Finally the big day came and passed. One athlete had a T-Shirt which summed it up all for me 'I conquered the beast'. the T-Shirt was referring to the Dublin Marathon. Indeed the marathon distance is a beast waiting to be conquered, I concur.
Having practiced for virtually the whole year this was the day of reckoning. I managed to pack in a good sadza(cornmeal) and beef the night before the marathon, to boost my glycogen levels. The marathon weather conditions were relatively alright although i would have preferred a slightly colder day with no sunshine, but hey you can't get a good deal all the time. At least there was no drop of rain, I am sure the locals were pleased with that as they hate the rains with a passion! Besides it would have made it difficult for me to carry my music player and Garmin watch and accessories.
I decided to keep faith with the outfit that I wore on the Dublin Half marathon including the Nike Shoes. Unfortunately my cheap Runners did not make it to the Dublin marathon. I had a dodgy right knee which funny enough only gets worse with rest. As long as I am running the pain is tolerable. Despite carrying at least 2 bottles of carb juice during my training i decided to leave the bottles at home and relied solely on the juices supplied by the race organisers. I only carried the portable gels.
12 000 plus athletes lined up to tame the beast. Surely enough off we went on schedule. The pace started off predictably slow because and slowly picked as the kilometers dropped by. people began to spread out as each individual settled into their own marathon pace.
My target was to complete the race in under 4 hours. The organisers had pace setters for each category so that people can keep pace with pace setters of their predicted finish time. Because I started off at the back of my category group it took me a total distance of roughly 10 miles to catch up with pace setters. I did not want to run too fast to catch the pace setters because I to maintain an 'aerobic pace setters.
i kept pace with these guys for a further 10km.
I crossed the half way in pretty good shape although at this point we were facing the sun. I made good use of the gels, the Baligowan water and the sports drinks supplies at regular intervals. things were working as planned.
As i have stated before I have done up to 30km but have never gone beyond. incidentally on the two occasions that i did, this is the time when i hit the wall. I knew that this was going o be the major challenge ie to go beyond 30km in good shape.
Basically an athlete is said to hit the wall when his glycogen reserve has been depleted. It means he/she has to depend on fat metabolism to generate energy for the muscles. Unfortunately fat can only be metabolised in an aerobic environment. this means the athlete is forced to slow down significantly in order to create an aerobic as opposed to anaerobic exercise. Only glcogen converted to glucose can be metabolised with little oxygen.
Predicatbly i hit the wall around 30km. the last 12km were pure torture. I literally dragged myself. On occasions i had to actually walk a few metres before falling into a jog. The pace setters began to put distance between me and them and they were out of site in about 5km. i knew then my dream of finishing the marathon under 4 hours was not going to happen.
I needed a strong mentality to keep going despite the inevitable realisation. I have to say the cheering crowd kept us going, particularly for the last 5km or so. I eventually crossed the line at a time of 4:08hrs. In other words I was 8 minutes off the mark. the consolation is that I finished the race within the time frame of my category which was 3:30hrs to 4:15hrs. The overall result was as follows. Overall position: Number 4875. In my category I was number 920. Feyisa Lilisa from Ethiopia won the race with a time of 2hrs:09mins and 11 secs. this was just 4 seconds off the course record.
The pain in my legs was unbelievable. It was likes someone was pricking me all over the legs thousands of needles at simultaneously. Acupuncture?
the only thing that relieved the pain was having to lie down on my back on the ground and raise my legs high up for 5 minutes.
The walk to car to meet my family was like running another marathon. I do not know if tomorrow i will wake up from the bed. good thing I took a day off from work tommorrow.
It was such a great feeling to have to receive a medal for completing the marathon. i would hope this is the beginning.
Garmin Forerunner and its accessorries performed well. Runkeeper on Iphone was able to run for the entire duration of the race. It came handy in giving me an audio of the distance and time every 5 minutes. It however did not get a good satelite connection and it claims I ran a total of 58km. I wish!
The music from Tongai Moyo (Muridzi Wenyaya and Naye albums) and Alick Macheso (Ndezvashe) album kept me going, focused and entertained.
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