Maratón de Madrid 2011

I'd like to start by apologising, I stated in my last blog that I would post a couple of entries in the build-up to the big day in Madrid, unfortunately I just couldn't find the time so this will be a bumper post describing my build-up and the race itself.

The last few days before the race saw my back complaint gradually fade away which meant my confidence grew. There was a one mile race in my University which I had planned to give a miss, thinking racing so close to the big day was an unnecessary risk but they had a bunch of races for kids and seeing them all running around enjoying themselves in the sun I felt a little left out so rushed around to get my running gear and get signed in. Thankfully it went well, I equalled my mile PB without really pushing very hard and I felt no after effects.

I had my last run out on the Thursday before the marathon, just a 6km run on a pace about 15 seconds per kilometre faster than my target pace, again it felt good so I finished feeling confident.

The following two days I tried to stuff myself full of carbs to fuel myself up ready for the race, I served myself up mountains of pasta and rice. However, the job was made more difficult by the nervous tension that comes from considering I was so close to taking on the challenge of a marathon, it led to a loss of appetite and difficulty in keeping down the little food I was taking on board.

Sunday morning rolled around, I woke up at 6am, I lied in bed nervously for half an hour waiting for the alarm clock to sound. I got up showered and attempted to get some breakfast cereal down me, I was semi-successful, after giving my girlfriend a nudge or two towards the door we set off at 8am to head towards the start.

After surviving the scrum to hand in my bag at the guardaropa we headed down toward the mass of runners, after a few stretches I tried to make my way through to the sign with my intended finish time on it, no luck though, I'd arrived too late, I had to settle in around the 4hr 30 section.

The nervous energy continued to build, and the starting gun going off didn't help initially, we were just stood still waiting for spaces to appear ahead but as I crossed the start line a full 4 minutes after the official start time of 9am I started to feel better.

As expected in a popular race the first few kilometres were stop and start as I tried to find my way into open space to get into my stride, but as well as the normal stoppages I had to take an avoidable pit-stop. As I was waiting on the start line I was thinking about a trip to the toilet, I took one look at the queue and decided it was probably just nerves, no need to go now. About 10 minutes later I was concentrating on finding an appropriate tree!

After that stoppage I got back into my running, feeling good. I got through the first 5km in 26:17. It was a bit slower than my target pace, but given the stoppage it was ok. The next 5km was solid, although not the most enjoyable, there were very few people on the streets (apart from the runners), after London last year I think I had my expectations too high.

I got through the second 5k in 25:22, pretty much bang on my target pace and I kept on it through the next 5k too, I got through in 25:10. At 15k I took on an energy gel with the water at the feeding station, I didn't seem to give me the immediate sugar buzz that I'd had when I'd tried it in training, it was a bit of a disappointment, but I kept going ahead undeterred. From 15 to 20k took 25:11, I'd hoped to be the other side of 5 min/km but I was happy to keep things steady.

I got to the halfway point in 1:47:35, a minute quicker than London a year earlier, and more importantly feeling much better. At halfway in London I started to really struggle, from there it was just a battle to get to the finish. At halfway the crowds were starting to build, 9am was a little too early to expect Spaniards to be out on the streets! By 10:30 they were out there cheering us on, it was a real lift.

I did the 5k from 20 to 25 in 25:01. It was all going well, however I had one problem, I had no thirst. I was conscious that I needed to stay well hydrated but I couldn't get anything down. I didn't think too much about it, since I couldn't do anything about it, but it was in the back of my mind.

From 25 to 30km is in Casa de Campo, a park in the west of the city. It was a pleasant break from the cityscape, running through the trees, however you lose a little bit of atmosphere as the supporters don't really enter the park. I through that 5k in 26:16, the slowest so far, but still acceptable. Unfortunately things got worse from there.

