Soweto Marathon Report: First Marathon Blues (Dancing With The Devil)

To be honest I had many drafts of this post penned in my head, the heroic first time marathon success, the heroic pulling it back from the brink first time effort and the safety first getting a feel of things first time effort. None of those scenarios panned out. Instead what I got was a hellish beating at the hands of a mammoth beast. I danced with the devil and I got burnt.

This is my pace chart from the race. This puts things into context.

The short story is that I ran well for 32km and when the race really got going I fell apart and was on the ropes from that point until I caught sight of the finish.

Looking at that pace chart it's fair to say I just didn't see it coming. I expected to struggle from 32km onward, I really did. What caught me off guard was how instantaneous it was. I remember checking my pace and seeing 31.83km on the Garmin and just thinking, 'I only have 10km to go, I'm home' and less than a minute later, I was walking and that was that. I have never experienced such a crippling lack of fortitude and self belief as I did from the moment I stopped running for the first. As you can see, I actually managed to run a fair amount, and in face when I was running I was hitting my oiverall average pace of 5:10, but every 2 or 3 minutes I had to walk and that conincided with a climb. I basically managed to run most of 32-35km and then the nature of Soweto unveiled itself.

The first half is deceptive. It's a downhill start for close on 8km before the first testing climb and from then on it's the rolling hills that I was told of, and as you enter Soweto itself it's twisty but I found this thoroughly enjoyable and almost exhilarating. The monotony of climbing is broken up by navigating some tight corners, while basking in some historic sites and astonishing crowd support. The nice thing about all these climbs is that they are tempered by an almost equivalent downhill. I believe I raced smart here. I was not stressed about losing time on the uphills and in fact ensured my pace fell below 5min/km and didn't force the issue on the downhills.

I had rhythm. I was dancing. I was in control.

I hit halfway in 1:36:20. My target for the race was 3:10 based simply on  taking my City2City half marathon of 1:25:28 which predicted a shade under 3 hours and adding 10 minutes for the hills and the debut. In hindsight that was aggressive and even from 10km which I got to in 46:30 I was never in with a shout.

The route climbed up to about 23km and then it was the final gentle part of the course down to 28km before climbing back up to Nasrec and the finish. By 28km I was actually only about 1 min off target time, getting there in just over 2:07. Then the climbing began gently to the moment of my demise. I still remember feeling good at 30km, again thinkng to myself, 2:18 on the clock, you've done well now coast home in an hour for the last 12km and get in a good 3:20.

So here is the route. That first 30km was testing, but in reality was easier than any of my three 30km plus runs. The difference of course was pace, ~5min/km versus at 30km 4:34/km, and mentality. In my long runs I ran short 9km loops where I was never more than 5km from home as the crow flies so in reality I could pull out when I wanted to. Here I was in the heat of battle. My legs were tired, my head was turned.

Did I hit the wall?

I don't know. I never saw spots, was never too weak to stand or keep moving, didn't cramp, my mind just simply disconnected from my body. My half marathon PB is at a pace of 4:03 so, ~4:34 pace was not too hot but of course these are novice legs. It was all in my head. Many guys around me were hurting. We were laughing with the locals. A local lass offered me her hand in marriage if I just ran. I laughed and carried on walking. A guy I was running with earlier came past me slowly, gritting and willed me on. I ran with him for about two minutes and waved him on. At no stage was I incapable of running, my head and my legs were having a personal battle and were deadlocked.

By the time we hit 40km I was fed up. I had taken 18 minutes to get there from 38km, walking the entirety of the 39th kilometer. I mean here I was walking at less than 10min/km. There was a little bit there, I just couldn't tap into it.The 41st kilometers was a 7:30 affair before I finally steadied myself and decided to jog the last kilometer home. In imperial terms it was just under 9 minute/mile pace. My legs were turning, they were going. I saw the start banner and actually accelerated a bit. By the time I turned into the Expo Centre complex, I was actually sub 5min/km running. I heard my father shouting out and I high fived him, turned onto the grass and crossed the line.

