4.11 Melbourne no PB but my 5th best and 10th one

I'm in internet cafe in Melbourne...here is the initial report...(**update Nov 2009; GO HERE for video, and link to photos from this race)...They had that Shannon Noll song "you gotta lift", playing as I walked around the MCG onetime this weekend, and I guess that summed up how I felt at about 24km into this one...
some more tunes;Shine ... Dont give up(Shannon Noll & Natalie Basingthwaite try to cover a classic Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song.)...

Sunday October 11th 2009 A.D.;
Ran Melbourne Marathon in 4hrs 11minutes 33 seconds (5.57 per Km)
(16min. toilet break, 4 min. blisters break along the way) 5k 23.10 12k 58.50 14k 68.39, 21.1k 1hr 47.06 then a mess...

Very proud! of 2 year old son Jacob and wife Kathryn walking 5km onto MCG...

Nice to see Jared Tallent (he said he was trying to racewalk it in under 3hrs 10 minutes when he passed me at about 11km and official results show he racewalked it in 3.08.35) ,Jane,Rich, Matt, Phil,Ewen,Aki,Clown, & lots of Coolrunners Mega frustrated that I still! did not land the PB! :-( (especially as I felt like 3.40's or 3.50's was possible at the halfway mark) But my 10th Marathon is my best one in the last 15 months.. so still happy with a good result, although just outside my target zone...a good run...

Was good to have Jane and Richard to chase down, as it was hard to stay motivated after losing 20 minutes and seeing the PB chance slip away... when I restarted at about 23-25km mark after my very long toilet break, silly me had a massive pasta feed at about midnight (7 hours before the race), and I think that was the main mistake in the prep. Blisters not too bad, but needed to adjust socks, and wearing new socks may have been an issue...

Nice to stay ahead of the 4.15 pace group and to stay under 6minutes per K...average speed (despite the 20 minute break)...

Caught up with Big Kev before the race, and he said he did 2.56 so an awesome PB yet again from him...

Course was excellent easily my favourite course for sure!...Weather conditions perfect, slight tailwind at start...

First 5km (23min 10 @ 4min 38 per K) was right on target as I sat slightly in front of or behind the 3.10 pace group...saw Rosemary (WAMC and hills group fame) at this time going well, and also Coolrunner Bazz777 who did a 3.10 and 2 minute PB...had a bit of a chat and was feeling comfortable cruising along at a good pace on St Kilda Rd...

7km 32.59 (4.42 per k)
then legs started to feel a bit heavy...So backed off a little...Tried to stay under 5 minutes per K...(averaged 4.54's 5k to 7k)

9km 43.15 (4.48 per K)
(averaged 5.08 per k for this 2km)
Got passed by 3.20 pace group (Mick and Steve, who I spoke to at the start and had hoped to run during the first 20km), and 3.30 pace group and Matt F....
This was a bit discouraging, but since I was still well under 5 minutes per Km (3.30 pace), and legs still a little heavy, felt I should stick with what I was doing and try and reel them in later if possible...Plus I wanted to slow up a bit at my drinks station...(Went for first powerade at 9km...)

In hindsight maybe I got it wrong here, and should have put the head down and bum up, and worked hard to stay with at least the 3.30 group, maybe even the 3.20 group, or running with Matt might have been a good option too...So I think maybe I was too conservative/soft from 8km onwards...

12km 58.50 (4.54 per K)
(averaged 5.11 per k for this 3km)
Jared Tallent (Olympic Silver Medallist in the Beijing Olympics 50km walk) racewalked past me at a fast pace at 11km, asked him what his target was and he said 3.10, but he had to make up for lost time after starting behind a lot of people...(about 4000 starters in the Marathon)...
Feeling pretty good, and keen to try and pick up the pace a bit once we got beachside...Maybe should have tried to latch onto Jareds racewalking pace at this stage, as it would have got me back onto the 3.20 or 3.30 groups...

14km 68min 39 (4.54 per K)
(averaged 4.55 per K for this 2km)
Had absorbed powerade well, feeling good and well focused, lots of crowd support at about 13km as people lined the streets and cafes near Fitzroy St (after we had finished the circuit of Albert Park Lake), a slight downhill towards the beach, and found some good momentum...

15km 73min 55secs
(5.16km for 14k to 15k)

17km 84min 40secs
(averaged 5.22's for this 2km section)

18km 90min 16 (5.00 per km)
(5min 36 km from 17k to 18k so lost the plot a bit here!)
Probably cos the blister on my big toe started to give me pain from about here onwards, should NOT have worn new socks...

19K 95min 50 (5.02 per K)
(5.34km from 18k to 19k so another slow split)
Beachside I was hoping to pick up the pace after I absorbed my second Powerade at 16km (which was perhaps a bit close to the 9km Powerade...was a worry in my pre-race planning as 16km seemed too far into it for a first drinks stop but 7km seems too short an interval between drink stops), but was finding it hard to stay under 5.15s by this time...toe starting to get sore and wanted a toilet break also...looking for options to sort both these problems out...
As a result of the blister/need to go to toilet issues, was mostly focused on avoiding walking, and wasn't hitting a good speed anymore...

21.1km (halfway) 1hr 47min 06 (5.04 per K)
(averaged 5.38 per k for this 2.1km)
Starting to feel minor pain in my right toe, and wanted to go to toilet, finding it hard to hold pace especially due to pain in my foot, but wanted to hang in there to get a good HALFWAY split, rather than stop at about 20k...

