I have ever felt in control.

There was a new feeling for me at Marysville. It was massive, Massive, MASSIVE appreciation for the volunteers who make the event possible. I have always been thankful for their work but I had so much fun at Marysville, I almost felt guilty. They put in so much effort it’s unbelievable. Many of them are runners themselves and instead of joining in on the day they work for hours for no pay so that I, and hundreds of others, can have what turned out to be the greatest trail run I have ever been involved in.

Sincere thanks to all.

·         Below is my day in digits. There’s a story in every km. It won’t show all the friendly faces of runners and volunteers though. You’ll just have to register next year to feel the full glow.

·         http://connect.garmin.com/activity/131478815

Post Marathon Blues

It’s 36 days since the Melbourne Marathon. This event for many people is their grand final. It’s held up there as the pinnacle of the running calendar for thousands of people. In one way that’s a great thing because it means in the lead up, a huge amount of us are training hard for months on end. Getting fit and healthy. Becoming mentally stronger and feeling a whole lot better about pretty much everything.

Then on marathon day people put themselves through what can be life changing experiences. They achieve amazing things and everything is just about perfect.

Normally at the end of a season, and especially after a grand final, teams will cut loose big time. Training comes to a complete stop and healthy habits are broken. It can be a similar scenario after a marathon. There is often a mental let down as well as a physical one.

I was on a huge high after the Melbourne Mara and wanted to get into training for next year straight away. There was no motivational issues this time. I’d never felt so keen after a marathon. About a week later though my body started to shut down a bit. There was no real injury, just complete body tiredness. I had experienced this in previous years so I was almost expecting it this time. A quote that a mate and I often throw at each other came to mind – “This too shall pass.” – and it did. In other years though the physical has affected the mental  and I have struggled for weeks to get back into loving it.

The best thing that I have found to work in keeping things moving after the MM is another event. Thousands did City to Sea yesterday. A smaller number did the Moonwalk Ultra in the Dandenongs on Saturday night. I’m signed up with a couple of legends for Marysville in a less than two weeks. After Marysville there’s a short event with the ‘Running Club’ kids from school around the Tan and after that.......well there are an endless amount of options.

In no way am I down playing the Melbourne Marathon. It’s an amazing event. I’ve done three and had tears welling up while crossing the line in two of them. If you can get such an amazing feeling by just turning up and having a crack, why wouldn’t you do it more often. Maybe not once a month, but surely more than once a year.

It is 36 days since the MM. If it’s also 36 days since your last run and you’re not injured then it’s time to shuffle. Not because you should, not because you feel you have to. It’s time to shuffle and shake off them Marathon Blues. Lock in a new event and feel that glow again.

There’s about 330 days until Melbourne Marathon 2012. That’s too long to wait.

Marathon Stories

It’s not often you can look back on a marathon and your first instict is to laugh. It may not happen often but this is exactly where I find myself just three days after the Melbourne Marathon. The photo itself is pretty much hilarious to me........now.

It has been well documented through this blog that 2011 has been a year of frustration and injury. It’s only been the last couple of months that I’ve felt like I was able to train properly. With that under done preparation it actually freed me up. There was no pressure on me to chase a PB because there just hadn’t been enough work done for that to be even a remote possibility.

I had planned to run slow with my mate Gully who was using the marathon as a final prep for the Great Ocean Road 100km ultra. He ended up erring on the side of caution and missed the mara to hit the ultra fresh. So now I was going in with no set plan at all. That turned out to be a painful decision but also a humorous one.

In the day or so before the race and even the morning of, I searched right in the back of my mind and I thought maybe 3h30m would be nice. That had been the goal in my first marathon. I figured if I could match that it would be massive. Hmmm 5min kms, I actually hadn’t run more than ten of them in a row since last year. Now I wanted 42.2 of them. This was gonna be some kind of day.

So it would make sense to start conservatively, sit at the back of the ‘3.30 bus’ and see how long I could stick it out. It would make sense but it wouldn’t be funny, it wouldn’t make me laugh three days later. No instead I started right up the front near the elites. I like starting close to the front. You get dragged along pretty quickly and bank a couple of quick kms before you settle into your groove at your desired pace.

My first km was 4m11s. That’s even too fast for a drag along km.Had to slow down, find my groove at five minute pace. My first km at 5min pace was the 26^th km. All the preceding ones had been well under. Ridiculous. Funny. What was I thinking?

