About 8 weeks after Elliott was born (July ’13) I decided I needed to get out and stretch my bones which felt they had been compressed for three years. I was mentally exhausted from the kids but I really wanted to experience utter physical exhaustion again. I started with some group exercise near where I was living in Ryde which came with free babysitting. As part of the training, they had a long run session every so often. During the first one I did I ccidentally did 5km instead of the 2km the trainer had assigned to me because I didn’t read the markings on the road. I came second last out of the group and it took me 45 minutes to do, but I loved the sensation of pushing myself and decided on a goal that I wanted to run a marathon by October ’14.
My first fun run was the Balmain Fun Run, followed by a few of the Manly Dam Sydney Trail Series. These first couple of runs were amazing – the 10km at first took a lot out of me and I would always end up with the flu a few days later but as my fitness gradually improved my times improved also and I was able to run 10km in under an hour (which I thought was good) and I then completed the Sun Run, the Pub2Pub and City 2 Surf without much consideration. Life got in the way of my marathon dream with a move to Narrabeen, returning to work and topped off with an extended trip to visit the in-laws in the UK. My plans were waylaid and I was only managing a run once every few weeks or so. I was desperate to find a local running group in Narrabeen. I had seen so many of the Bexi crew in the Sun Run and when I spied Cass across the playground in her Bexi top I pounced on her to find out where she trained.
I rang Debbie and attended a trial session and quickly signed up for the GC Half on her suggestion to see how that went first. I am so glad I took the time to have that experience first before jumping the gun into the marathon. The lessons I learnt from that prepared me for what was to come.
Up until this point, I didn’t really pay much attention to my diet, I used to go on runs after having a curry and a bottle of red the night before. The eve of the C2S I was drinking sparkling with my friends and had just a cup of ginger lemon tea before the race. And whenever I had done 10km I used to over compensate drastically the following week with a very poor diet, so I wasn’t really losing any weight which I was also keen on doing.
The training for the Gold Coast was up and down, I had good weeks where I did all 4 runs and others where I just ran twice a week. I never did a strength or core session throughout this training. Some weeks I stuck to a ‘diet’ and others were a complete blow out when I was stressed with work. I inevitably got the flu leading up to the run (a result of not taking care of myself and running the longer distances) and couldn’t shake it. I ended up finishing the half in 2h06m. I was disappointed, mainly because at the breaking point at 17km, I gave in and started walking on and off for a few kilometres before the finish. I was barely able to push through to 21km, let alone 42km. I realised that if I was going to to be able to run double the distance I would need to make some drastic improvements to my self discipline.
After we got back into training during the winter term and worked out that we would have enough time to train for the full marathon in Melbourne, I set about planning how I was going to do it. I read some books. I borrowed off Debbie and got some books from the library. I wanted to find out how the pro’s do it and wanted to emulate them as much I could. I made the training plan my priority, I would follow it and every piece of Debbie’s advice to the letter. Throughout the entire 12 weeks I think I only missed one run session and one strength session.
I got Andy to agree to the early mornings to mind the kids, and the meal plan that I was going to follow. If he wanted his own food, he had to buy his own. I got my mum lined up to pop over on a Monday or Thursday to mind the kids if I could not make it first thing in the morning Inger and I had a great routine on Monday so we could each fit in a base run and do a strength session whilst minding each other’s kids. I started off doing yoga at home but quickly found that if I didn’t have a specific time slot for it in the routine, it never got done. So about 5 weeks out from the marathon, I signed up to a gym with a creche and did the yoga and core sessions there twice a week. When I added this to the schedule I had seven exercise sessions stretched over six days a week.
I planned all the kids meals and adult meals a week in advance. I went all in and ditched all processed foods from the house and ate as much as possible gluten and dairy free. I decided to follow a Teresa Cutter 80/20 diet so I could lose some weight which would help my running. I ended up cooking separate lunches and dinners for myself but shared all the snacks like protein balls and shakes with the kids. I also made extra muffins and cakes for the kids for their lunches.
With all the extra cooking I was now doing, I got a Thermomix for my birthday just so I could get through it all without having to stay up all night. I experimented with a few separate pre race dinners and breakfasts, finally settling on salmon and sweet potato for dinner the night before and a protein shake for breakfast. Apart from 3 occasions where alcohol would be requirement (a hens night, a wedding and my school reunion), I gave up alcohol completely. I kept Sundays as my ‘day off’ from exercise and home meals just to give myself some rest from the kitchen.
About two weeks before the race, I cut my diet further to green smoothies for breakfast, nourishing soups for lunch and a chicken or fish meal for dinner with sweet potato. I kept my clothes that I wanted to wear for the marathon for my Saturday runs, although when it started heating up I had to quickly purchase shorts, sunglasses and a hat so I could practice running in them.
There was a lot of preparation in the first month or so but once I got in the habit of planning all my meals and training sessions (to make sure I had someone to mind the kids), it all very quickly became routine and I was really enjoying it. About four weeks from D-day, just after Blackmores Half Marathon was when I started getting really tired and very hungry. During this time, I was running between 60-70km per week and it was really important that I had healthy snacks ready to go and to rest as much as I could. I let the housework slide and I feel guilty that I let the kids watch TV most afternoons because I was too tired to take them out and I needed time for all the meal preparation I was doing. On my non-running days I became really moody and grumpy, I guess I was getting used to the extra endorphins from the running!
During the taper period, about five days out, was when my niggles started coming out and I was paranoid about everything. I was at my GP’s about 3 times getting various prescriptions for antibiotics, a terrible cough that wouldn’t go away and last of all I ran up because I had some aches during my last tempo run only to be told to take some ibuprofen and that it would most likely go away (it did).
