In for the long haul...

My last post building momentum left things at a bit of a cliff hanger… I pressed the publish button with hardly a moment to spare before the cab arrived to take Lesley and me to the airport for our flight to Vienna!  I’ve struggled for time to pick the story up since then but having now just started a training plan that I hope will have me ready on 7^th September to complete my first 100KM ultra, I felt I could put it back no longer.

How do I start my reflections on Vienna?  After much deliberation, I simply say… it was absolutely fabulous!  Lesley and I had a five night stay, flying out on the Friday, completing my registration for the Marathon and doing a bit of a recce on Saturday, focussing on the Marathon on Sunday and sightseeing for two days before our return journey on Wednesday.  We stayed in an Airbnb apartment and we struck lucky in it being not only very comfortable but also brilliantly located.  On the Saturday, as we started to get our bearings in the city, it was great to find how close we were to an underground train station and how easy it was to use the underground to get around.  We were also in a fairly central location so plenty of culture and amenities within a reasonable walking distance.  The credit for this is all Lesley’s with the painstaking research she put in. 

With the benefit of Saturday’s recce, Marathon day went very smoothly.  Getting to the start was no problem and we had worked out five points on the course that that we thought Lesley would be able to reach in time to see me, either by walking or using the underground.

I’d read some reports of runners complaining about the organisation of the event in previous years, particularly about the start being congested.  I could see the potential for problems with three events all starting together, the Marathon, the Relay Marathon and the Half Marathon.  Furthermore each starting pen covered quite a broad range of pace.  My pen was for Marathon runners looking to complete in 3h30m to 4h and Half Marathon runners looking to complete in 1h45m to 2h.  Furthermore, reports I’d read seemed to imply that control of entry into the pens was ineffective with many people starting in faster paced pens than they had been allocated.  I decided to minimise the risk of being held up by getting as near to the front of my pen as I could.  The main problem with this approach is that I have an annoying tendency to need about 4 visits to the toilet in the last hour before a Marathon!  Balancing this with the competing aim of getting into the starting pen as early as possible formed quite a challenge.  This wasn’t helped by the fact there was no information of exactly when my pen would start.  I thought I had entered the pen with about 30 minutes to go but it turned out to be more than 40 minutes.   The main thing was that, with a bit of determination, I was able to weave through the crowd in the pen to find a waiting spot about  10 metres from the front.

The start, when at last it came, went pretty smoothly.  Nevertheless, even though I was near the front of the pen there were some very evidently slower paced runners right up at the front.  However, within a few hundred metres I’d done all the weaving I had to worry about and, with a clear enough road ahead I focussed on finding my target pace.  I was aiming for a pace around 8m15s to 8m20s per mile and found my groove after reining myself back a little following a slightly fast first mile.

Having got off to a good start I went into careful self-monitoring, particularly of my left calf which as per my last blog entry I had strained just 10 days previously.  To my massive relief, I  could feel no pain nor stiffness in those early miles.

As planned, Lesley had taken a one or two stop ride on the underground to be in place to see me at about the 2KM point.  From there she had a relatively short journey, cutting through to the 9KM point, while for me to reach the same point involved an extended loop in the course.  Our next intended rendezvous at near halfway should have worked but somehow neither of us saw the other.  I was a bit distracted at this point, making sure I didn’t head off in the wrong direction with the Half Marathon finishers.  The rules of the event provide the option for those doing the Marathon to decide on the day if they want or need to cut their race short and finish at the Half Marathon stage.  My calf was still holding up well and on I went with the Marathon course. 

I took a careful reading of my two watches as I reached the half way marker.  Slightly annoyingly the watch I usually use for judging pace was being more generous on the amount of distance I’d completed than my second watch and that in turn was more generous than the official distance markers.  So my pace watch was implying I was comfortably under 8m20s per mile but the official time was right on the mark of 8m20s per mile. 

