After Athens, we took some time “off” to recover. Visited the Acropolis, traveled to Thessaloniki (by train), and flew to Pafos before finally arriving in Larnaka (Cyprus). It was relaxing but also a lot of active walking involved. It felt like the traveling was more tiring than the running. But i would not swap it for anything else 😀.
It took me a few days to sort of recover from the marathon not so much because i ran a record time. I figured it was due to the activity build up a few weeks prior to the event that truly took all (most) of my mental energy. I think i ran Athens on a survival mode. Hence the better than expected performance and the exhaustion came from the fact that i did not prepare my body for a marathon. Just spilling out the stats, the average weekly km ran was merely < 20km a week. Some weeks probably 5km at most.
The race
Larnaka was not a busy center. Coming from Athens this was a breeze qua race bib collection. All done within 5 min. Less fanfare and vibe too. But it is also what i am used to. I like that it is low key.
We drove to our rented apartment which was just 200m from the start line and less than 2km from the bib collection center. Well everything within walking distance really.
It was a 0700 start time. That was a while ago. It gets hot towards the afternoon hence the early start. The route was flat. 2 big loops of 15km and third ‘small’ 10km loop towards the airport and back. Mentally it worked better. I struggled with the last loop. There was a small climb at the lake and i walked it. The aid stations were timely placed and sufficient. There were energy gels and sports drink. Medics were also readily available should you need one. I stopped to pick up some cooling gels half way.
I was running a tempo of ~5.20 until km11. The ambitious me did for a good 10km thought – hey, perhaps a sub 4 hour since a year huh. That would be nice for an untrained legs. But no, stitch came in soon after and it was quite a struggle.
This one felt tough. Finished 4.14 hr but it took a lot more effort compared to last week in Athens and post race i felt my right calf hurting. I already have a bad left calf and definitely would not mind keeping the right one normal & strong.
But we all runners know what it is like. The post race adrenaline. That got us to the airport. 1 hour after finishing on time for departure. Gertjan had two hour extra rest time. When we turned in the rental car a tourist said to me “… wow that much of walking huh”. It cracked me up. I think us marathon runners can relate to that sight.
meysrunningjourney.com 