3:38:10

It was done. I had been through the wringer but I was a marathoner.

42.2km. 

What a mind warp!

When I set myself goals a the start of the year, compared to where I am now they look conservative. My goals were to run sub 45 minute 10km, sub 1:40 half marathon and to finish a marathon. I achieved all three and with the first two, with my personal bests sitting at 39:04 and 1:25:28, completely smashed them. With the marathon, while never committed to a time back then I would have tentatively said 3:45-4:00. So to finish at 3:38:10, 941st and in the top 15% of the field, I am delighted.

But in reality I could finished a lot stronger with a more modest goal, but I guess one always looks at their current ability and says, I can run this now for X distance, I should aim for this for my marathon. With 3,4, or 5 marathons under my belt, I might have got my 3:10, but with these novice legs, I was always in a hiding to nothing. It has barely been 17 months since I took my first tentative steps and struggled to a 40 min 7km jog back in June last year. My total September mileage of 262 km is remarkably enough almost equal to the total I had totaled when I put together those targets for 2012. So despite a spectacular blow out, I am happy. I finished a marathon, something that looked terribly unlikely even in January.

In the aftermath I guess it's safe to say, as a fast marathon I should have aimed lower. A 3:30 pace target was the safer bet. I had dialed into this pace for hours on end in training more so than target marathon pace of 4:30/km. At the latter pace I was always borderline. Things had to go perfectly on the day, which they didn't. But that is the nature of the beast. Training prepares you to push beyond what you do day in day out thus turning a marathon that had been in preparation for 26 weeks including base building would go against my natural competitive spirit.

Would I have enjoyed it more. Probably, who knows. But much of training and racing is to be on the edge striving to get better, stronger, faster.

I'm taking two weeks off now before embarking on my next goal, which is not surprisingly an Autumn marathon next, most likely the Slow Mag Marathon in Benoni. Along the way I hope to finish the year in style by adding to the 8:56 that I have taken of my 10km this calendar year over two races in December so that on the week of 1st January marathon training can begin in earnest.

I did a lot of things right in my training as my intermediate results show but the plan just needs to be fine tuned to get me over that magical last 10km in one stable piece. Time on  legs, midweek longer, longer marathon pace runs. All of this will be thrown into the equation, and this time definitely more realistic goal setting.

Onward to better and faster marathon running!

After the final 32km I'm Almost There.

And I don't mean that negatively at all. I read somewhere that if you get to this stage of your training just wanting it to be over then the race will probably not got well. The marathon is evidently a tough enough event on it's own, with the unknown factor of the last 10km, even despite months of preparation, that a weary mind is a recipe for distaster. I've gone through my fair share of hardship, I have contemplated throwing in the towel and accepting the progress I have made this and tackling the marathon fresh in 2013. But I set myself this goal all the way back in February, I have dedicated the last 23 weeks of training exclusively tp the upcoming race and I'll be damned if I don't at least give it a shot.

This past week was the big push. With all of my racing done, it was time to push on and clock that final big week before the taper. The two key sessions were a continuous long marathon pace tempo and a 32km long run. On Wednesday I did a 16km run with 14km of it at marathon pace effort. I ran up to 10km on grass to hone into the correct effort. While the run started off in decent weather, the sun made an unwelcome appearance just as I was heading off the grass. My goal was to shift off the grass and run through WITS main campus to add some real world running on tar and more importantly uneven terrain. I have tamed the hills at WITS but doing the 4km Lenn Smith after 10km at marathon pace in warming conditions still presented a challenge. On the level fields I was running at 4:18/km, roughly the pace predicted by pretty much every calculator on line, and once out on the road my paced shifted down to ~4:30/km, which is the ballpark target I have set for my self.

