Melbourne Marathon - 69th out of 3800 in 2:59:01

Melbourne Marathon 2:59:01

I rocked up to the starting line ready to go and the goal was a sub 2:52 marathon with a fallback goal of sub 3. I had no probs getting close to the front of the field but was on the right hand side instead of the preferred left hand side and I had to cover some extra ground in the first couple of hundred metres and hop over a traffic island. Not sure if the first k was long or if I was too relaxed but I went through in 4:35 before gently easing past the sub 3hr pack on the downhill second k in 3:42 and settling into a rhythm. Motored through the next five k's at a range of 4:02-4:09, just over goal pace and already we had caught up to the half marathon stragglers forcing me to divert around some of the inconsiderate ones every now and them. Got to Albert Park and copped the full force of the famed northerly winds that were forecast for that day - a forecast that I had tried not to think about pre race.

At this point, pack running became a priority and I concentrated hard on drafting to shield myself from the wind. Occassionally, this entailed going outside the normal racing line to avoid the wind and a fluid running stride and cadence was becoming difficult to acheive. There was penty of this till we reached the beach at 14k and turned around, receiving a partial tail wind. By this point, I was over a minute behind sub 2:52 pace. Pre race, I had resolved not to get carried away if a tail wind was received and to just stick to goal pace. Got my first personal drink from my brother Benno at St Kilda Beach and it was God sent as the personal drinks tables were once again a crowded mess and I was thankful I didn't have to go hunting for a drink in there.

The 15-20k stretch was probably my weakest of the race - we were out of the worst of the wind and those runners I had ran with to that point were moving ahead and stringing out but I was a bit one paced, couldn't latch on to a pack and was becoming concerned that I had gone out a little too hard. Sub 2:52 was slipping further and further out of reach and I was almost resigned to giving up on it. Help arrived at about 18k in the form of some familiar faces in team mates, Pete, Jason and also Chris Gale. They were part of a pack of 10 around 2:55 pace and the company of familiar faces and the good sized pack got me back in my groove again.

The half was reached in about 87:30 and before I knew it the halfway at 26k had been reached and it was into the headwind!! A headwind strong enough to blow a plastic crowd control barrier into the path of our pack at one stage. The teamwork started immediately with Chris going to the front and the rest of us shielding, then Pete and then myself and so on. Fortunately, the pack was still about 10-12 runners so I didn’t have to take too many turns at the front. The pace dropped to 4:15-4:18 range and I told myself to keep plugging away – this would not last forever and I had a new goal of sub 3 to focus on. By now, a mixture of Gus and Gatorade was sitting queasily in my gut but I’ve felt worse for sure. Approaching St Kilda again, the pack was losing some stragglers while Jason and Stef had taken off ahead, both looking very strong in the process. I accepted my last Gatorade and encouragement from Benno and Eli at 33km thinking that at least I felt stronger than I did when I accepted a drink from Benno at the 32k mark of my debut 2004 Gold Coast Marathon. The drink came at a good time and gave me a burst of energy shortly after and once we left the worst of the headwind and turned onto St Kilda Rd, I found myself moving ahead of the pack. Upon hitting a steady incline, the pack really fragmented for good and I was alone again, occasionally finding some shield from runners coming back to me.

But the wind really picked it up again, and I began to lose steam and slipped into the safety of a newly formed pack of about five or six to stay out of trouble. I was tired and looking forward to the end of the race but I was not physically spent to the point of exhaustion. Importantly, all those fortnightly Wednesday morning runs with Glenda, Beth and the boys had conditioned my body to keep rolling along at 4:10-4:20 pace no matter how I felt. 38k arrived and I looked down at my watch to read 2:41 and thought to myself “You can run four f#####g k’s in 19 minutes!!! And once again, I moved ahead of the pack, inspired by the majestic sight of the G to my right. Ran steadily to 41k and then a God sent downhill enabled me to pick up my pace and by the time I got to Tess, Ciaran, Tara and all the other PCRG gang just outside the G, I was home and told them so. Entered the hallowed ground and looked up into the rafters to drink it all in. Ran about 150m near the boundary line and saw the finish clock ticking over towards 2:59 as I approached. There was no finishing kick, no hysterics and no carrying on. Just a quiet and reserved fist pump and I ran through the finish line and ticked an important box on my journey to a sub 2:45 marathon.

The aftermath was typical Matty. After swapping quick war stories with Jason, Stef, Beth and Glenda next to the finish line, I started to feel weak and unsteady on my feet. 600ml of water did not help and I got down on my hands and knees to have an inglorious hurl on the hallowed turf of the G – not far from where Dermott Brereton coughed up blood in the 1989 Grand Final!! Another hurl when handing in my timing chip saw me carted off to First Aid where accepted and injection to help me keep fluids down. An hour later, I was back on the the road to recovery and by the time I had walked 2k back to the hotel while drinking a bottle of Coke on the way, I was already mentally mapping out my recovery week’s training.

