Race: Blackmore's Sydney Running Festival MarathonOfficial Time: 3:36:59
The second marathon effort this year turned out to be a world of difference from my first disastrous venture back in January. Instead of pushing myself for a specific time I concentrated on building strength for the race. The result was a much stronger effort than I had any reason to expect.
My final time was 3:37 (chip time later proved to be just under that bar), well below the 4 hour race I was expecting and positively obliterating my horrible 4:20 from January.
I started out a lot faster than I expected pulling in a 1:44:40 half. That put me dead on for a 3:30 marathon and I made a bit of an attempt at it but the long, long inclines on the second half of the course got me and my reverse split blossomed to a 1:52:18. There just wasn't anything left in the tank at the very end.
All told I averaged an 8:11/mile pace across the whole course - a 7:54/mile for the first half and a 8:32/mile on the second. Much better than last time.
I got up at 4:30 a.m. mostly to have enough time to run into the walls in the dark while getting ready. My friend Dave - who I am staying with here in Sydney - was kind enough to drive me to the race. We got there at about 5:30 a.m. which was when the bulk of folks started to show up.
I joined the throng of folks heading to the staging area at Bradfield Park at Milson's Point on the north side of Sydney Harbor. The race area was literally underneath the bridge which as either intimidating or awe-inspiring depending on how chilly you were.
Cause it was chilly - about 50 degrees. There were scattered clouds as well. But, again, this was nowhere near as brutal as the 29 degrees of the previous race and, by the end of the run, the sun was shining and things had warmed up to almost 65 degrees. Perfect marathon weather, really.
While pre-race estimates were hopelessly optimistic there was a pretty good showing for the effort. All told, 19,000 people took part in all four events and there were almost 1,400 of us in the marathon itself. A good number but not so much it made things kind of crazy.
I had my cheap chullo on which enabled my running partner on Team ZGeek, Gabe, to find me. We waited as the half-marathon started and made the last minute preparations. I had a big bowl of porridge before heading out of the house and downed a PowerBar twenty minutes before the race.
Some guy with a camera cornered me for an interview - due to the chullo I suppose. "What do you have to do to win something like this?" he asked. "Win?" I responded. "This ain't about winning, it's about survival."
Run the Bridge
Things were very very positive at the starting line, the mood in the queue for the start was downright upbeat. Due to the relatively limited number of runners it was a self-seeding event.
The start was up a pretty severe incline out of the little park and up to the bridge road surface. So when the fired the starting gun the crush of folks heading out was kind of a pain. But we barreled up onto the road and, by the time we passed through the toll-booths there was plenty of room to run.
Now part of the attraction of this race was being able to run over the Sydney Harbor Bridge and I want to tell you - it was every bit as awesome as I was hoping. It's a grand and magnificent structure and I put myself right in lane 4 down the middle. I tried to keep my pace under control but it really was tough given the spectacle of the thing.
A helicopter with a photographer was hovering overhead and, when I got to about halfway over the bridge he brought it down to roadway level. The guy was less than 10 meters off to my right dead even with me and I could feel the whoosh of the blades in the air. Pretty awesome but I kept expecting the sniper shot to ring out...
Needless to say I headed down the bridge at a good clip heading onto Macquarie Road into the beautiful public spaces of Sydney. The southern rim of the harbor is dotted with parks, museums and such and the course now wound its way through these.
The route up to Macquarie Point was downright picturesque and the mood was still very light for the runners. This was the first time the course backed around on itself and we got passed by the front-runners heading the other direction. We all applauded them as the zipped by.
I had put myself at the 4:00 pace section but, by now, I had pushed past the 3:45 group and was trying to settle into my rhythm for the race. I knew I was going faster than probably advisable but my goal was not to think about the speed itself but my physical condition – no heavy breathing or sweating at this point, just a smooth easy run.