I flew down to Melbourne for the race two days prior on Friday. I had prepared all my meals for Saturday and Sunday morning and carried them in a large esky onto the plane. I got a few funny looks especially when I asked a lady not to squash my bananas in the overhead locker but I didn’t care, I was more concerned about not wasting energy having to walk to the supermarket and carry back more!
On the day before the race, I met up with Inger at the expo, to collect my bib and do some last minute shopping for compression tights. I then spent the entire rest of the day back at the apartment I was staying, getting hydrated, studying the map and resting. I had a really early night but kept waking up to check why my alarm hadn’t gone off.
I woke up on race day just before my alarm at 4.30am. I had my lemon tea, a protein shake had a shower and got dressed. I had prearranged for a car with a driver to pick me up and take me to the bag drop off as I was paranoid about having to walk there and missing the race or turning up stressed.
I was beginning to feel really overwhelmed with the situation and I puked out the front whilst waiting for the car, then I decided to have a little cry in the car on the way to ease the pressure, and I felt much better afterwards.
By the time I got to the start line I felt unusually relaxed, I just kept telling myself that I just had to run at a 6 minute pace – easy! For the first time in any race I found myself running next to the pacer for my A goal. I quickly realised that I shouldn’t stick next to her as after the first km, she took off way faster than what I had planned. During the first 6km, I just kept echoing Debbie’s words ‘run your own race’ and stuck to my race plan and my Garmin and not anyone else.
I found myself needing the toilet at 7km but none of the stops had Port-a-loo’s, the toilets were all located in the playground or a building set back from the water stops so when I finally decided to go at 11km, I wasted a few minutes running in and running out again. I saw so many men pissing on the side of the road throughout the race without a care in the world! At my scheduled water stops, I slowed to a walk, drank two cups and tipped one over my head. I found myself going slower than pace for that km, then making it up and going faster over the subsequent kilometers before the next water stop. This strategy was bad for a few reasons because whilst I could make up the time for the first few intervals, this wasn’t the case at the end.
At 16km I finally found my groove and noticed the groups had spread out and people started chatting amongst themselves and I was pretty happy. At 18km I realised I had written the wrong water stops down when then one I needed wasn’t there. I then got paranoid about missing others that I ended up stopping at nearly every one from then on which slowed me down considerably. Despite this, I was very comfortable and felt strong. Between 30-32km I noticed a lot of people slowing down and walking as Debbie predicted, by 35km I felt really strong, especially as I was seeing people walking. I thought maybe the wall had passed me by. Although I started getting ‘waves’ of cold shivers going through me threatening to slow me down (just like they did when I started walking on the GC), I just said to myself ‘you have experienced this before, just keep your cadence, are you propelling yourself forward, unclench your toes and fists, then the wave washed over me and I felt strong again.
From 36km – 39 km there were a few gradual up hills. The first one was fine,I took jelly beans and water at the next stop which slowed me down followed by another long gradual uphill which was much slower and I couldn’t recover my pace unlike I had earlier on in the race.
Prior to the race, I was envisaging a quickened pace, cruise back to the MCG from 40km onwards. But the last two KM were what I remember most about the marathon and was where I was really put to the test. Every step hurt, I could not wait to finish and just lie down on the ground. At one point after km 40, I realised I really needed the toilet, I didn’t think it would be much and I didn’t think there were any more toilets before the finish. So I had to take on Shawn’s advice. I realised drinking 16 cups of water was bound to have an impact. At least it warmed me up from the cold shivers I was getting.
The course at the beginning and end it a bit like a game of snake and it turns back on itself throughout and criss crosses with other routes, so at the end, I couldn’t see through the throng of running lanes which direction or when we were finally going to turn back off the main road into the MCG, even though on paper it looked quite simple.
Throughout my Garmin was 500m ahead of the markings and I was hoping, that when I got to the end, it would catch up and I was find myself finishing earlier. In the end I ran 42.7 km (I checked with a few people who also had the same). When we rounded into the MCG, I went to overtake and sprint, but then held back realising I didn’t have anything in the tank. Then when I got to the last 100m, I could hear my brother in law cheering for me and somehow I found myself going faster and finished off with a pace of 4.07. I crossed the finished line, Inger grabbed me and I held onto her for dear life. I was so happy to see her, all I kept thinking was that I wanted to collapse and try not to get my wet shorts on her in the meantime.
The medals and drink station were inside the carpark underneath, so I found myself unwittingly getting gathered up by a nurse into the St Johns Ambulance tent and before I knew it I was getting quizzed on my details and my pulse checked.
I am really happy with what I achieved on Sunday, I could not have given any more or done anymore preparation for it. I can honestly say that throughout the hardest moments I kept true to my mantra of ‘if you’re not going to die you have enough to keep running, just keep moving forward’. I gave every ounce of myself to sprint across the finish line. I finished knowing utter and complete physical exhaustion and I loved it!
My post race recovery went quite well, I had packed a recovery shake and had a massage straight away. I also wore compression tights immediately after my shower until the following morning and I woke up feeling no different to what I had during training.
I am now itching to get back to improve on my time. My new life mantra (which I picked up from all my book reading) is ‘What can I do today to improve on yesterday?’ and to take every opportunity you can to achieve your goals because you never know if you’ll get another.
After speaking to my husband and Debbie about my experience, I have likened this whole process to going through labour and giving birth to a baby. I love feeling the extremes in life, it really makes you feel alive. Although it pains me to say this but I would put my marathon experience on par with the mental stamina you need to have to get through labour and the pure joy you have when you cross the line. My husband said to me on Monday night when I got home ‘it’s like you have had an awakening and discovered the meaning of life’. I know it sounds cheesy, but in a way I feel like I have.
Melbourne Marathon