Blisters disaster results in PW (4hrs 33min) in my 4th Perth Marathon

Sunday 8th July; Ran Perth Marathon (42.2km) in 4 hrs 33min. Heart rate 162 at end.
Half marathon Splits; 2hrs.14.45/2hrs.19.13 (according to my new $10 stopwatch from Kmart).

Full results of Perth Marathon HERE...
I was 266th of 321 and 32nd in Mens 30-34 age group...
Database of all who have done Perth or Rottnest Marathons since 1979 @
HERE

Robert DeCastella was one of the most famous and successful marathon runners in Australia and in the entire world in the 80's. One of his quotes is certainly true for me today for me, despite the massive disappointment, and minor pains I feel very keenly right now. His quote was;

"If you want to experience life run a marathon"....

Today I experienced a wide range of emotions, many very positive, but some not so.
I was angry that due to blisters, my opportunity for a PB (which I think I worked hard enough for, and was fit enough for today), was taken from me mainly by the blisters on my feet and nothing else...Instead I ended up with a personal worst, i.e. the slowest Marathon race I have done. I think a 3.45 (maybe a few minutes slower or faster) was a very real possibility the way I was feeling today. Unfortunately I was unable to prove it today, and I'm beginning to wonder if I ever will....

I guess my resources in general are just not sufficient for me to race with a lot of success at the moment. If I had had the sense to tape my feet beforehand I may have got there, but I am not a podiatrist, physio or a doctor, and didn't anticipate the need, thinking I had recovered from the blisters in the Freo Half, as I have run a 16K timetrial, 10k reps and a 22k since that race without being aware of any major pain...But today I ended up in an ambulance 17km into the race getting large bandaids and stuff being put over massive blisters on both feet about the size of half a $5 note!!! I ran in the same heavy but well cushioned insert I ran my last 3 major training sessions in so what changed? Maybe it was the harder surface that reopened obviously not fully healed feet, I really don't know for sure. Maybe if I had bought new shoes I would have avoided 'em, or if I had used lighter inserts, but I suspect only bandaging my feet beforehand would have got me through the race without major incident. Feel better now I have expressed the angst, and the thoughts of frustration that have been swirling around in my head today.

So back to the race report (or should I say survival report). Loaded up on stacks of pasta and kidney beans last night plus some cheese and corn bread, and a lot of cereal and toast yesterday morning. Watched wimbledon tennis on TV, and despite going to bed at midnight and getting up at 0530, felt ok today, guess I am kinda used to that routine this year. Had to spend a very long time on toilet today, and as a result did not leave home until about 7am. Arrived at Burswood about 0723hrs.
Grabbed everything and for once it seemed I had all I needed and was well organised.
put bandaids on nipples and ran slowly about 1.5km to clubrooms (not much parking left by then), found my Dad gave him my carkeys and instructions on how he could provide support today, plus where my cellphone was. Then it was straight over to the start with about 1 minute to spare. Didn't like the starting point (they moved it this year!) very much, but got a good pozzie, and said hello to a few runners I knew...

Got away pretty well and as I had planned set off at a pretty quick pace at the rear of the second front bunch. Could see the leaders, and had plenty of room to run. Heard some "trailblazer" shouts from a bloke who shared a few comments for the rest of the time I ran any where near him. Don't know who he was, not sure I really want to. My 1km split was 4min.19 which was right where I wanted to be although maybe a touch slow. On the eastern side of the Windan bridge I had backed off a bit going through 2km in 9min.02 (4.43 split). I missed the 3km marker but was enjoying the early morning views of the east perth cove area as we saw dolphins frolicking in the cove about 10 metres away.

Hit 4km in about 18min 52 alongside the Swan river, and recognised Gary Carlton and Phil Webb cruising past. I was comfortably hitting about 4.50's so was about where I wanted to be. Tried to stay with Gary and Phil cos I know they are very experienced runners who are a good judge of the right pace needed to run about 3.20's...(or better) Finding it a bit tough to stay with them, and then Rob and Epi (blogger) came past soon after. Was hoping I could at least keep them in sight for awhile which I was able to do for the next 2km or so...
Hit 5km in 23min.39 (4min.47 1km split), which I was quite happy with, and was still feeling pretty good. Was hitting just under 5min per km consistently, and comfortably, which was maybe a touch slow but I figured if I could maintain that for another 10-15km and throw in a few 4.30's I'd be well on track for a P.B. somewhere in the 3.30-3.40's range, and maybe even the sub 3.30...
So looking ok at this stage. My splits from 6km to 9km I dont remember very well, but I think they were about 28min,33min, maybe 38min 35 for the 8km, maybe 43min 55 for 9km. About this time I started to feel a little minor discomfort on the ball of my right foot, and decided I must have a small gravel stone in my shoe, so i would stop after 10km split to get it out. In hindsight I probably should have acted quicker! Also I slowed down a little while preoccupied mentally with sorting out this annoying little slight pain...Split from 9km to 10km was about 5.38 which was about 30-50 seconds slower than I wanted. About this time Trent came past, didn't recognise him until he had gone past. My 10km split was 49min 33 which was a bit slower than I wanted but figured the PB was still in reach if I could ride the tailwind alongside the Kwinana Freeway to some consistent 4.40's....Physically feeling good, although keen to get to my first powerade which I thought was at 12.5km at Como Beach.