All in all it was a good exercise. Of course I have to keep in mind that on race day I will have tapered, I do 15km in total in the week leading up to the race and just 45km the week before, almost 50% my peak mileage so my legs will be fresher and this pace that my body hopefuly now knows 4:18-4:30/km will feel more natural compared to now...until I enter the post-32km unknown zone of course.

On Sunday I did my long run. I have long seized to be religious or even remotely spiritual as I age, but my experience on this run was bordeline that level. This marathon training business has been hard first on my body, and then  my mind has wavered, which in turn has beaten my body more. But after the euphoria of City2City I genuinely felt like I was regaining control of my body and mind. The post City2City week was difficult as I was on holiday and didn't enough training and added to that Grahamstown is very hilly and humid and I didn't make the necessary adjustments. I then did a 25km long run after driving back for 13 hours with the mercury hitting 25°C. Added to that I experimented with jelly babies for carb on the fly and that ended badly, as I battled waves of nausea for the last 5km. It was a humbling experience, the success of
the weekend before long forgotten.

This week I was more prepared. I had my gels ready, GU Mandarin flavour with caffeine. Orange and caffeine, two of my favourites. I had enough water ready, four 150ml sachets. I'm not a big drinker so this was more than enough. And the run would be completed in full race gear, my Run/Walk for Life vest, poly shorts, Falke socks, and my Nike Zoom Elite's. I had the route planned. My pacing to was prepared. I have been doing my long runs bar one at around 10% of my 4:30 target pace, 4:57-5:02. I'm very much sold on the theory of preparing your body for the challenge ahead by aligning your training to your race goal. So I haven't done any high intensity intervals at 5-10km pace since mid August, focussing instead on introducing short intervals at marathon pace ~2k and building up the lengths until I was running a continous distance within a 16km run. Likewise, I haven't done long slow run at greater than 1 min slower than my goal pace, instead hovering around that 8-12% time band.

The 32km was blissful. Listening to Marathon Talk, Tom Williams, said in one the episodes that sometimes this run could often be the toughest. I guess it comes after a build up in volume and with the taper coming the body is just looking for some rest. I had quite the opposite experience, as I worked my way through the miles I got stronger and stronger. And as you can see in the course profile below, my route gets progressively more challenging as progress. I hit my goal pace, running the 32.1km in 2:42, and a negative split, having gone through 16km in 1:22 and doing the more challenging second half in 1:20 without having to increase my effort much. The 32km run also brought my weekly total to 82km.

The final 32km run

So less than three weeks to go then, 19 days to be specific and the hard training is basically done. All my runs will now decrease in volume but the intensity will stay more or less the same. It has been a long journey, it is by no means but instead of longing for the end I am itching to get to the start line. I'm already looking forward to the next challenge in 2013 what may come on 4 November. I appreciate the challenge that awaits, that even with the months of preparation anything can happen over the course of 42.2km and this my first attempt so it might no go according to plan. But equally I have enjoying it, the good times and working through the bad times, the success in racing, and the feeling of achievement. Whatever happens I aim to learn from Soweto and take that into 2013 where I plan to do the class Autumn/Spring two marathon plan.

Here's hoping I don't explode from all this excitement before the big day!

So what's my correct training pace?

Something that I never really grasped is what pace to train at. There are of course so many training types, I'm doing short intervals, long intervals, fartleks, tempo workouts, hill repeats, easy runs and long runs. Each of these has a purpose and must therefore  be done purposefully and at the right effort. I guess the easiest way is to drop the pace constraint and to go by effort. Take that a step further and use heart rate. But I hate running with a heart rate monitor. Scratch that detest it. There's something about having that darn belt around my chest, it irritates me, I'm constantly adjusting it...anyway I digress.

