Amsterdam Marathon 2012 - The End of Season and Coming of Age

So here I am, one week (well it's now two weeks) after Amsterdam marathon how things have changed. Last week I saw myself as a supremely trained athlete, but now I'm just a drunken slob. I've had more hangovers in the last week than I have in the past year. It's acted as a nice reminder as to why I don't drink that often...

Amsterdam marathon served as the end of the season for me. Whilst the year has gone reasonably well with good improvements over the shorter distances, ultimately a disappointing result at Biel 100km left me needing a good performance to see the year go off with a bang.

As ever with the marathon the great debate over what pace to run the event was present during the build up. I ended up deciding I would go for a more conservative approach and aim to break the 2h40 marker and shock horror I would try and run an even race...It ended up that I would run a 3m45 per km pace, just because this was a nice round number and meant I could run through the maths a little easier in my small brain. I tend not to use auto-lap on the Garmin for races. It has a habit of getting out of sync with the markers, whilst I appreciate these are not always accurate themselves, it still annoys me when the Garmin beeps can get over 1 minute before or after the marker.

Anyway... the race, taking from Thomas Loehndorf's recent blog post I've give a 5km split account of the race.

The first 5km started with a little trepidation, however I was very happy to get going. I had been at the start for a while and I was starting to get pretty cold. The wind was a little cutting but once we got moving the temparature was spot on. Lots of swapping of position whilst the excited runners quickly realised that they had started a little aggressively.
0 - 5km : 18m50

The first 5km is on a loop that takes you back towards the start so it quite well supported. Got a nice cheers from the Wife and Mrs. A which was nice.

In the next 5km I had established my place in a group of around 4 runners, this group was to grow over the next few kms. Given the wind on the course, which wasn't really strong but could still have been significant having a group to work with would be useful.

I took first gel (of 4) at 8km, and would continue to take at 8km intervals. Aid stations were getting beasted, getting isotonic, water and sponges (to wash isotonic out of my eyes) at each station.
5 - 10km : 18m41

In the next section I was becoming conscious that the 3m45 per km was not feeling as easy as I would like. Breathing was fine but it wasn't ticking over quite as easy as I would like. I was also conscious that I was sitting in a group and not really doing any of the work. I don't believe that running at the front was physically that much harder, even though there was some wind. It is more that it is mentally much more easy to sit and follow someone oppose to set the pace (which was some reason felt a real responsibility).

In this section there was a 180 degree turn which meant we turned to face the wind. Here I decided I would take a turn to lead the group. I continued to lead us out of the city and down the river Amstel. This was an exposed piece of the course with a tail and cross wind. We discussed in the group that we should try and stick together. We would turn around and run back up the river and therefore into a head wind in a few kilometers and so having a group would make life easier for all.
10 - 15km : 18m42

I wish these guys had kept up...

As a group we continued to run down the river. Was certainly feeling a bit difficult and even though I pushed harder we were only just managed to maintain the pace. I took the lead of the group again and we managed to maintain the pace. The runners kept asking "still 3m45 pace?", the answer was unfortunately yes. I guess they were starting to struggle a little bit too. I led the group all the way down to the bridge, where we crossed the river and turn backed into the headwind. Over the bridge I dropped the whole group, without even trying. I looked back and I had put 5 meters into them just going up a small ramp and going 50 meters or so. This wasn't good. I really had to think about what to do here. Do I slow down, merge back into the group and work our way up the river with protection from the wind. Or do I go it alone, take a bit of a risk and accept that the clowns behind me were just not cut out for the sub 2h40 pace we were running.

Having towed them from the past 2km or so I decided it was time to go alone, whilst I really wanted to work with a group, I felt that these runners were probably going to hinder me more than help me.
15 - 20km : 18m54

This was hard work running up the river on my own. I concentrated on a few of the runners ahead of me, which I seemed to take past with relative ease. It seems that already some runners were starting to struggle with the early pace that had been set.

I had spent the whole of this section concentrating on getting off of the river and back into the relative shelter of the buildings in the city. At around 25km the river was over and we passed under a tunnel which had lots of supporters. A bit of posing for the crowd really lifted my spirits. Apologies to the wife and Mrs. A who I totally missed here...they had apparently walked a full 4km to get there :-)
20 - 25km : 18m48

I spent this section trying to reel in a couple of runners who were running together and seemed to be working well. It was a real push to catch them, but catch them I did.

I love running...

I also saw my friend Donnino out on the course, he ran along with me for 200m, we had a bit of a laugh, I was telling him how good looking he was and that he aroused me...the crowd thought this was very funny and gave me another energy boost.
25 - 30km : 18m39

Having caught the two runners ahead I had to spend 2-3 minutes composing myself. I wanted to work with the 2 runners but I had expelled a lot of energy getting to this point.

Once recovered I moved to the front. At this point I realised that the group of two had not been working together at all, in fact one runner had been towing the other and now that I joined the group the second runner was dropped pretty quickly.

So we were back down to two and we were running strongly together. My Garmin watch had decided to freeze on the battery life screen so I no longer had any feedback on the pace. I knew we were running strongly.
30 - 35km : 18m44

I had to resist the desire to push on during the last 5km, I felt strong but it was still too early to do anything silly.

We got to 37km and the wheels were still rolling. I said to the other runner "we've done it, we've made it to the end". Whilst this was maybe quite premature, but with a little over 3 miles to go I knew even if it unravelled from here we were on for a good time.

He responded "I'll race you over the last 5km". When we promptly sped up.
35 - 40km : 18m23

No, I really love running...it's so much fun

All a bit of a blur, I knew I was passing runners. I knew my back and lungs were tightening up and that I was starting to feel a little like vomiting. But I passed the 40km marker in under 2h30. Too tired to work out the maths at this point, but I certainly wasn't content with "just" a sub 2h40 and I knew if I finished strong I would break by some margin.

Kept on pushing through "the zombie zone", lots of runners falling apart and for a change I wasn't one of them!

Before I knew it I was in the track in the Olympic stadium, I felt at home back on the track where I had done so much of my training in the build up.

Never had I felt like that at the end of a marathon still pushing hard all the way to the finish line.
40 - Finish : 8m06
Result : 2h37m47

Some interesting facts about this run.

1) My Dad predicted my race result as 2h37m48, 1 second over my actual time...he of little faith.

2) When you put 2h37m47 into the Macmillian pace calculator it suggests you should be able to run a 16m12 5km (which is incidentially my current PB)

3) I ran a negative split, Kevin ran a negative. We got quite drunk after the race.

4) Emily and Mrs A must've walked at least 8km whilst spectating...

Massive congratulations to the Armstrong brothers on fantastic performances and to the wives for coming and spectating. An endurance sport in its own right.

Everyone loves finishing in an empty stadium...it makes you realise truly how rubbish you are.