I had planned to use energy gels at the 15 and 30 kilometre feeding stations, and then if needed another to see me to the finish at 40, but at 30 kilometres I felt that I couldn't take anything on board so continued on. Unfortunately there was an unsurprising consequence, coming to 33km I felt I couldn't run, I had no energy, so much so it seemed that simply breathing was a costly activity, I slowed to a walk.

I was hoping that with a couple of minutes of walking I would recover and get a second wind which would carry me to the finish. It didn't happen, I tried to run but I had nothing. It was really frustrating, there were huge crowds around at this point, they were urging all the runners on, but I just couldn't respond. The section from 30 to 35 took me 33:05, well off my target time. I was running in bursts, but I just could sustain it, no matter how slow a run I embarked on. 35 to 40 was a tortuous 45:08, but shortly before 40 kilometres things took a turn for the better, although not before a turn for the worse.

My girlfriend was waiting for around kilometre 39, I didn't want her to see me suffering so badly so tried to get running again. I saw her, and she joined me running for a few metres before she took a short cut to meet me further along the course, however shortly after she left me things came to a head. I suddenly felt ill, and brought up the energy gels onto the street, I am very sorry to the poor unsuspecting spectators that had to witness it, but I just couldn't stop it.

However, after that I felt considerably better, and was able to sustain a run almost throughout the remaining distance. I got through the last 2.195km in 13:54, so an average of 6:19min/km and finished running, you can see my finish here:
http://www.corriendovoy.com/video.php?id=381&video=26336
The finish line is in Parque del Retiro, another of Madrid's great green spaces. I have to say the finish was the most enjoyable part of the race, yes its a very nice part of the city, but the joy of knowing you've completed the course is what makes the pain and tiredness momentarily disappear from the body so you can just take everything in. It's the time that makes all the days where you really had to suffer to get out the door to train worthwhile, for me at least its a huge natural high.

My finish time was 4:05:20, I finished in 5186th place of 7998 runners. Although this was a huge improvement on my time in last year's London marathon, about 30 minutes, it was a disappointment, I was expecting better, given that I was fit and well, and knowing what I can do over the half marathon distance I think a 3:30 marathon is more than achievable. I can search for an answer of why I didn't perform as I wanted, but I'm not going that today, for now I just want to enjoy the fact that I completed my second marathon.

In my blogs on my completed races I always finish with a review of the goodie bag, and this will be no different. In truth, given the sizeable entry fee, 45euros, I was expecting something special. I was a little disappointed.

You can see from the picture, it was a light goodie bag, a copy of Runners World, a couple of magazines about the race, a bottle of shower gel, a little bag and a technical t-shirt. I could have got some food after the race to add to the bag but the system to distribute it wasn't the best, there were huge queues and I didn't have the patience to wait. It's a goodie bag light, but it is good quality, the t-shirt I would happily buy for myself and I've already put it to use, while the shower gel is one I regularly buy. So in summary, I'm content with the bag, but not blown away, thank you Madrid, but you've not quite done enough to match Santa Pola.

Elche Media Maraton

Last Sunday I completed the last half marathon of my season, for the first time in three years in Spain I made it through to April (almost) injury free, and was able to make my debut in Elche. I'd been told by anyone that had run there that it was a nice race to do, and by anyone that had visited the town that it was worth a visit so I went with positive expectations.

I wasn't sure what to aim for in the race, I'm preparing for a marathon so one option would have been to run at my target pace for the marathon, another was to see it as my last chance of a PB this season so put everything in. I ruled out the second very quickly as I still had a little nagging pain on my hip that deterred me from pushing very hard, but I also felt it was unnecessary to slow down to marathon pace, if I wanted to just do another training run I could have just stayed at home. In the end I just went with the flow, I started at what I thought was a comfortable pace and it turned out to be so for the whole race.

I finished with an official time of 1:32:55 and a chip time of 1:32:34. It was a good five minutes from my PB but it was my best of this season, albeit by only a few seconds. However, the really positive thing was that when I finished I felt good, I was confident of being able to go on, I'm not sure how far but I know I could have run more.

