Speed or distance?
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Race Report - Valencia Marathon
Target: 3.24:59 or less
Result: 3.31:48
Pre-Race
I left my accommodation at about 7am for an 8:45am start. I'd checked the route the day before and it wasn't that long and took two metro lines with about 6 stops in total. However it seemed the metro was operating at a probably normal Sunday morning schedule with long waits for trains. Judging by the way staff were taking phone snaps of the large crowd waiting on the platform at the second metro they seemed surprised that there was loads of people using the most logical route to the start point. I wasn't too bothered as I figured it's chip timed so if I'm late it's not going to make a huge difference. Finding the lockers/bag drop and starting pen was a little confusing and could have benefited with more signage but the volunteers were helpful, friendly and calm so got there in the end with a bit to spare.
Race start
There wasn't really that long to wait in the pen. I'd got some dynamic stretches in before joining the pen and was probably somewhere in the middle. Before too long the front rows were moving and not long after that we were over the mats and the race was on. I was in the sub 3:46 pen based on my previous marathon time of 3:48. I could have pushed for the sub 3:31 pen based on HM times but figured there was no need as I wasn't using the pacers anyway and the roads looked pretty wide. Unfortunately the roads were packed with runners and I could not get up to my planned pace. Anytime I tried to cut through and get up to pace I was just getting blocked by another group. I'd planned a slower pace for the first 3 miles but planned to hit the 3 mile mark at 24:29. Instead it came in at 25:15 and I was nearly a minute down already. Not the best start.
After 3 miles I caught sight of pacers ahead. I thought briefly that they might be the 3:30 pacers but in fact they were the 3:45 pacers. I went past and tried not to think of the amount of time I needed to put in to them to hit my goal. At least now the road was opening up a bit and there was more space to get up to pace. The next two miles came in at 5 and 10 seconds slower than planned pace. I was feeling sluggish. I tried to push on slightly and got back on very slightly faster than pace in the next two miles. It was far too early to try to reclaim lost time by pushing hard but on mile 8 I had to stop for a pee. This seemed to take forever and cost me another 48 seconds. It was also the first time I'd ever had to stop like that in a race. This was not going to plan and I was leaving myself a lot to catch up on if I was going to get my goal time.
I should probably mention that I'd decided to use the Maurten 320 drink for this race. However I hadn't tested it in training. I had tested the gels and they seemed to work ok. At least they didn't seem to cause an issue. At the expo Maurten had a stand and a diagram for their suggested use of the product which involved taking one drink the day before and another 3 hours before the start of the race:
Each drink is 500ml. I'd also taken 200ml of dioralyte the morning of the race. This imo explained my need to stop at mile 8. However there was also another issue - my stomach wasn't happy. It wasn't in seriously bad shape - just uncomfortable. I'd been taken the gels every 4 miles. I took another at 8 miles just before the pit stop and miles 9 to 12 were about my best miles on the race very close to or under planned race pace. I was feeling better and the pace reflected that. At mile 12 I took another gel and my stomach let me know it didn't really like it. It was back to feeling uncomfortable again and I decided not to risk any more gels.
Miles 13-20
These more or less averaged out on pace - gaining a few seconds on some miles but losing a few on others. All through the race I just watched the lap screen and ran the current mile. On my lap screen I had lap distance, lap time, lap pace and number of laps completed. I mainly just looked at lap pace and noted the lap time at the end of each lap. While I wasn't doing mental maths I knew I hadn't made up anything near sufficient time to offset the time lost earlier on. My plan had been to stay steady until mile 23 and try to push on from there but now I was thinking I should try going earlier. Except I knew I couldn't as I was starting to tire and even holding on to current pace would be a challenge. At mile 20 a runner stopped to walk in front of me. His tshirt said Run '19 and this seemed appropriate. I fixated on another runner's tshirt which said "Don't think. Run!". That seemed like pretty sound advice.
Miles 21 to finish.
Instead of pushing harder after mile 20 I started going backwards losing 10 seconds off pace and then 20. Hitting mile 23 I knew I had to take another pit stop and again it seemed to take forever. Another minute down. Back into the race and I was into the last few miles. The legs didn't respond to any requests to pick up the pace except that I wasn't losing as many seconds as previously. The last 0.6 of a mile into the finish was back on pace.
While I had displays set up on the watch for heart rate and overall distance and pace I never looked at them during the race so it was only at the end that I saw my time.
I knew I wouldn't get the goal time but was disappointed not to break 3:30 and was feeling very "meh" trotting through to collect the medal and post race goodies. It was that feeling of taking an exam you thought you'd prepared well for except to get questions that didn't suit you. These though were self-inflicted issues that could well have been avoided.
When I got over my sulking 😄 and sat down a few days later to look through the race there was a lot of positives to pull from it. Take out the pit stops and I'm easily sub 3:30. Take out the stomach discomfort and there's probably another couple of minutes clawed back. The marathon beast has not been tamed yet and once again I've a result where I should have done better but there's a few more lessons learned on what to do and what not to do. And there's a lot that worked well on the day. In terms of running gear the vest top and club shorts both worked well, the decathlon flip belt was a disaster as I was spinning it around like a hula hoop trying to find an opening to take gels from, the 250ml decathlon flask worked well and the sunglasses were comfortable and did a good job. One thing that surprised me was how non-sweaty I was at the end. I'm usually a soggy mess after an hour running at home but running at the lower relative humidity in Spain was a different experience. In all the weather conditions were perfect. The only time I felt it warm was when we were tightly cramped at the start. The course was also really flat and ideal for consistent miles. It took until after half way for the HR to get out of zone 2 and it only got above the high 150s towards the end.
It's back to the drawing board with regards to nutrition though both in terms of what to use and how to properly test it. But that's for another day.
I enjoyed a few beers and some grub with @corcaigh07 and @Itziger and some others we got talking to. Good craic there. My stomach finally returned back to normal the following day while waiting for the plane home. 😶
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