My Maiden Marathon - race review

Event: 
Gold Coast Airport Marathon (GCAM), Queensland, 4th July 2010

Participants: 
4,521 in the Marathon event

My goal for the event:
Finish and enjoy! I thought I'd cross the line somewhere around 4hrs, so was hoping for sub 4hrs.

Actual Finishing Time:
4:05:20 (see official results page for splits and category placings)

Course Profile: 
Flat as a pancake!

Weather:
Warm with a slight wind in exposed areas.

Lead up Week 

Nerves: I had some shocking nerves in the days leading up to the event! If there's one thing I think I need to really work on before next time, it would be getting my nerves under control.

Sleep: That said, I managed to sleep well 5 of the 6 nights leading up to the marathon so I wasn't too worried if I lost sleep the night before. Luckily I had a nice long sleep and woke up fresh!

Health: Battled with the onset of a cold in the week leading up to the event. Bucket-loads of vitamins and garlic oil kept it at bay (post-race I'm now waiting for it to hit me full force!)

Pre-race

Logistics: We got to race precinct an hour before race start (as recommended). We managed to sneak in a great car park, but then had to wait around for quite a long time (in the dark!). In hindsight, we could have left later.

Toilets: On the bright side, because we were there so early there were no queues for the toilets (and I managed to go 3 times before I got to the start line!). I kept warm in trackies and thermal clothes until the last minute, and I would advise this to others – much more comfortable starting warm.

Start line: I self-seeded myself between 4hrs and 4:15hrs (just in front of where the 4 hr pace group started).

Race

Plan: My main priority was to keep my pace comfortable until around 32km. I figured if I was going to hit a wall it would probably be around this mark, so I'd hold back a bit until then and if I felt good at 32km I could then pick it up. (In hindsight I held back a little too much and should have been running faster).

1-7km: This went really quickly. There were lots of spectators out all the way down through Surfers Paradise. More than a few revelers on their way home from Saturday night drinking!

7-15km: This was the hardest part of the race for me. I know this was purely mental, and I couldn't help thinking that there were still 3 hours to go... The race leaders (speedy Kenyans!) doubled back past me around the 10km mark from memory so I had to laugh at that.

I had the 4hr pace group pass me somewhere in this time too. I considered running with them, but then heard the pacer say they were going to pick up the pace for a few km to catch up on time and would then drop back again. I didn't want to surge and was trying for consistency, so chose to keep running at my pace (which was around 10km/hr at that point).

I also snuck in a toilet stop somewhere in this section – I decided any time lost would be worth it for the comfort of an empty bladder – good call.

15-25km: We hit the southern turnaround point and that was a good feeling! As I turned back I could see all the runners that were behind me and that gave me confidence and made me feel better (funny isn't it?).

At the 17km aid station I had a gel, and trying to be litter conscientious threw my empty gel sachet into the nearest bin. A split second later I saw a man scoop water from it and realised it was the water trough he was serving out of! Oops! He saw my litter just as I realised, so I said a heartfelt sorry, gave him a pat on the back and took off – I felt like such an idiot, but it was pretty funny. That was a classic example of my brain functioning in running mode..

25km: Feeling good at this point. We passed the crowds at Surfers Paradise again, and I made sure I was taking in water and/or Endura at every aid station – it was starting to warm up!

30km: Passing race precinct. How can you not get caught up in the atmosphere! I waved out to the race commentator and got a mention over the loud speaker so that was cool. The street was lined with spectators cheering and I had to try to focus on the fact there were still 10+ km to go (I'm sure a lot of people considered turning into the finish chute at that point!)

33km: I spot my partner (Quent) again and drop my Amphipod (running belt) with him. I was looking forward to doing that and running 'free' without the weight of bottles/belt. I had a snack bag of M'n'Ms in my belt so made sure I took them with me. Not having anywhere to put them, they went down the cleavage (“melts in your mouth, not in your cleavage” I hoped!). I put some music on my iPod for the first time (had been half-heartedly listening to podcasts or nothing at all up until that point) and stepped up the pace.

33-40km: It was pretty clear that at this point most people around me were pretty wrecked. This spurred me on and I passed person after person. I had an MnM at the 37km mark, but discovered that with a sticky/dry mouth it wasn't that fun to eat so that was a first and last. I cranked up my iPod and was feeling unstoppable!

40km-Finish: The last 2km my knees felt like they had glass in them, but to be honest I didn't really care as I knew I was so close. Rounding into the finishing straight was great, and there were so many people cheering from the sidelines. Having my name on the front of my shirt meant that I had lots of random people cheering for me by name (the whole way through the race) so that was really cool. I passed under the finish line and saw the guy in front of me throw his hands up in the air. That reminded me that I had a whole finishing “jump/fist pump” planned, but by that point I had already passed through so just threw my arms up in the air and crossed the timing mat.

Post race

We were guided into a competitor only area and I had fruit/water. I was suddenly feeling pretty nauseous and my legs were seizing big time! Quent then surprised me as he somehow managed to sneak into the area and was taking stealth photos of me (not the most flattering of photos!)

I wanted to keep moving for 10 minutes or so, so we went through and picked up my t-shirt and medal and headed out into the stage area. Apparently the massage tables were right back down the other end, so I decided I'd forego that and Quent gave my legs a quick rub down instead. They were still 'yiksing' so I decided it was a good idea to keep moving and we didn't stick around race precinct for too long.

And... I had just finished my first marathon!!

Summary

I'm very proud of what I've achieved! I've worked so hard to get to this point, and in terms of training program I wouldn't change a thing.

Next time (yes - there will be a next time!) I will know I can push harder at the start and don't have to be quite so cautious with pace early on, so I think I can bring my time down considerably. Looking at my split paces, I was running a fair bit slower than I had been in training, so I could definitely have pushed harder.

I had an enjoyable race and still had lots of gas in the tank come 32km, so to finish on such a high note was great (the last 10km were my favourite and I think there was only one guy that passed me on that whole stretch). Don't get me wrong - it wasn't easy, but I was expecting to be in a world of pain and it never got as bad as I had anticipated, so that was encouraging for my first one.

And thank you...

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me with kind words of encouragement, donating to my charity or showing interest in my website. The whole thing has been such a rewarding experience and I see it as the start of a new chapter in my life.

A huge thank you to my partner Quent – it's been 7 months since I decided to do this and I'm sure he'll be looking forward to some non-running related conversations! Training for a marathon can be very consuming, for us and our loved ones and they do so well to put up with us :D