About this time I started to notice that the km markers were appearing well before I expected them too, so either they were put in the wrong spot or the course changes this year meant we were getting to them earlier. Pretty sure its the latter.
Anyway it messed up my drinks strategy a bit because I thought the Como drinks table was at 12.5km but it turned out to be at about 14.5km, plus I spent 3 minutes trying to remove gravel stone and anything else that was irritating my foot. Stopwatch said 54minutes and I was still confident I could put the hassles of the last few km behind me and go hard for hopefully a half marathon (21.1km) split of well under 2 hours, and keep my PB (3.55) chances for today alive...11km was about 58min 10, and 12km was 63min 29 (5.19 split), as I tried to reestablish my rhythm and get down to 5min flat splits again...Then I started to notice that my foot pain was coming back again...I knew I had cleaned everything out that could cause problems so I must be getting a @#$%^&* blister again...deja vu Fremantle half 2007 scenario all over again.....Felt angry as Tim from hills group went past...Tried to stay with a small group of runners there, but the foot pain was just becoming too much...

Figured I would regroup at Como Jetty ask my Dad to get me some bandaids, get some powerade and a GU into me and although the PB (3.55) was looking unlikely now, I could hopefully still go after a 4.10 or something like that, at least try and beat the 4.18 from last years mediocre effort. Considered ripping the bandaids off my nipples and putting them on my foot, but figured that probably wouldnt work, and would just give me bleeding nipples plus the bandaids may lose their adhesiveness....It seemd to take ages to get to Como Jetty, and I also had my GU too early having to run another 1km before I had some fluids to wash it down. By the time I got to Como I was extremely angry and thinking of maybe a DNF...but not too keen on that idea...Told my Dad, and started to find it harder and harder to run, it was Freo Half 2007 scenario all over again for sure now...Went through 15km in 1hr 21, 16km in 1hr 29 (8min per km! for this split), and it was now a frustrating painful shuffle,hobble, walk combination, and nothing seemd to be painfree....
As I went up Canning Hwy Bridge near the Raffles my left hamstring started to tighten up and feel slightly sore. So I stopped again at spent a few minutes doing some hammy and quads stretches, which seemed to do the trick and then I was able to start shuffling again. Was hoping Dad would show up with bandaids soon as I couldn't continue on like this to the finish, still had more than 25km to go....

Just after 17km I think I was flagged down by Dad and into an ambulance, where they
put some large bandaid/dressing/bandages (don't know the correct terms, just know they were white and they worked)on both feet, strapped them up and away I went...
Was able to run 6-7min per km for most of the way back from there...with a few faster and slower parts, despite the concrete section which I hate around applecross, and the headwind from canning Hwy to Narrows. Enjoyed the tailwinds near south Perth and at the finish. Some rain starting to get going in the last few km, but finished before it could affect me too much...enjoyed the majority of run...Heard a few spectators near the finish. Some more splits; 34k-3.43 35k-3hrs 50, , 36k; 3.56, 37k; 4hr02, 38k; 4.08, 39k; 4.14, 40k; 4hr 20 41k; 4.27 42k; 4.33... So as you can see consistently hitting 6 minutes per km for the last 8km..., and passed a few runners during this time...

So where to now...I think its a case of get my feet healed, buy some shoes, take a few weeks off running maybe, get ready for the new baby, and reload again when the time is right which could be weeks,months, or years away. Hopefully only a few weeks away, but the word I am hearing is that this baby caper is very demanding timewise and in other ways and it is a much higher priority, so it may be time for my running to take a back seat a lot at least for awhile...Its disappointing the result I am stuck with today, but what can I do...Feels like "the one that got away", cos I think the training I did in the last few months should have resulted in a PB today, but not to be... Not keen on racing again until, I am much better ready,trainingwise, financiallywise, so need to improve a lot of things before I race again.....no sure when that will be. Don't want to run another 6-7 hour or longer six inch 45km, or any more C to D grade quality times like I have mostly this year, so not keen on racing again until I am confident I am ready to go sub 5min per km or at least 5.15 territory with longer races, and sub 4.30 in the 5k and 10k races... Six Inch 45km in December and hopefully some short half marathon,10k,5k etc would be the next races I would target, but for now other things are going to be my main focus....

So my next blog post will probably be a boring weekend warrior 20-50km ride on the mountainbike or something which will be the norm for a few weeks I think...
Maybe I should get a really cool bike (the Red Baron I got from Ed is not bad but I need to fix the puncture on it) and do duathlons like Raf; http://www.rafaelbaugh.com/
doubt I'll ever be good enough or have the money, but its really cool to read about...


Photos from my 4th Perth Marathon experience will also be online eventually....
from my Dad and also Fuse Photography see Fuse Marathon photos and dial in 318 which was my race number when they come online which they have not as yet.

Update 10th July Tuesday; More than 48 hours later bandage has come off my right foot, so I took a few photos of the blisters on my right foot, the worst by far I have ever had, a lot of dried blood on both lateral and medial side of big toe.. Can see some sort of cut near medial side of big toe, a lot worse than i expected.
Also a lot of dead skin and a big hole in foot on ball of right foot...