Heading into the city again the road started throwing little hills at us. Nothing severe yet but I knew the real ones were lurking a few blocks over. We went through Darlinghurst section and brushed by the Kings Cross. There were a few all-day pubs on the route and folks cheered for us as we went past. It was really good-natured and that was a nice surprise.
At one point we passed a guy who was completely wasted on the sidewalk. He was younger and had passed out or fallen down on the sidewalk and was so frickin drunk he didn’t have enough co-ordination to get up. Not much pity for him on my part – I was going to have my own problems soon enough – but the medical staff following us stopped to help him.
The Blue Line
The race then got into its first real long stretch – Anzac Parade – an here we picked up the Blue Line I had looked forward to running for so long. It was still very bright and clear in spots and I stuck right to it when I could. But not everyone else did. Which I found pretty odd…
The line was painted for the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and, as such, indicates the direct course for the race. Stay on the line and you are assured running exactly 26.2 miles (or 42.195 kilometers). When it cuts down the middle of the street, it is for a reason.
Yet folks mostly kept to the side of the street rather than use the whole roadway we had been afforded. It might seem like a little bit extra and not worth concerning ones self over but for a race this long you don’t want to run any further than absolutely necessary.
So my mantra became “trust the blue line” and, by the end of the thing I was damn glad I did.
Things got bucolic again as we had our detour into Centennial Park. This was a large circuit that was a nice change from the regular roads that marked the rest of the course. It was halfway through the park I started to do a solid assessment of my race.
I had gotten past the “danger zone” that laid me low eight months ago. I’d gotten a full third of the course finished and my ass wasn’t in agony. Although I knew I had come out on the first miles a bit quick, I had not ever really pushed myself unreasonably. I was feeling hydrated and with plenty in the tank.
And the real test was the bathroom. This was a brutal ordeal in January but, this time, it was routine. Get in, get done, get back on the course. No horrible feeling of dread for getting back into the race. A very good sign indeed. So I got back out on the regular roads in a positive mindset.
The Halfway Point
The race then headed down a few roads a bit of a way and then reversed itself. The second of these was the halfway point. I pushed to it and saw that I had an incredibly good time and the very real possibility of a sub 3:30 race. I knew it was a longshot and I didn’t start pushing myself for it but I did try and keep my pace even.
Back up Anzac Parade I kept to the blue line and really got into the workman part of the race. The enthusiasm is gone, things have thinned considerably and there is a serious amount of mileage left to go. The weather, I must stay, had taken a turn for the gorgeous. The clouds had pulled off and the sun was bright and pleasant – not too hot.
I had made a decision to run the race without my music but a chance encounter with an early Madonna song had left an unwanted tune in my mind for the days prior to the race. So in my pre-race preparations I made it a point to play a catchy and good song to pull me through - UB40's "Rat in Mi Kitchen." That mantra-like chorus really helped out on this long stretch of the course.
We then got back into the city proper and the first roller-coaster section got started – narrow streets with severe ups and downs. None of these was brutally long just persistent. I tried to shorten my stride and keep my pace constant on the uphills and then stretch things out to take advantage of the downhills. The shade of the buildings was almost chilly though and this was the only part of the course where there was any wind to speak of.
Despite the problems, it was pretty cool running through the streets of downtown Sydney.
At this point the race started its long westward leg that I knew was going to be trouble and it certainly delivered in that respect. We had to go up on one of the flyovers that circled the Darling Harbor to leave the city proper and move over to the next inlet. This was an unpleasant incline and then the road had an irksome superelevation.
Instead of leveling out, it then dropped onto Glebe Island section near the fish marked and delivered another series of up and down neighborhood streets. I was able to keep to my strategy but things were clearly a lot harder than they were just twenty minutes ago.
Go West Not-So-Young Man
The mighty Anzac Bridge was blessedly not on the menu today. As inspiring as the Sydney Harbor Bridge was to start the race, doing this bad boy at this time would have been simply hellish. That’s a long long long long incline to get up… twice.