Well, I guess I was thinking that this year’s marathon was a free shot, no rules, no expectation – so just have a crack and see what happens. So even when the pain came, it was just physical, no mental anguish or disappointment about missing a PB. I blew up pretty big and was being passed by plenty. It was my way of helping others feel good about reeling in another runner. Yeah sure.

That said, I was pretty happy that I didn’t just toss it in when it went pear shaped. The front of the 3.40 bus had gone past me but I held on to the back and was happy when a few hundred metres from the line I was pretty sure I was going to be under that mark. As we got closer though I saw the clock saying 3.39.50 and ticking. The girl next to me also saw it, we both went to sprint and almost knocked each other over in the process. We made it.

I think it was just before the 20km mark that I started to fully understand how much of a big mistake I had made and there was 22kms of pain to come. It was too late at that point to recover the situation. I had bought the ticket, now there was no way off the ride. It was pretty horrific but I think I was expecting worse. That's a plus.

The link below leads to my km splits plus other info about the run. They tell a story all by themselves. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120660139

Other stories on the day:

Micka in his debut clocked in at 4.37

Sharon also on debut crossed the line at 4.47

Micka is a sure thing to go again next year. Sharon is a sure thing to slap me if I suggest this is just the beginning. Both were fantastic results. Try doing anything for nearly five hours, it’s a really long time.

Michael Rogers aka Superman: 14 months after taking a few moments at the Tan Track to have a heart attack, completed the 42.2 in 4 hours 38 minutes. Phenomenal effort to make the choice, after the tan track setback, to stick with running. I imagine it would have been scary at times to push towards this marathon. What an inspiration.

Rod Port: Porty had a tough day at the office. He was super keen to break 4 hours and was flying in a recent 32km training run I did with him. I figured he was well on his way to achieving that goal. In the run though his quads went to shizen and both of them kind of said, ‘sorry Porty, today aint gonna be your day’. He finished in 4h 25m. So what you got there is pain. Physical pain and a mental battle for hours knowing that it’s all heading for relative disappointment. When in this situation you’ve got two choices. The easy choice is to pack it in, take your bat and ball and go home. The tough choice is to guts it out and finish the beast. Porty finished the beast, his fourth beast in total. Super effort.

Eddie Dickens: Just a gentle cruise for the man who floats along like an African elite. 3h47m this year but look out 2012. The quote is: “Planning next year to do a good time or injure myself training. No in between.” You gotta love that.

Seb Mannix: Tough to do a PB when your best already stands at 2.54. Heaps of hard training went into this year’s event. Two hard, fast sessions every week meaning there was a stack of kms at 4 min pace or better. That type of work puts you on the brink of possible injuries striking you down at any time. Seb smashed his PB doing a 2h49m beast. It was also a beautiful scenario that he crossed the line together with Johnny Clothier, a guy he first met in primary school and has been mates with ever since. Johnny also PB’d by about 6 minutes.

Noel Mannix, father of Seb: First in his age group 70 – 74yrs for the 10km. It’s not a big field in that age group but that doesn’t make a difference to the fact that of all the 70-74 year olds in Australia, whether they turned up or not, Noel was the quickest over 10kms. Got home in under an hour. That is outstanding.

Clare McGinness, sister of me: Half marathon in 2h32m. This is super impressive. All along Clare has doubted that she would actually be able to run that far. 14kgs ago it probably looked a long way off. The achievement is not just about the day, it’s about all the hours of training and the battle with the mind to climb a seemingly impossible mountain. Wow!! How proud as a brother....VERY. Getting emotional just typing right now.

Chris Harrington: Another one in the heart attack club who has turned his life on its head since. Harry is chasing that two hour mark for the half mara and almost got there this year with 2.01.12. A week out from the event and the big H pinged his calf. Lots of ice, stretches, compression and no running meant that he was able to at least get on the start line. Under a cloud he powered around the course and picked up a PB. Injury free next year and he smashes the barrier. The difference in photos from the ’10 & ’11 events is huge. Harry is on the rise.

Ben Wintle: Limped to the start in race gear but sadly as a late scratching. His foot had swollen up massively the day before the event and he was struggling to even walk but he was there to support his D-Mac crew mates. Ten minutes before the start of the half mara, he peeled off his top and said F*#k it, let’s just see what happens. If it was to be pull out after five kms then so be it. In the end he got to the end in 2.00.21. Brave, gutsy performance.

