Yesterday I ran the Groningen marathon. I do not consider myself a runner. I’m a triathlete first and last, but when your home town hosts a marathon, I think you should run it at least once. The last marathon I ran (apart from marathons as part of an Ironman distance race) was in 2005. This was a rather painful disaster. In the early nineties I always used to run a marathon in September or October, fresh from the Almere classic distance triathlon (always in the last weekend of August). My personal best dates from that time: 3.05, Amsterdam marathon 1994. I was 33 then.
But because I like speed skating too, I changed to wintertriathlon to end my season. Unfortunately, the big long distance race I used to train for was changed into a short course race two years ago. No fun.
Of course, three weeks ago I raced Almere again (see previous blog). This was the World Championships Long Distance, with a 30 k. run. So I had completed at least one long run. I figured that this would set me up for a solid marathon. In the first week after 'Almere' I did a short recovery session on my PC’s each day, followed that up with three hour bike sessions (PC) on the two inbetween Saturdays and a 1.35 run on Sunday 14th. That was it: I was as ready as I could be.
The Groningen marathon is a small race, about 2000 competitors; of whom yesterday only 240 ran the marathon (the others ran a half marathon or a 10 k.). Anyway, I had a good start but felt right away that a new pr was not going to happen. Still, I kept my heart rate steady at 140-145 (80%) and ran 43.45 for the first 10k. After 21k (1.33.45) I felt pretty good, but because all the half marathon people had finished their race the streets were suddenly deserted. This was going to be a lonely race, but hey, that’s how I prefer it to be.
After 25 k. my legs were slowly ‘hardening’, especially my calves and quadriceps. This was to be expected because I hardly ever run more than 40 k. per week. Yes, I had to work harder to keep my speed up, but it was amazing how fresh I kept feeling. The ‘problem’ of course was not the aerobic engine (heart and lungs) but the pistons (the legs). In this respect its worth noticing that powercranks do a great job in strengthening your legs’ and increasing your endurance. The second half marathon took me 1.37. I finished 17th in 3.11.20, average heart rate 146. My third best marathon ever (of 35, including IM marathons). A pretty good way to end a pretty good season.