The Old Glebe Island Bridge, by contrast, was pretty much at street level. But even it had an incline that my legs weren’t keen on. I was really feeling the miles by this point but still felt I had a decent amount left in me and I really wanted to nail the 3:30 time. The City West Link saw the end of that.
This final long stretch led out on one of the main highway connectors for the center of Sydney to the suburbs. It’s a multi-lane road built for relatively fast speeds. That means long inclines and turns. And it was that long rise to the turn around point that kicked my ass. It just kept going on and on and on and drained out what reserves I had left.
At about the 32 kilometer mark I got the ass pains like back in January. The difference was that I knew I could endure them for a 10k but it meant that nailing the 5 min kilometer pace was a slim possibility. I crested the hill at Norton Street and made the u-turn with a hope of making up the pace on the downhill and gave it as much of an effort as I could. The trusty blue line was there to help out as well.
But it was pretty much over for me at this point. My hasty start was coming home to roost and, instead of any kind of strategy it had become a battle of attrition. The 3:30 went out the window (although beating 3:40 was still possible) and hanging in for the final few kilometers was all I could hope for. While I gritted my teeth and got down to the painful final few miles, folks with better race strategies started passing me with regularity.
The somewhat irksome hills around the Old Glebe Island Bridge and the Sydney Fish Market were brutal torture now. On each and every hill the hamstrings and shins were dying on the way up and the quads and calves were seriously unhappy on the way down.
I was very very glad Dave and I drove the route because I had a mental idea of what terrain was left rather than the unfeeling terror of looking for the next kilometer sign. This was particularly good on the Darling Harbor Flyover since I knew the route back onto the city streets and around the rocks was going to be a lot easier.
The run around the shore of The Rocks was some of the most beautiful of the course but, lord knows, it was lost on me. A few folks were pulling up with leg cramps and doing everything they could to get done. I passed one guy being attended my medics with oxygen and a saline solution. The best I could do was commiserate and get on with my own agony.
The Finish Line
Finally I passed under the massive span of the bridge and saw the Sydney Opera House across Circular Quay. Just more than a kilometer to go.
As much as I would have liked to pour it on for a strong finish I really didn’t have anything left. So I kept what pace I could and tried to look happy for the race photographers snapping shots.
Turning the last corner presented one final indignity of the course, a sort of wheelchair ramp built up the opera house steps for us. A final incline to get to the finish line. I took the stabby feeling in the calves and then finished the race with a modicum of élan. I was beat and had left everything I had out on the course but I had actually run the race making it an incredible improvement over my first – an achievement even more important that the better time.
Afterward I downed a ton of water and gels and talked a bit with some of the folks I met on the course. It was very warm and pleasant – a reward for the months of crappy weather in Lima. There was a long long walk up a hill to the Marathon recovery area and all of us were ambling slow and painfully up it.
I turned in my chip begging it to have a good time (it let me down by a minute but I’ve forgiven it) and then picked up the ass-ugly finisher shirt that I’ve never been more proud of. I had to then go back down the hill to the reunion area and meet Dave. I lay barefoot on the grass and basked in the sun. Despite the agony, it was blissful.
Dave showed up and I put on my flip-flops and we then set out up the hill to The Australian Hotel & Pub where the rest of Team ZGeek were meeting. The journey took awhile since it was a rather difficult walk up a series of steps and walkways and I made it a point on the section by the marathon course to yell for every person still finishing up their race.
At the pub we all reveled in our victories and I allowed myself the rarest of treats – a beer. Five years ago I sought out this pub to try the renowned Burragorang Bock from Scharers Little Brewery in Picton which they serve on draft. That pint of beer tasted as wonderful and glorious as I remember it did when I first tried it in 2002. And I allowed myself to enjoy it to the fullest.
Conditions:
Start: 7:15 a.m.
Surface: concrete/asphalt
Weather: partly cloudy/sunny
Temperature: 50 degrees
Humidity: 63 percent
Wind: 6 mph
Location: Sydney, Australia
Shoes: Asics Trance VI