Scotty Tucker: Chasing a lightning quick 1.30 for the half, the Big T had some doubters after a relatively disappointing lead up race. T had done a 10km event at the Teacher’s Games and come home in 45 mins after blowing up severely. All D-Mac Crew members were to say the least shocked as he has shown blistering speed around the 1.2 Duncan McKinnon course on a weekly basis. However the massive unit hit back hard and posted a time of 1h35mins. Awesome comeback, inspirational running.

All of the above inspire me. Their stories motivate me to get straight back into it and work harder to get faster. Next year I hope to run a PB and even get close to 3.10. That means a heap of kms at 4m28s in training and 42.2 of them on Marathon Day. Stay tuned.......

Marathon Festival of Winning

I know a guy doing his first marathon on Sunday. He just wants to finish

I know a girl doing her first marathon on Sunday. She just wants to finish.

I know a guy who will do the marathon slower than 4 hours so that he doesn’t pull up sore for his 100km ultra six days later.

I know a guy who will be around the 2h50m mark, probably, maybe.

I know a bloke who was going to be there until injury delayed his marathon glow.

I know a bloke who was destined to smash his PB but right now is busy in a routine of ice, stretch, compression, ice, stretch, compression etc.

As for me, I plan to turn up and run slow and enjoy the experience. Injury has delayed my assault on any PB chance this year.

I know on the day we will all do our best.

I know we will all want to be on the start line again to see if we can do better.

That’s the beauty of running, there is no opposition apart from ourselves. We get to play in the grand final every year as long as we turn up. As long as we keep turning up, we win.

Good luck to everyone who has trained to turn up. Whether or not you achieve your goal this time, everyone of you has done amazing stuff for yourself and your families.

Loved It.

The amount of people who are the best in the world at anything is a miniscule percentage. Most of us won’t even ever meet a ‘Best in the Worlder’. No matter how good you are at something there will always be someone better. So why do so many get so disappointed when they come up against someone faster or stronger?

I went to an Athletics meet today and saw a wide variety of kids competing at ‘Zones’ which is two levels down from State Titles. There is a huge difference between the fastest and slowest at this level. Some kids have just scraped in to qualify and will be soundly beaten on the day. Others will go on comfortably to the next level,  ‘Regionals’, then a smaller number on to ‘States’. Maybe one or two of the 500 kids there today at Zones will get all the way to ‘Nationals’. Of the two getting through, one will get beaten,  one will win. Or that’s how it has happened in the past.

A girl who has gone on to break national records in the past was there today running in the 800m and 1500m. They just happen to be the same events that Philli from my school runs in. Each year Philli comes up against Laura and gets beaten by big margins. She jokes on the way to the track that maybe Laura will just somehow not turn up today. Deep down though she knows what lays ahead. I watch both races closely and once again I’m amazed by this super talented girl that runs so effortlessly yet so quickly. It’s actually a bit of a privilege to be trackside as she flashes past breathing just loud enough to be heard. Behind her are a group of girls who are all the best runners in their respective schools. So how will they handle defeat today? If I was looking to answer that question it wouldn’t help to ask Philli because she felt far from defeated.

All Philli wanted to do was beat her time from last week which was 5m57s for the 1500. I showed her after the race the watch had been stopped at 5m54s and her smile lit up her face. She was deservedly extremely happy. Philli won’t go on to the next level but when it mattered today, she dug deep when she was hurting and ran strong. The little voice in her head would have been suggesting she slow down but she wasn’t there to be dictated to. She wasn’t running Laura’s race or the little voice’s race, she was there to run as fast as she could go on the day. That’s all anyone can do.

In other events I saw kids in tears, I saw kids making excuses and I saw kids and parents blaming someone else for the fact that today, they met someone faster or stronger. It’s not like there was billions of them but there was just enough for me to think about it. I wonder how many of these upset kids had just run a PB and how many of them didn’t even know. Not winning should never equal failure.

When I got home today I was procrastinating about heading out for a 10 km run. I thought about the kid who dug deep and worked hard when she was hurting and I thought about how much she loved it. I finally did my ten km and I loved it. Didn’t run a PB, didn’t beat a soul either, just loved it.

·         Laura ran 2.18 for her 800m and 4.52 for her 1500m. Get yourself down to a track and see how hard it is to get close to that. Only 5 years until Rio Olympics, 2016, or 9 years until the games after that where she will probably meet someone faster than her. I hope her face still lights up like Philli's did today. Everyone deserves to be happy with their best.