Thanks to everyone for their support – you know who you are!

Matty

Melbourne Marathon Taper - Week 2 and 3

Tues 30/9 - 3KTT - 9:49 - 3:12, 3:18, 3:16

- Took care of business and got back under sub 10 with a 9:47. Settled nicely and the breathing was great indicating a high base fitness. The heavy marathon training took enough sting out of my speed that I was unable to go with the in form Stefan when he moved past me at 2100. The course was probably at least 20m short and possibly more due to roadworks but adjusted time of 9:51 to 9:59 still has me under sub 10 so I'm happy.


Wed AM - 30 mins, 6k's @ about 5:10 mins/km
Wed PM - 50 mins, 10k's @ about 5:10 mins/km

Last double session before Melbourne today. Some rare scheduling dramas forced me to reshuffle my Wed and Thurs sessions.


Thurs - 68 mins, 13k's @ 5:08 mins km

Fri - PCRG -

Sun - 90 mins @ about 4:55 mins per km

Easy run with Pete's crew. Another run where time seemed to fly. Everyone gearing up for Melbourne and lots of chatter.

Tues - 1min, 30 JR, 1 min, 30 SR. Repeat, 3mins.

Just turned the legs over.

Wed - 50 mins, 10k's @ 5:07 minskm

Thurs - 6 x 30 on/off

Short, sharp session with Stefan at Kedron Brook with a 15 min WU and WD.


Fri PM - 30 mins, 6k's @ about 5:15mins/km

Decided not to sacrifice sleep as I had an early flight to Melbourne. Robbie L was on the plane with us as was David Sweeney who as a Qld rep in the Half, was met by Melbourne Marathon staff at the airport to be escorted to his hotel (Note to self - I must run faster!!!!) Arrived 11am and MJ and I checked into our apartment and we'll be joined by Chelle later tonight. We're about 1600m from the G and at 5:30 this arvo, I went for a run down to the iconic venue. Depite spending a bit of time on my feet today, felt good and will spend most of tonight and tomorrow with my feet up reading and watching DVDs and of course.....eating profusely.

Melbourne Marathon Taper - Week 1 - Sept 22-29

Well here we are - a solid training block has been completed since the Gold Coast Half, the highlights of course being the 78:47 at Noosa and a sharp effort at the Sherwood Forest 5.9k. Feeling strong and fit after five 170min Sunday long runs in the last seven weeks. The week went like this:

Tues - First session back at PCRG after last week's cold and after a sluggish start, ran strongly at the back end of the session. A relief to get the speed back quickly.

Wed - An easy 90 minutes with the Wednesday crew - I was content to sit back and cruise along in comfort as they edged ahead of me.

Thurs - DISASTER!!! Turned up at the Kedron Brook for an easy 50 minutes and pulled the pin after less than 400m with an extremely tight right ITB. Was unsure if I would aggravate the condition further by running so did a rather stiff 40 minute walk. Despite this, I was not too concerned as the main area of tightness was clearly in the middle of the ITB and not closer to the knee which spells real trouble. Got home and texted Bruno asking for a slot today if one of his clients cancelled. I really wanted to get on top of the problem straight away so I could run fast at speedwork the next morning, rather than miss speedwork and get it fixed up at my scheduled rub on Friday afternoon. Fortunately, my luck was in and Bruno got a cancellation. Predictably, he bashed and cupped the hell out of the ITB and I was hurting like I haven't done so in a while. Mindful that I had to get back on track as quickly as possible, even at the height of the pain, I was egging Bruno on through gritted teeth - "Don't go soft on me!!". Fortunately, much of the tightness dissipated immediately upon completion of the rub. On Bruno's instructions, I had an Epsom salts bath that evening and went to bed pretty confident I'd be right for the next day.

Fri - 3 x 1k, 45 SR - 3:12, 3:18, 3:16

Got up and did some strides barefoot on the road out the front of my place and the ITB could hardly be felt so I got dressed for PCRG - wearing the long Skins. There was a little bit of niggle during the warm up but none whatsoever when I did strides at speed. Ended up having a great little session working with Stef throughout. Whilst the others did 4 reps and a short out and back, I followed Bruno's suggestion to pull the plug after three reps rather than risk trying to run fast on the fourth rep when the fatigue really starts to kick in.

Sun AM - 120 mins, 23k's at about 5:10's
Sun PM - 30 mins, 6k's at about 5:10's

Felt ok on Sunday.