The beauty of having young children is that it seems to naturally put everything into perspective. They don’t understand or care whether you’ve had a bad day at the office. The bottom line is that nothing else matters to them so long as they are loved, fed, watered and have toys to play with. After the Frankfurt Marathon on Sunday I spent the rest of the day, and all of my journey back home, beating myself up about the fact that I had only ran 2:53:44 because going into the race I felt as though I was the best prepared for a marathon that I had ever been.
I was left searching for answers to the questions of how and why I hadn’t ran my target time of 2:40. Had I not trained hard enough? Had I trained too hard and taken myself beyond my physical peak too early? Was it just bad luck that my Achilles tendon started to hurt from 21 miles onwards? Am I destined never to run quicker than 2:46?
When I eventually made it home at 2am on Monday morning, and before collapsing into bed, I spent a moment sat on the floor of each of my daughter`s bedrooms in the darkness watching them sleep. All I’d wanted since crossing the finish line in Frankfurt some 14 hours earlier was a big cuddle from my little girls. As they both laid there, so peaceful and blissfully unaware that their Dad was home, I all of a sudden realised “You know what, it really doesn`t matter what happened today”. Hearing me say that might surprise a lot of people. Everyone who knows me well knows that running is a hugely important part of my life and that, whilst I am the first to acknowledge that I will never be the greatest runner in the world, I commit myself 100% to at least being the best that I can be. Not performing as well as I would have liked inevitably hurts, especially after training so hard for months on end towards one specific goal. But put that into context and, at the end of the day, whether I’d ran 2:40, 2:53, or even slower on Sunday is absolutely irrelevant because come Monday morning the important thing was that I was back at home with the wife and kids, and back in the daily routine that is real life.
When I eventually made it home at 2am on Monday morning, and before collapsing into bed, I spent a moment sat on the floor of each of my daughter`s bedrooms in the darkness watching them sleep. All I’d wanted since crossing the finish line in Frankfurt some 14 hours earlier was a big cuddle from my little girls. As they both laid there, so peaceful and blissfully unaware that their Dad was home, I all of a sudden realised “You know what, it really doesn`t matter what happened today”. Hearing me say that might surprise a lot of people. Everyone who knows me well knows that running is a hugely important part of my life and that, whilst I am the first to acknowledge that I will never be the greatest runner in the world, I commit myself 100% to at least being the best that I can be. Not performing as well as I would have liked inevitably hurts, especially after training so hard for months on end towards one specific goal. But put that into context and, at the end of the day, whether I’d ran 2:40, 2:53, or even slower on Sunday is absolutely irrelevant because come Monday morning the important thing was that I was back at home with the wife and kids, and back in the daily routine that is real life.
Of course it’s not possible to simply switch off your running emotions and I’ve still been left this week trying to work out why things didn`t quite go to plan in Frankfurt. What makes things even more frustrating is that everything went exactly to plan until 21 miles, it was only the last 5 miles where things went pear shaped. My splits from the race are a very telling tale of just how much my race fell to bits in the latter stages:
5km 18:43
10km 37:34
15km 56:33
10 miles 1:00:32
20km 1:15:45
21.1km (halfway) 1:20:04
25km 1:35:42
30km 1:56:42
20 miles 2:03:58
35km 2:19:09
40km 2:43:04
Finish 2:53:44
5km 18:43
10km 37:34
15km 56:33
10 miles 1:00:32
20km 1:15:45
21.1km (halfway) 1:20:04
25km 1:35:42
30km 1:56:42
20 miles 2:03:58
35km 2:19:09
40km 2:43:04
Finish 2:53:44
As with all of my recent marathons my intention, with the aim of running close to 2:40, was to run consistently 6:10 miles until the 20 mile (32km) marker then try to hold it together until the finish. This would have meant going through 10 miles in around 1:01:30, halfway in 1:20:45, and 20 miles in 2:03:00. As you will see from the splits above I executed the first three-quarters of the race almost to perfection. A little bit quick early on but, as the course wound its way backwards and forwards through the streets of the city centre, in the shadows of its many high-rise office buildings, the atmosphere on the roadside was deafening for the first 10km before the race headed out into the suburbs. It was difficult not to get a little bit carried away in those circumstances. Once out into the suburbs I settled into my marathon rhythm and, in perfect weather conditions, just ticked off the kilometre markers one-by-one within a small group consisting of two Italians, a Belgian, a Dane, three Germans and myself.
