My first marathon was a little over 20 years ago and was London
in April 1997. I finished that day in 4hrs 20minutes. I really don’t remember
much about it at all, I don’t remember finishing or how I felt that day or
indeed the day after. The next time I ran a marathon was something like 15
years later, in Gloucester, where I did my PB in 3:15:00 flat. I am very proud
of that time. While I always dreamed of running sub-3 I don’t think I ever
really had the drive to do the training that would take, I feel I’d be
susceptible to injury and with each passing year I obviously am a year older.
Yesterday morning I ran a marathon and it struck me last
night that I had run a personal worst, a PW if you like.
I thought this would
really bother me but it doesn’t because it’s all about the context of the run.
The first thing is that I am proud that I finished it not least of all because while
I am always training I had done no specific training for this. No long runs, no
taper, no structure.
For the last few months I have been ticking along at an
average of around 35-40 miles a week, sometimes I have hit 50miles but rarely.
It’s the long runs in marathon training that you need and I hadn’t done any. I
felt really strong up to around mile 20/21 and, while not running fast, felt
smooth and in a rhythm. I felt that I could keep that going. It was then that I
started to slow down and throw in the odd walk break. I was fine for energy, I hadn’t
hit the wall I had just run out of strength.
This is where experience and a certain amount of knowing how
to suffer comes in. I would say I know how to suffer, the experience I had at
the Wendover Woods 50mile taught me many things including how to do just that.
More than that though it was how to suffer without being reckless. I was
struggling but I wasn’t injured, there was no lasting damage being done, it was
just muscle aches which is something you’d expect. With that in mind it becomes
just about completing the distance. Mentally this takes the pressure off; I know
I can do that, I know I can cover the distance I know how my body feels and
reacts and so I just got it done.
There’s ego here too. It felt good to be able to run that
distance almost off the couch. Miles in the legs and experience essentially got
me through.
A little over 20 years from my first marathon I ran a personal
worst – best of all I don’t even care.