They had controls at 10k and 15k, I covered the first ten in an average of 4:26min/km, the next five in 4:25min/km, but picked things up in the last 6.1km, averaging 4:19min/km, to leave an overall pace of 4:23min/km.

It was a reasonably flat course, Elche is not on the coast so its not pancake flat in the same way as Santa Pola and Torrevieja are, but there wasn't any incline to spark fear. I'd like to run there again next year, but without a subsequent marathon in mind so I could really push things.

I was a little bit disappointed with the town though, at least from what I saw there wasn't anything that jumped out at me and said 'I must visit this', and there wasn't the support on the street that I've seen in other races like Orihuela and Santa Pola.

Now to the bag. Again, it doesn't compare well with other races in the province, it satisfies the minimum requirements, but that's about it, you can see for yourself.

A t-shirt, a plaque and a few snacks and drinks. The Maltesers were a pleasant surprise, and the t-shirt is reasonably good quality, but after the goodie bags from Santa Pola and Torrevieja this has to be considered a bit of a disappointment. Hopefully they will step up their game next year!

I'll be back with a couple more blogs in the next few days as I countdown to Madrid.
Until then, happy running.

El maratonero

The Long Run

Right now I'm just fifteen days away from the marathon, the long hard miles of training are behind me, and now training is just about allowing my body to recover a little from the training and keeping sharp ready for the race day.

I thought I'd blog on probably the most important part of marathon training, the long run. Its the part of the training that prepares you for the battle against your own body, when its telling you it has had enough, you have to show it you've got more to give. You can't just start running for two hours plus without preparing yourself, like the marathon itself, the long runs should be built up to. I remember when I first started out, when I first caught the running bug, 10k seemed a huge obstacle, and it was, but once I'd got it out the way I kept going and the path to being able to run a half marathon was surprisingly easy.

However, going beyond a half marathon presents a whole world of problems. Firstly is the time, to prepare for a marathon you will need to do training runs that last more than two hours, its not easy to find that time in your schedule, especially when you know afterwards you will be an exhausted wreck, and unable to do anything productive for the rest of the day. The second major problem is that the body, apparently, is just not designed to run for more than two hours. Basically the body keeps on board enough fast-burning fuel (carbohydrates) to do two hours of continued exercise, but after that it has to go to the slow-burning stuff, and that's when things start to get difficult. The third major obstacle is dehydration, in training you don't get tables of water at the side of the road at regular intervals, if you need liquid you have to carry it yourself, which isn't a straightforward undertaking when you are running  for such a long time.

Different training plans have different desired lengths for long runs, imperial based plans tend to go for 20 miles, while metric ones go for 30 kilometres, I guess people just like numbers ending in 0. I have no idea what is necessary to prepare for a marathon, but I can say what I've done and I'll tell you afterwards if it was enough. Last year I did my longest run in the first week of March, 35km (21.8 miles) but a couple of weeks later I was injured, and by the time the marathon came around I was out of practice of doing long runs.

This year I have always been behind in my preparations compared to last year, and this has meant I haven't reach the same distances in training runs. I have only gone beyond 30 kilometres once, compared to twice last year, and my longest run in 2011 so far is 31.1km (19.3 miles), notable less than the 35km run before London. However, for the first time in three years I've started April without an injury, well at least without an injury that stops me running (my hip/back is still complaining a little).

I did my longest run four weeks before the race. There are varying opinions in the various guides on training on when your taper should start, some say you can do your last long run as late as a week before the race, others that you need at least a day to recover from each mile of your long run, so if you are doing a 20 mile training run it should be 3 weeks before the race. I went for a safety first approach, I went out with three weeks to go to the race uncertain on how far to push things, in the end I thought given my history I was best to be cautious so instead pushing on to another 30k+ run I came home after 17k.

I'm not sure what my point here is exactly, I guess its just to put down a record of what I've done, and why I did it, then after the race I can come back and see how things worked out.