My solution was to just go to a running pace calculator, like this great one from Runner's World that even does race predictions! So I've just run a race, recently the Jackie Mekler 10km in 42:38 and it gives me the following output under training pace:

• 5:16 min/km Easy run training pace
• 4:23 min/km Tempo run training pace
• 3:57 min/km Maximum oxygen training pace
• 3:39 min/km Speed form training pace
• 5:16-5:57 min/km Long run training pace
• 3:15 min/800m Yasso 800s training pace

Great! So on Monday, Tuesday on whenever I head out again I do my tempo at 4:23 min/km, my easy run at 5:16 and my LSD no faster than 5:16 but no slower than 5:57 min/km. Then the following week I do some 400m reps on the track at 87s per 400. Easy?

But what am I actually doing? I never really thought that all I'm doing is maintaining 42:38 form but surely that's not what I want? But if I'm training at paces computed from that as my most recent race time surely that's what I'm doing? It's like the training pace here is the end goal and not a journey when using the race pace method and that seems a bit wrong. I understand the logic that it's a good measure of what I'm capable of, particularly when shooting for a new distance. I'm training for my first marathon, so a good estimation of what I'm capable could be what my times now predict. So using my 42:38 PB run a month ago, I get an estimation of 3:16:06. Using my half-marathon PB of 1:35:01 ran four days before that 10km, I get a marathon prediction of 3:18:06. Two weeks later I ran a 5km, albeit one as flat as a pancake in 19:25, and that predicts 3:05:53!

Here's the thing though, surely this method predicts current capability with a few assumptions, the most obvious to me being you realistically plan to run the predicted distance on a route profile similar to that of the input race result? My 5km time is a useless barometer for Soweto Marathon, but might be a good indicator for a race like Slow Mag, which is also reasonably flat. However the other assumption is that you are fit and ready to run the predicted race NOW. I can tell you now I know I can't run a 32km race at whatever pace my 10km PB would extrapolate to, never mind a marathon. Heck I think I would blow out if trying to do 25km at a hard effort.

This has been weighing on my mind as my different PBs run within two weeks of each other predict times 13 minutes wide for the marathon, but also because I feel I ought to train with a goal in mind and my effort in training should reflect that. I'm am heading into the great unknown so how I do logically plan for that. I have a half marathon scheduled for 29th September, roughly a month before Soweto and that will obviously be a good gauge of what I will be able to achieve. But here's my thing, if I train at 42:38 for a 10km determined pace, am I selling myself short. I have over 5 months to go till Soweto. A lot can change and I will inevitably, judging by my progress in the first half of 2012, be fitter and faster come 4 November. Surely I want to get faster, not maintain the status quo?

When I decided to train for a half marathon I consulted a few people on what I should aim for. The first question was always, 'What have you run?'. At the time it was 48 flat for 10km. I thought of going for 1:40 but guys said that a 1:45 would be more realistically based on my 10km PB. I did a 10km, the Deloitte race in the first week of my program to get a feel for race pace since my 10km PB was from November 2011, and out of nowhere ran 45:44. It was hard, I walked a lot, I was spent, butsuddenly I was in 1:40 territory. As a relative novice, I had no control of pace and actually ended up inadvertently running by feel, ie getting the workout wrong 90% of the time. So easy for me was simply being able to hold a conversation. Tempo I just ran hard, intervals I went all out. As the weeks progressed, I was on a 10 week program, I noticed that interval and tempo workouts, at the same rate of perceived effort were getting faster with no extra work on my part. I ran 1:38:42 and then two weeks later ran 1:35:01. That second half-marathon was at a faster pace than I managed over my 45:44 10km.

Now surely if I had restricted myself to training paces for a 45:44 10km, I never would have managed a 1:35 half marathon? Or a 42:38 10km? Or a 19:25 5km? I would have condition myself for a 1:40:54 half-marathon and a 21:57 5km, hypothetically speaking.

I'm definitely leaning towards a feel based approach with a bit of mathematical prediction thrown in. For example I have four races I am focusing on leading up to Soweto, a 10km each in June, July and August and the half in September. For the 10km races I hope to take a minute off my PB each time, route, weather, health, and the alignment of the stars permitting, which would put me into sub 40 minute territory (crikey!) and a realistical shot at a sub 90 minute half marathon, in turn an opportunity for a fast debut marathon, 3:05 to 3:10 maybe, if everything is perfect on the day (I'll take a 3:30 any day!)

