First Marathon

22 October, 2010
marathon, race, running

So the day came! The weather was good and I felt great. I was a bit worried for my knees.

Partners Come and Go

I was supposed to run together with a collegue, but his mobile broke so we couldn't find each other. Luckily my brother-in-law had promised to come and asist me during the run. He handed me gels and took some video of me running .. it felt very good to have him on the side line cheering me on.

During the first 5k I saw a friend of mine (Katja) and I decided to stay near her while "getting warm". To my suprise she ran at the same tempo as I had planned, I think her plan was to go for the same tempo the whole way, mine was to run the first half slower than the second. I told her that i properbly would leave her when the first half was over, but she ramped up her speed to match the speed I had planned for .. this was not my doing .. I told her to go for her own speed, but I really enjoyed talking to her while running ;)

Then at about 23k we stopped so that her husband could take a few pictures of us. He had some trouble so we stayed there fore what felt like 2 minutes before we moved on and at 25k she had to stop and walk for a while .. at this point I still felt strong and was fealing really good about the pace (avg 5:40) but was ready to ramp up the speed a bit.

The Pain!

Then my back started to hurt, at first it was just an annoyance, but after a few kilometers I was forced to walk a few 100 meters. I forced my self to run again and was able to run about 300 meters before I had to walk again. This pattern I followed the rest of the race, about 12-15k ;( The last split from 30.6 to 42.2 took me 1:26:44.

I did complete the full marathon!

When I entered the stadium where the finish line was I noticed an elderly man running a few 100 meters in front of me. I decided to try to reach the finish line before him .. I always try to finish by a sprint. I passed him 50 meters from the finish line, but as soon as I ran past him he sped up to regain his position .. and then the devil came into me and I ran with all that was left and finished just ahead of him. I feel a little bad about it now .. like I stole his thunder or something.

The final result was 4:23:41. An ok first marathon result but still I'm a bit disappointed. On the positive site: my knees did not complain at all!