I'll be back soon with a blog on my last race before Madrid, the half marathon in Elche this past Sunday.
Until then, happy running.

El maratonero

Torrevieja Half Marathon

Last Sunday I ran another half marathon, and yet again its a story of disappointment as a result of disrupted preparations, but again I'm the one to blame. The Monday following the race in Orihuela I played football, about half an hour into the game I turned fairly sharply and felt a pain in my lower back. I continued to play despite suffering a fair bit of discomfort. I went home, rested the next day, before going out to run on the Wednesday. I was suffering a bit at the start of the run but the longer I went the easier things got so for the rest of the week I trained as normal.

I went out for a long run on the Sunday, I was still feeling the pain so it was a slow one, but I managed to do my longest run since I ran in London last year, 24km. My back wasn't right but it wasn't affecting me too much and seemed to be getting better, but I pushed things a little too much. On the Monday again I played football, and surprise surprise, I aggravated the injury. Again I could still run, but the pain was that bit more intense. With a half marathon planned for the weekend I booked myself in for a session of physio.

My physio confirmed that it wasn't something that should stop me from running, but that I should avoid brusque movements. She did her thing to try to speed up the recovery, but when the race came round on the Sunday I was still in some discomfort and needless to say I wasn't able to give of my best.

Anyway, I got round ok, and I was doubtful about that over the first few kilometres, and once again my back felt better the longer I ran so my splits got successively faster through the race. I ended up finishing in 1:39:47 with a chip time of 1:38:58. However, in this case my time shouldn't really be compared to what I've done.

One big mistake by the personal responsible for laying out the cones at one end of the lap meant that the race was a half marathon only in name, all 1596 finishers ran 652m more than necessary. It was fairly obvious to me while running something wasn't. I had my GPS watch and it was pretty much bang on in agreement with the kilometre markers, until the 9th kilometre, at that point I was doing about 4:45 min/km, but between the 8th and 9th kilometre markers I must have taken more than 6 minutes, the same thing happened on the second lap so I was pretty sure it wasn't just badly positioned kilometre markers. The organizers confirmed the error two days after the race.

That apart the race was really well organized, but unfortunately it is a pretty big mistake to make. Lots of people will have lost out on the possibility of setting personal bests, and to find out after running almost 22 kilometres that a PB was taken away by one mistake would be a pretty big slap in the face. Fortunately for me, I was never close to a PB.

I set off fairly gingerly, the back was pretty uncomfortable at the start, I was doubtful that I would be able to last the race but thankfully the more I ran the more the injury seemed to settle down and the faster I was able to run. By the end of the race I was getting close to the pace I averaged in the same event last year, 4:08 min/km. Here are the splits:

1st 5K:  24:48 4:58min/km
2nd 5.326K:  24:38 4:38min/km
3rd 5K:  22:05 4:25min/km
4th 5.326K:  23:02 4:19min/km
5th 1.097K:  4:25 4:02min/km

Overall I left the race fairly happy, I'm still disappointed that I'm so far from the pace I was able to run last year but given the preparations I've had, I've not really had the chance to push things too much. I've still got six weeks until the marathon in Madrid and two weeks before that I'll do a half marathon in Elche. Hopefully by then I'll be easing down from a few high mileage weeks and be in good condition to push on to at least sub 1:30.

As a said, apart from the problem with the distance, the event was a good one. The weather wasn't great but there was still enough people out of the street to create a good atmosphere. It wasn't as lively as Santa Pola or Orihuela but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend a tourist to make a special trip for it, but if you are in town and fancy a run its a good event.