At around 17 miles I felt in fantastic form and went past Lesley at the 27KM point feeling very optimistic about my chances of a PB.   What wasn’t helpful were the growing anomalies between my two watches and between them and the official distance markers on the course.  Between miles 14 and 17 the two watches moved apart by 56 seconds.  Between miles 13 and 20 the disparity between the more reliable of my watches and the official marker grew by nearly two minutes.

Despite these distractions, at the 30KM point (18.6 miles) I was still on course for my target time of sub 3h40m but soon after that I began to feel the fatigue hitting me pretty hard.  A lack of energy or will on the day had me succumbing to a conservative pace as my focus changed from chasing a PB to just making sure I finished in a reasonable time. 

I saw Lesley one more time at about 39KM and she says I was still looking strong though that’s not how I felt as I nudged 10:00 minutes per mile.  Nevertheless, I must have had a bit more in me at that stage than I thought at the time as I pulled myself together for a good run in over the last half mile.

My finish time was 3h45m16s.  My second fastest Marathon and just 3½ minutes outside my PB from Dublin last autumn.  I was absolutely delighted with this after the serious doubts there had been over the previous 10 days as to whether I would be able to finish at all.

Some further observations for anyone considering Vienna as a possible Marathon:

-        Apart from the concern at the start about being caught behind slower paced runners I didn’t find any other problem with bunching on the course.

-        Support on the course is fairly limited and either I was particularly focussed or the people who were out were fairly muted in their support though there were various points  on the course where live or recorded music was being played.

-        Visually the course was one of the better I’ve done but I still put Paris ahead by a fair margin.

-        The course was pretty flat and the road surfaces very reliable.

-        There was a good bustle in the finish area but not as congested as London, Paris or even Brighton.

-        There were some pretty good vendors near the finish (“hot dog stalls” certainly wouldn’t do them justice) and the queueing time was reasonable.  We might have stayed longer there if we’d been in a larger group but with the beer supply looking more difficult than the sausage supply we started a walk back to our apartment (about 30 minutes away) and at half way took a break in one of the street bars/cafes.  Plenty of space and easy to get a beer!

That was the Marathon done and still with two clear days ahead to take a more laid back view of the city.  It certainly didn’t disappoint!  Overall, a fantastic Marathon mini break and I’d definitely recommend Vienna as a place to visit whether or not as a Marathon entrant.

So the 2019 Challenge has been well and truly launched.  I’m not too disappointed at missing out so far on my sub 3h40m Marathon target.  I’m hoping to be in reasonable shape for another crack at it at Amsterdam in October.

Very importantly, a big thank you to the donations made to the fundraising for Kaira Konko SAS.  If you missed it, further details of Kaira Konko were set out in my last instalment of Challenge 2019: https://runreecerunchallenge2019.blogspot.com/2019/04/ . 

As things currently stand the figure has reached £320.  That's  32% towards the target I hope to reach of £1,000 and, in terms of event mileage, I still have about 73% of my total distance still to complete in the 2019 Challenge.   

As ever, all donations through my fundraising page  are greatly appreciated:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnReece

And this brings me to the training for the Thames Path Challenge, the 100KM Ultra that I am aiming to complete in September.  I’ve scheduled a 16 week period for the training though I’ve had a good lead up to this having only taken a fairly brief recovery period after completing the Vienna Marathon and then getting myself ready for taking part as a member of one of the Bearcat Running Club teams in the Green Belt Relay earlier this month.

The general shape of the programme is pretty similar to what I’ve done in my last two marathon training campaigns but the long runs will eventually be going longer, involve running with a back pack and consuming more food and water on the move than I’m used to and also employing a run/walk strategy that is very different to what I’ve done before. 

My first 16 mile run went pretty well but I’ve got to get myself better used to the strategy of moving in a cycle of running for 15 minutes followed by walking for 3 minutes.  I was surprised how I seemed to stiffen up in the latter part of the run.  More so, it seemed, than  when running the same distance at a steady pace.  

The next few weeks will hopefully see this getting easier as I get increasingly acquainted with the path along the Thames.  I'm definitely in for the long haul and looking forward to the miles ahead...