 Below is a link to Laura setting a national record against the best kids in the country in the 800m a couple of years ago.

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBo9nFAkEMQ

It's All Part Of It.

It’s been six months since I felt the pain of a stress fracture in my left foot. For absolute sure I thought I would be running free by now.

I don’t know what’s worse: actual injuries or worrying about minor pain turning into major setbacks. I have had calf issues recently that are now on the mend. That was just an annoyance. I also continue to have some pain in my right foot (the good one). It kind of feels like it could become a big problem but then on other days it feels fine.

Both of these things aint great but the one that I am really fed up with is the fact that every time someone asks how’s the running going, I can’t just say great. I feel like I’m whingeing or making excuses. I know my reality is that pain and injury are part of my current situation but I’m just sick of hearing it all spew out of my own pie hole. So why blog about it? Not sure really....just cause it’s what goes on I spose, gggrrrrrr.......or just cause irony is a hard thing to explain unless you have an example of it.

So what’s good in running right now? Plenty.

·         Went for 15km on Saturday, ran into Sharon, who a while ago thought I was the mental one. She was part way through a 32km training run and encouraged me to turn away from my intended finish line and go get a few more kms with her group. Loved it.

·         Bought a new watch using some remaining vouchers from my birthday. The Garmin 610. http://sites.garmin.com/forerunner610/?lang=en It’s a cracker. Has a touchscreen which is kinda neat. One of my kids at school asked, “can you make calls on that thing?”

·         Organised to go for a long run in a few weeks with Micka. He like Sharon will be a first time marathoner at Melbourne October 9. Micka had a blood clot on his brain in 2006 and had surgery and three months off work to recover. He mentions that the people around him, supporting him were amazing, especially his wife Tash. He is now raising money as part of his marathon run. Talk about inspirational!! All money he raises will go to the JMB Foundation. They help those people with brain injuries who can no longer help themselves. If ya wanna send some coin their way via Micka check out his page and read a bit more about his experience. http://www.everydayhero.com.au/michael_watt

·         Quite possibly the best thing about running at the moment is ‘Running Club’ at school. For the last two Fridays at 3.30pm myself and 12-20 kids have punched out 5km. This dot point is worthy of a separate blog post. So in the next few weeks I’ll let you know just how much GLOW is produced by a kid choosing to hold off on the DS or FB at the end of the week and going out getting themselves some kms.

Looking back above the dots I wonder why leave in all the negativity about injury, poor me blah blah blah.......but hey, it’s all part of the rich tapestry.

One Decision

It was a couple of weeks ago now that I really started to get back into something that looks a bit like serious training. The foot has healed, the orthotics are doing their job and all I have to do is run. Sounds easy but I have definitely been challenged by this recently.

I thought having been out of the game since mid-Feb that I would have been ferocious in my attack on training. It was very enjoyable and easy when, under doctor’s orders, I was running one day on, one day off. However when it came to getting back to running 5-6 days a week I was found wanting. All of a sudden it was hard work again.

When I first started running I wasn’t dropping everything to get out and run. It took a good 12 months before the addiction really took hold and I was running at least 6 times a weeks in rain, hail, extreme heat, night or day. After the injury I expected that mental strength (some would say insanity) to kick back in. I thought I would just have to work on the physical side of it. I was wrong.

I was sent an email recently and asked about how does one go about ‘facing such enormous challenges and having such confidence to take on very large scale goals’.

It was when thinking about responding that it dawned on me and helped my current situation. The biggest of goals or challenges you set for yourself, and achieving these, comes down to one equally simple and difficult decision. Lucky for me to achieve my goal I just have make one decision a day and that is I just have to run, today. From that decision comes the confidence and ability to do it again tomorrow.

During the worst of times in ultra marathons there’s one equally simple and difficult decision to be made. Stop, or keep going. When you’ve got 25km of 80km still to go and you are in more physical and mental pain than you could ever imagine you can’t look too far ahead. You just have to keep going, the rest will take care of itself. Looking ahead doesn’t work for me. When in these types of situations, I physically look down. Focus on my feet and the metre in front of them and make one decision, to keep going.

So here I am with large scale goals in front of me. One marathon and four ultra marathons pencilled in between October and May. It sounds crazy, too hard. But I’ve already run today so I can relax. I’ll just need to make another equally simple and difficult decision tomorrow.