So now we come to the goodie bag review, and its the same story as the race overall, nothing amazing but its everything you expect and just a little bit extra to put a smile on your face. Here's the pic:

We have, a bag, a t-shirt, a cap, a little trophy and a neck-warmer or snood as I think they are known as in the UK. It's a nice bag, I'll make use of the t-shirt and probably the bag, the neck-warmer isn't really suited to the Alicante weather but one day it might come in useful. The trophy is a nice touch. What it lacks is the food, you burn up alot of energy and its nice to finish with a bag full of food, to know you can replace all that you used up, not having anything in there was a let down. The end result is that Torrevieja does ok, but doesn't get close to Santa Pola standard.

Next to see what Elche has to offer.

Orihuela Media Maraton

Last week I took part in my fourth half marathon of the season in Orihuela. After Santa Pola I was hoping to continue to improve and make big strides towards the pace I was running at the same time last year. Unfortunately I didn't go into the race with the best of preparations.

Two weeks before the race (three weeks ago as I write) I got up on a Sunday morning wanting to do a long run, somewhere in the region of 25 kilometres with the aim of improving my stamina, however I wasn't feeling the best. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, I just felt a bit lethargic but I went out anyway. I had confirmation that things weren't right from my heart rate monitor, as I started to run my heart rate was about 15 beats per minute higher than normal, but I just ignored it and carried on.

Anyway, the run was fairly painful, I was tortuously slow and as a result took the decision to stop at 21km. I felt bad the rest of the day and woke up the next morning with a face full of cold. I spent the next week with my nose in almost constant contact with a tissue. Needless to say, it wasn't a great help to my training, I didn't get rid of it until about the Wednesday before the race on the Sunday. I can't say for sure things would have been better if I hadn't gone out to run, but if a similar situation arises again I think I'll stay at home.

After all that I did run in Orihuela, after recovering from the cold my objective was just to match Santa Pola, and I managed to get round a little bit quicker so I was content. My chip time was 1:32:47 while my official time was 1:33:27.

It was my second time in Orihuela and I'd say my 2nd time was just as enjoyable as the first, despite the lack of a PB this year. Its a nice course with lots of people out on the street supporting, music playing at various points around the course and its not too crowded so you can get into your running quickly (unlike in Santa Pola). You also come home with a top notch goodie bag, but we'll get to that later.

The official race splits are a bit of random mix of distances, 8km for the first, 2.3 for the second, then 4.2, then 2 and the last one of 4.6, but they still manage to tell a story. I was solid through the first eight, averaging 4:21, I was gradually getting quicker through that stretch though as the runners started to spread out, so in the section from 8 to 10.3km I averaged 4:09min/km, given the training I'd had that was too quick, in the next 4.2km I slowed to 4:25min/km and I was really struggling at that point. In the 2km from 14.5 to 16.5 I averaged 4:55min/km, not good at all. Fortunately I managed to find some energy in the last section and averaged 4:21 through the last 4.6km.

It was a solid race, and I'm already looking forward to my next one in Torrevieja where hopefully I'll go into the race feeling much better.

Now to the moment you've been waiting for....the goodie bag review! Orihuela provided a t-shirt, and a good quality one, albeit in my least favourite colour, a little backpack, a bag of oranges, a bag of bird food (sunflower seeds), a pair of socks and a bottle of water. It's a nice selection of items, but there is nothing spectacular there, nothing to make Orihuela stand out from the crowd. It looks like Santa Pola are in pole position for goodie bag of the year!

Until next time, happy running!
El maratonero

Half Marathon Santa Pola

My favourite event of my half-marathon calendar came around again last Sunday, and once again it didn't disappoint. Santa Pola has one of the biggest popular races in Spain, more than seven thousand people finished this year, and its one big party with what seems like the whole town on the street cheering. There are bands playing at various points on the course, when the course leaves the populated areas of the town they have speakers blasting out music, it really is one big party.

The race has a great atmosphere, is well organized and has a pancake flat course, when I raced in Benidorm there were lots of running tourists, personally I think they are missing a trick by not coming instead to Santa Pola. The one negative point is just a result of the race being so popular, despite the wide boulevard used for the start of the race it is very difficult to avoid getting held up in the first few kilometres, but with the exception of the 10k in Valencia I've had the same problem in any race with more than 2,000 participants.

