I bought the race bib in the secondary market, before Tallinn Marathon. This was meant to be a buffer race if i did not qualify for Boston in Tallinn.
But i qualified for Boston in Tallinn!
Quite frankly, i have been partying secretly since then. Partying in this sense meant slow down, less rigid, less fanatic with clocking in miles, and relaxing (wine gezellig) took priority. I think my longest mileage week was 80km (only once) and on average, i probably only hit 50km per week.
Yet, i walked into Amsterdam marathon aiming for the sky. Sub 3.30. “Errr … Hmmm … (silence)… ” reactions from the experienced runner(s) (quietly in their heart).
But mostly “Why not!!” from the Optimists…
Race day
I woke this cloudy morning thinking of 4.55 min/km pace (for as long as i can). Yea, so that was still the target, sub 3.30. *fingers cross* Quietly thou – anything better than Tallinn, it’s good enough.
There was some small stress getting there, as i want to be at race start a good 15 min before the race, but there was just this massive bottleneck entering into the 1928 Olympic Stadium. But we made it on time!
I sprinted very early to break away from the other runners. But frankly runners were everywhere, at every turn, every corners, every water posts and every straight line. Runners were elbowing because they have to have the straight line (eyes rolling up emoji), runners calling out (right – rechts, left – links) when they want to have the perfect corners (well,i sure hope they saved their 1/50 seconds of time just to distract others who were also trying to run a certain perfect line). It did not even spread out after km 30, runners were just coming and coming.
This was also the first race that i left the water bottle at home. How stupid. I took 3 gels with me and 4 paracetamols. The gels were not sufficient, and the waterposts were not in sync with my random requirements. So, there were periods when i am down – dehydrated.
Part of the route brought us through Amstel river, oh, what distraction. I even spotted Amelie Mauresmo, and later found out that she ran a negative split to finish with 3.16. Wow… like a heroine!
I struggled to keep the 4.55 pace after km 21. Don’t know what got into me, but i just did not want to push anymore. After i cross the HM time mat, and realising that it is a min lower than when i was in Tallinn, i didnt think there is any chance to hit a FM PB, so i felt rather demotivated. There was nothing to chase for anymore.
After the last badge of 3.30 pacers passed me, i thought i should just give up :(. Then it occured to me that, hey, maybe a target for sub 3 hours at 35km? Segmental achievements could also be a motivation. Yea. I have develop fixation for this number since Gertjan printed the uitslagen arm belt with time for each segment when aiming for the sub 3.39 pace. (he is such an angel :)) for Tallinn. So, i have in my mind sub 3 hours @ 35km to beat PB for Tallinn. And this was what got me pushing.
It is important to have different target times in a marathon. This race, it started with a sub 3.30, when failed i had sub 3.34 target, and when unable again, i had my last PB to lean on, and this saw me running 4.52 (last 1 km) and 4.38 (last 500m) to try and beat 3.36.09.
Every second matters in a race.
Celebrate when you can. Disappointment come with additional mental motivation to do better tomorrow.
I came home with mixd feelings. Before bed, i read the Easy Interval Method, and i came to this.
“The half-way point in a marathon is at 20 miles (32km)” as the famous saying goes… So, the message is don’t go too fast in the beginning. Something i still need to learn. #haha
meysrunningjourney.com 