So how do I train for that? I could repeat the exercise above and put in a 40:00 target 10km. But the speed form pace is a blinding 3:26 and I know that is probably to hot for me right now to hit consistently over 4,5,6 up to 10 reps. I can go all out and nail it first time but I would be bushed! What I think is logical and something I'm trying to do, is to have an end goal in mind for training pace I should hit. For example I like that the Yasso 800 is tried and tested so I should be able to do 10 of those at whatever pace I aim for, and if I have done my tempos, fartleks and long run, that together should work. But the goal should be just that, the end goal. The 10x Yasso 800s are usually done just before the taper. My current pace should be a springboard to that end goal, which leads into the foot race. So right now a 4:23 tempo and 3:39 speed form should be at my 80% and 85-90% effort, but like how we increase mileage weekly to improve stamina, I should be able to push a little harder in later weeks so that 80% becomes 4:20, 4:17, 4:14 and down to 4:07 by October and equally 85-90% becomes 3:35, 3:31 down to 3:26.

So a bottom end based on current ability and a top end based on desired, but realistic ability, bridged by running on feel and listening to the body? Well that's the theory anyway.

Going to Soweto...

Monday was the beginning of the low and arduous journey to the Soweto Marathon, my first attempt at the distance. If you had spoken to me this time last year, it would have been the last thing on my mind. How quickly things change. I have gone from lazy though active in that I walk every where and am generally fidgety, drinking more than I should and eating very badly, to running 5-6 times a week and following a healthy eating plan, in a little under 12 months. I've gone from huffing and puffing through a 10km in 51:19 to powering through a half marathon in 1:35, and almost smelling that magical (for me at least), 40:XX or even 39:XX for a 10km. But that is for another time! Right now there is a bigger fish to fry that I approach with great excitement and trepidation...in equal measure.

Soweto Marathon route profile (image courtesy of RunnersGuide.co.za)

The plan is simple. No crash course program, but a long and methodical program that aims to condition my still young legs, both in a biological and running sense, to the rigours and toughness required to run the haloed 42.2 km distance, or 26.2 miles in archaic terminology! You can do the maths, 14 May 2012 is the start date, 4 November 2012 is the end date, a monumental 25 weeks. Thus no stone will remained unturned, and there is plenty of time for assessment and goal setting. At this point I'm not concerned about a target time/pace though I have, like I did with the half marathon, thought about a best case, a middling case and 'definitely need to beat this' case scenarios! This is big stuff though and the concept of running for 42.2 km still bends my mind in ways that no other physical endeavour has.

Is it too much too soon?

Will I hit the wall?

Am I strong enough?

Questions. Questions.

Anyway I do digress.

This is the summary of what my program entails. It's a five phase program and in a classical sense only 19 of the 25 weeks are proper marathon training with the first six weeks being base building. So it's just 1-3 weeks longer than regular 16-18 week programs.

• Phase 1 Base Building (6 weeks). This will entail mostly easy runs and strides to lay down the endurance base necessary for the subsequent phases. 
• Phase II: Repetitions (6 weeks). This comprise fast track repetitions (200m to 400m) on Tuesdays.  
• Phase III: Intervals (6 weeks). This phase focuses on endurance speed sessions of 800m, 1000m, and 1200m on Tuesdays. These are high intensity sessions of no less than 3 minutes whose aim is to condition your leg muscles to run hard for longer periods.
• Phase IV: Threshold training (4 weeks). This is the final sharpening phase in which you’ll run 800m or 1000m at an intense 5km pace for peak performance.
• Phase V: Taper (3 weeks). This phase involves structured cutting back of both mileage and intensity to enable the body to recover and rebuild glycogen stores.