I think its clear I like the event, but how was my race? I enjoyed it but I'm still not running as fast as I would like. I finished in 1557th place with a finish time of 1:35:51 and a chip time of 1:33:57. It was my quickest half marathon this season, but was more than five minutes slower than I managed in the same race last year. I didn't go into the race expecting to challenge my time of last year but I was hoping to be alot closer to breaking 90 minutes.

Looking at my splits though there is enough there to suggest I'm not too far away. Discounting my time to cross the start line my 5k splits were:

• 22:42
• 21:59
• 21:56
• 22:36

In the first 5k I was inevitable slowed down by the sheer number of runners, in a less popular race I'm sure there is a good bit of time I could make on the first split. The other thing to note is that in my training cycle my longest run has been my half marathon races, the lack of stamina told in the last few kilometres, I was really just hanging on for the finish. I'm pretty sure with a couple of longer runs over the next month I'll be able to get closer to my best.

So now we get to the bag review. As in the previous two years, Santa Pola did not disappoint. Check out the goodies:

A bag, good quality t-shirt, towel, discount vouchers for a safari park, drinks and snacks, and last but not least the traditional Santa Pola gift of a year's supply of Santa Pola salt, I say a year, I still haven't finished the bottle from two years ago. It is a top quality race with a top quality bag.

Well done Santa Pola! You are in pole position for goodie bag of the year.

Happy Running
El maratonero

My cross-country experience

Like pretty much every English school child, at least in my generation, I ran my first cross-country race at school and much like everyone else, hated it immensely. Normally the way it works is that the PE teacher waits for the coldest, wettest day of the year and takes the kids outside and makes run around a boggy field for half an hour. We would arrive back to the changing rooms completely covered in mud, so much so it looked like I'd been swimming in it. I pity my Mum now for having to get that kit clean week after week.

While I didn't like the cold, or the wet, the one compensation was that I was reasonably good at it, at least until I got left behind as others experienced their puberty related growth spurt before me. When I did my last school cross-country at age 15 I thought I would never run one again, but this past weekend I was back playing in the mud.

I was back in the UK for the weekend and since I knew I needed to do at least one run while I was away I looked for a local race to take part in, and to my surprise I found one. I ran in what was supposed to be a 15k cross-country in a place called Irchester. Here is a link to the event:

http://www.justracinguk.com/event/wellingborough-mt-1-run-series-round-1

My thinking was that it would be harder work than a 15k on the road, so would be good training for this weekend's half-marathon in Santa Pola, while running on a variety of surfaces is supposed to be a good thing and I don't get much opportunity to run in the mud given how dry it is in Alicante.

It worked out ok, it was a nice run, there had been rain in the days before but not too much, the ground held up fairly well, it didn't turn into a mudbath as I'd feared it might. It was a fairly slow run, I put that down to not being very sure-footed, but was good exercise nonetheless.

I finished the race in 1:09:56, in 44th place of 109 runners. If you believe that it was 15km that means an average of 4:40min/km, however my GPS suggested the course was short and I'm inclined to believe it. You can see the run here:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/63936967

It has me at 4:57min/km, which I feel is closer to the truth.

I finished feeling good and able to go on, which is a good sign for the challenges to come.

No race report would be complete without a discussion of the goody bag, and I have to say in this regard the race was a huge disappointment. I'd paid 15GBP to enter, so I was expecting something half decent, but no, there was no bag whatsoever! All I received was a few flyers for other events managed by the race organizers and at the end a tiny little medal. I've only taken part in two events in the UK in the past two-and-a-half years, but with such poor value for money I won't be in a rush to go and do many more. It was really a missed opportunity for the organizers, with 400+ people taking part in the event I'm sure there are plenty of companies out there selling running related products only too happy to be able to provide samples to a captive audience, but they were just not there.

That's all for now.

Happy Running

El Maratonero