That was until just after 33km when, with the city centre on the horizon for a final 5 mile circuit around its packed out streets, I felt a growing niggle in my left Achilles tendon. The speed with which the pain came on left me thinking that it was going to give way at any moment. Thankfully it never came to that, but the problem certainly hampered the last few miles of my race. All of a sudden I’d been reduced to a jog, not as a result of the dreaded “wall” which affects so many marathon runners, but instead a case of my body selling out. In fairness my left Achilles has given me problems for a good few years now and it’s not something I’ve truly got to the bottom of, mainly because it comes and goes. Normally I can run through the problem with a careful amount of management and an odd rest day here and there. But what a time this was for the problem to start flaring up again!
That was until just after 33km when, with the city centre on the horizon for a final 5 mile circuit around its packed out streets, I felt a growing niggle in my left Achilles tendon. The speed with which the pain came on left me thinking that it was going to give way at any moment. Thankfully it never came to that, but the problem certainly hampered the last few miles of my race. All of a sudden I’d been reduced to a jog, not as a result of the dreaded “wall” which affects so many marathon runners, but instead a case of my body selling out. In fairness my left Achilles has given me problems for a good few years now and it’s not something I’ve truly got to the bottom of, mainly because it comes and goes. Normally I can run through the problem with a careful amount of management and an odd rest day here and there. But what a time this was for the problem to start flaring up again!
I don`t remember much of the last few miles other than a lot of crowd noise as the course looped its way back around the city centre streets amidst a lot of frustration and desperation on my part. Obviously I tried to get to the finish line as quickly as I could but with an Achilles tendon that was biting at me every single step of the way it was always going to be a slow affair. Eventually I passed the 42km marker, turned left across a public square and bizarrely headed into a building known as the Festhalle for a red carpeted, indoor finish. The warm air as I entered the building was a wonderful relief from the cold, crisp Autumn air outside, and the noise from the 5,000 spectators in the building was incredible as I ran the final few metres down the finishing straight. The arms were aloft to acknowledge the amazing crowd support, but that show of confidence only served to hide a feeling of bitter disappointment at how my race had so quickly fallen apart towards the end. In many ways it was a sense of déjà vu from the Rotterdam Marathon two years ago when in very similar circumstances I went through 20 miles in 2:02 only to have stomach problems late on, requiring two toilet stops in the last six miles, and eventually finishing in 2:51.
The tendon is still pretty sore as I write this blog and I haven’t ran a single step since Sunday (it’s now Wednesday night), but needless to say I’ll live to fight another day. I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll do a Spring marathon because all I want to do at the moment is give myself a rest and completely forget about running for a while. Three marathons this year (two serious races in 2:50 and 2:53, and one charity outing in an unexpectedly brisk 2:58) has left me feeling a little bit battered so I am definitely in need of a decent break now. Not only will that give me the opportunity to think about what I need to do in training to strengthen my body and hopefully avoid anything like this happening again, but more significantly it’ll give me the opportunity to spend lots of quality time with the family. Like I said at the start, it’s the important things in life that really matter!
I’ll close this blog by saying a massive well done to my former Elswick Harriers teammate and good friend Dave Jardin who ran a fantastic 3:14 in Frankfurt to secure a good-for-age entry for the London Marathon, his third fastest marathon to date. Not bad for a bloke who’s now finished 26 of them. Congratulations Davey!!
The tendon is still pretty sore as I write this blog and I haven’t ran a single step since Sunday (it’s now Wednesday night), but needless to say I’ll live to fight another day. I haven’t decided yet whether I’ll do a Spring marathon because all I want to do at the moment is give myself a rest and completely forget about running for a while. Three marathons this year (two serious races in 2:50 and 2:53, and one charity outing in an unexpectedly brisk 2:58) has left me feeling a little bit battered so I am definitely in need of a decent break now. Not only will that give me the opportunity to think about what I need to do in training to strengthen my body and hopefully avoid anything like this happening again, but more significantly it’ll give me the opportunity to spend lots of quality time with the family. Like I said at the start, it’s the important things in life that really matter!
I’ll close this blog by saying a massive well done to my former Elswick Harriers teammate and good friend Dave Jardin who ran a fantastic 3:14 in Frankfurt to secure a good-for-age entry for the London Marathon, his third fastest marathon to date. Not bad for a bloke who’s now finished 26 of them. Congratulations Davey!!