Race Report - Sydney Marathon

So I decided to run a marathon, well actually decided is probably not the best term. Convinced is more accurate. After running the SMH Half Marathon one of my work colleagues was going to run it and somehow persuaded me it was a good idea.

Race day morning, it's a 04:45 wake up. The race doesn't start until 07:30 but I have a pathological need to be early. So early it was. Actually by the time you wait in line for the toilets being early is a necessity. I get to Milsons Point (start line) at 06:25 and warm up a bit. Yes I know that by the time I actually start running that there is negligible benefit. But it's my process of getting ready and knowing that I am feeling good on the day. 

How did I go? My marathon time was 3:34, not quite what I would have liked but still a reasonable time. But this doesn't tell the whole story. Going in to the race I didn't know what time I was going to run. I had decided that 3:00 was too quick since my half marathon PB was only 1:28. It is also a PB in the sense that that I have only raced a half marathon once. And about 3:30 was what I thought would be a reasonable time to run. 

Something that I seem to always do in a race is go out too hard. In fact I can't remember I ran a negative split. I know I have this problem and I know I need to fix it because invariably I spend a fair portion of the race struggling to stand up let alone run. This time I had a plan, I had a set of paces that I would attempt to hold in certain parts of the race. Well it was a plan for the first half of the race. Run the first 10 km at 4:25-4:30 pace and then the next 10 km at 4:20-4:25 pace and then hopefully finish faster than that.  Problem was I was feeling too good at the start my running was effortless, relaxed, smooth and quick. So quick in fact that I was particularly greedy in thinking that I could finish the marathon in under 3 hours. The 3:00 pacer was just too tempting a target to catch. It sat just 100m in front of me for the first 26 km of the race. I ran through the half marathon point at just over 1 min off my best time. Yes this was a recipe for disaster. 

26km came and went and then my groin decided that it wasn't going to play nice. No not one of the main running muscles, but a stabilising one. This was really problematic and probably highly amusing as I was trying to run in a straight line but one leg was going kinda crazy. This wasn't a massive problem to begin with but as a marathon can only do it brings out the worst in you. The bit that is giving you a reason that this is all too hard and that it is perfectly fine to give up. 

Running is just as much a mental battle as a physical one, especially at these distances and beyond. Those moments when rolling down the hill seems like a much better alternative to running (I didn't actually try this but was very nearly tempted) or you are too exhausted to have a mental breakdown. At the end of the day the most important thing is finishing the race, finishing what I start is something that I hold in high regard (the definition of start may be a little loose though) and really if I was silly enough to enter and to put myself in this position then well I have to be silly enough to finish :P.

Will I run another marathon? At the moment all the muscles in my body are saying no. But I know that I can do better and I want to do better so chances are I will be running another marathon in the not too distant future.  

A Sensible Choice of Units

I am a scientist, or at least I spend so much time pretending to be one that I may as well be one. One of my pet peeves are units, those things that go on the end of numbers and give them meaning, well only some units actually achieve this.

There are many systems of units in use today, read any news and you will be bombarded with weight in elephants (usually it doesn't specify whether this refers to the African elephant or its slightly smaller relative the Indian elephant), length in busses and volume in Sydney Harbours. The issue facing any unit is how big is it. It has to be well defined so that I can come along with my elephant and confidently say that it weighs 1.143 elephants. This really doesn't make sense so we have a collection of units, the Systeme International (it's French) which at he Metre convention became official global system of units.

So what are the SI units. Starting with the seven base units of Kilogram, Meter, Second, Candela, Kelvin, Mole and Ampere. From these units all other SI units can be derived from these. Those of you in the US and UK are now thinking yeah that's fine but what's wrong with miles and feet and pounds.

Firstly science is done in SI units because they are so much easier to work with. Let's say I run 10 000 m I know this is 10 km because the SI is a prefixed based system. I can also say I ran 10 000 000 mm or 0.01 Mm. With yards and miles you actually have to think. This is really useful for small measurements, the current generation of transistors are 22 nm, if we used inches we are looking at a millionth of an inch. If you are still not convinced we can compare this to the previous generation of transistors at 25 nm, or a millionth of an inch. Unless you want to write out all 6 figures you can't differentiate between the two.

Furthermore when giving the rise of a race feet is generally used, but miles is used for the distance. These are not comparable, and you have to convert to find the gradient. Using SI however you have kilometers and meters and you just need to move a decimal point 3 places. No calculators and minimal thinking involved.

SI is the system of units that has been globally accepted by Metrologists (people that measure stuff) as the standard global system because it is easy to work with. The imperial system is archaic and defined based on the SI units. So seriously, don't use it!

The Dream

There is a time every now and then, but not often enough when everything aligns correctly and your running is effortless. You feel like you are on top of the world and no trail is going to stop you. This is The Dream.

This past weekend I had one of those runs, my last long run before I run a marathon. I had some niggling injuries going into the weekend, and was very cautious about this run that I had planned, 30 km was the goal distance. If I could run that then I would be feeling relatively confident about being able to finish a marathon. I also threw in a few hills and plenty of trail running to keep things fun. My route ended up looking a lot like this:

Yes it is straight from Garmin Connect.

The first 5 km were a bit tentative but afterwards nothing was going to stop me, Even a building site blocking off the trail. I was running mostly 5 min kms where there was room to stride out, something even I was surprised about. Even at the end of the run I felt I could have gone further.

Hopefully I haven't peaked too early but this marathon is looking like it could be a good one