Pulled off the road at Halfway mark and spent 4 minutes cleaning my sock and shoe, and readjusting sock to try and make small blister less painful...New socks may have been the culprit, not sure...It seemed to work and as I pulled back onto the road just in front of the 3.50 pace group, after a few minutes I started to feel good, and alongside the beach, starting to build the momentum again, got to 23km thinking hey I am going all the way this time not like the 23km DNF last year, and if I can just pull away from this 3.50 pace group I can still do in 3.40's maybe even high 3.30's, and knocking off that 3.55 PB looking good...

Then I started to feel the need to go to the toilet bigtime, and started scanning the roadside for a good toilet option, still confident I could get that over with hopefully a quick No 1's stop (probably too much Powerade I was thinking), and then get back on task and try and catch the 3.50 pace group again...So I pulled off the road at a toilet I spotted as my wristwatch read 2hrs 7 minutes...How wrong was I!!!
Turns out it was No'2's and they just kept coming and coming and coming...

...16 minutes later and the watch reading 2hrs 23minutes I pulled back onto the course very discouraged and set about the task of passing lots of slower runners and trying to get motivated again...

27km 2hrs 38min

28km 2 hrs 44min


Got a bit of a lift when I saw Jane and Rich going the other way, and more importantly the turnaround just up ahead, and resolved to try and catch up to them as I figured they would be around 4hrs to 4.20 pace, and I might be able to at least go under 4.20...Caught them somewhere between 25k to 27k I think...Had a bit of a chat went for another Powerade at 25k and decided to not drink it for a few km...went through 27k starting to feel good and working on staying under 6 minutes a K as much as possible in the last 15km...

30km split 2hrs 56min (5min 52 per k)
Starting to feel a bit fatigued and weaving in and out of slower runners (some of them Half runners I think), still passing a few people but probably getting locked into too slow a pace at times...K markers seemd a bit wrong in a few places...starting to struggle a bit hydrationwise, feeling a bit all-over-the-place mentally...maybe lack of glycogen...too scared to try a Gu due to not wanting to reactivate my earlier toilet issue...

A bit unsure of where the course would go after St Kilda Rd...eventually we turned left and went downhill under a road...Rich went past me here, maybe I should have tried harder to go with him there...felt confident of staying under 4.15, and hoping to beat 4.13, and finish in about 4.09-4.12 from about 32km onwards...Hammy a bit sore about 33km mark so backed off a bit, as it was sore after my Tan run on Friday night as well, but it settled down...and was fine again in the last 8km...

Climbing up small hill into "The Tan" for 35km drinks stop I slowed up a bit to get my last Powerade which I was really keen to get and feeling a bit dehydrated...walked to make sure I didn't throw up and Jane went past me and asked how I was going......Once I had downed my 4th Powerade, got going and started passing a lot of people (many of them Half runners I think) but some marathoners including Jane...Got to top of hill in "The Tan", and then felt motiuvated and moving fairly well back down onto St Kilda Rd...maintained an ok pace, looked for my wife and 2 year old in the bunch of 5km walkers going in the oppisite direction, and made sure I entered the MCG at a good speed...

41km split 4.05.

Half-sprinted the last 200m on the MCG, soaked up the atmosphere, no PB, but still felt like a pretty Triumphant MCG Finish to me...So pretty happy...happy days...
Thanks God for the wonderful blessings on this day!!!

Friday October 9th 2009 A.D.;
Ran "The Tan" (3.825km) in a P.B. of 19min 02secs (HR 174) (4min 58 per Km)...
A tuneup race pace type run 2 days before the Marathon...
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WEEK 10 (of 10) (05/10/09-11/10/09);
Volume;271min. Sessions; 2 Best RHR; 41! (alltime best)
Sleep;41.25 (5.89 hrs per night) *00 MR-19hrs

Races;
Melbourne Marathon 4hrs 11 min 33 secs (main goal race for 2009)
OD/LSD sessions;NIL
Short/Medium runs;
-3.8km run around "The Tan" 19min 02 (4.58 per K) (friday)
Reps sessions;
NIL

Thoughts;
No PB. Failed to hit targets again! Encouraging first Half. If I can somewhere hold onto this momentum surely some PB's at all distances ahead...

Its going to be hard to get motivated again after this one, always is after Marathons...
The quicker I refocus on new goals the better I will do at holding onto the momentum and vice-versa...Have a stack of bills, and other stuff, various family issues, looming to be dealt with in the coming weeks, (partly cos I put a lot of things in the too-hard-basket to focus strongly on Melbourne Marathon, so now I can't put them off any longer) so its a good time to back off on the running a bit for awhile, although be good if I can go hard after some shorter running maybe even do some Track this summer, and then there is the lure of trying to improve my 6 inch time again in December, if I actually saddle up for this run again, which I might not this year... The great Australian Run 15km on November 29th, (Albert Park Lake in Melbourne) sounds interesting too, although my money situation makes it unlikely. If I am to do 6 inch I will need to keep the long runs ticking over...There is the Peninsula Run 10km and 5km on 15th November too, might be worth one last shot at a PB if I am going well...Seriously though I think I am going to have to focus on ramping up my hours at work in the next few weeks, and unfortunately my thoughts of running Rottnest 10km are over I think...So plenty to work with (going on my very comfortable 1.47 first Half (could have gone a fair bit faster than that I reckon...) in Melbourne) but a lot of competing priorities, have to wait and see, but the sooner I get back to some running the better!

Disappointed that my failure to eat earlier the night before probably cost me the PB...especially after 10 weeks of trying so hard to get the right sessions done, improve my lifestyle, and dropping out of lots of callcentre shifts in my night job, and spending most of my tax refund on this trip...but still a wonderful memorable weekend, for my wife, my son and I so I guess it was worth it...hopefully can still go one step better, but have to say I feel a lot happier after a good 10th Marathon...