All of that of course involves tempo workouts, long runs and adequate recovery runs. I'll be doing assessment races at the end of each phase, 10km for Phase I-III and a half marathon in Phase IV (probably the City2City) to ensure I'm on the right track. Sometime in phase IV I will have an idea of what a realistic aim should be. I've played with the time predictors, noted the values but ultimately my body and mind (and the coach) will be the final judge of what I'll set out to do when, injuries and health permitting, I'm at the start line.

'Twas the season of the PB

As I head into off season/base training I can reflect on what has been the best and most enjoyably period of running in my life. I started the year as a disgruntled runner. I had a 48:00 10km to my name but just couldn't see where any improvements would come from. After some goal setting, nearly three months later targets are getting crossed off, and the improvements are coming thick and fast. Good times! After an awesome run at Wally Hayward, crossing off the first of my goals to run a sub 1:40 half marathon, I was ready to my feet up, but also start looking ahead for the rest of the year. So I got myself a coach. And who better than my father. He is very experienced having started a club when he was in London and now at UNISA. He is a fantastic runner with many many marathons to his name. Even in his mid 50s continues run amazing time, running a 1:24 half marathon as recently as last year. At his peak he was doing a 32 min 10km, a 70 min half and has a 2:30 marathon PB. I'm in good hands.

My first act as a coached athlete was however to ignore the advice of the coach. Though I ran pretty hard on Tuesday, I entered a 10km race in Pretoria, aiming to cross the first of my 2012 goals, to run a sub 45 10km. My logic was 2-fold. I was still on a high from the Wally Hayward. Also, the SA race calendar is very much centered around Comrades, so the runners taper in the month of May, the race calendar winds down. Likewise in June as the runners recover from completing one of the toughest road races in the world the calendar reflects this. The would be not be another serious opportunity to have a crack it.

So on Saturday morning I set of to Thaba Tshwane to do the 10km at the Jackie Mekler Memorial Race. The route was supposedly flat with a couple of undulations. It was freezing and the race was an earlier start than I have been used to, with 25km setting off at 6 AM and the 10 and 5 km races going 15 minutes later. To cut to the chase, after a steady first kilometre in around 4:40, I set of and just went as quick as my tired legs would take me. Racing so soon after the half was indeed risky. I could feel it on the climbs but I kept my splits constant, going through 5km in 21:15. I slowed a bit in the seconds half. By 8km I was really struggling but dug in enough to finish the race in unofficially a smashing new PB of 42:41 42:38. That's three minutes better than my previous best, and over 5 minutes quicker than what I started with in the new year.

Approaching the finish at the Jackie Mekler Memorial 10km on the way to a 42:41 42:38 PB

At the finish. Tough race but job well done!

The risk paid off and it meas I have managed to cross of two of my three 2012 goals. I'm really pleased that both were done comprehensively. Now I can focus my attention fully on training for the Soweto Marathon on the 4th November. The coach is going to put me on a 25 week plan starting on Monday beginning with six weeks of base building. The plan with gradually increase my speed through short and long intervals, bring in tempo pace, increase my stamina and end with three weeks of tapering. It's going to be long, it's going to be brutal but I'm excited. For now I'm going to reflect on an awesome 10 and a bit weeks where I learnt a lot about being runner, the value of having and sticking to a plan, and then reaping the rewards.

Highlights

• Taking 2:16 off my 10km at the Deloitte Pretoria 10km on 25th February to finish in 45:44 (4:35 min/km pace), a good omen
• Finishing my first half marathon at the Slow Mag race in Benoni in 1:38:42 (4:41 min/km pace)
• Improving my half marathon time by 3:4941 to finish unofficially in 1:34:53 1:35:01 (4:2930 min/km pace) and breaking (just about) equalling the 4:30 min/km average over race distance
• Finally breaking 45 min for 10km and taking 3:03 3:06 off my previous best to finish the Jackie Mekler Memorial in 42:41 42:38 (4:16 min/km pace)