I threw in the towel after the 24th km mark today. I meant to go 30km. There is a lesson to learn for being an idiot.
The wise learn from their mistakes; fools repeat them. Am not sure which am I. After 7 marathons, I should know better. But this is a new mistake, so I hope to learn from it.
I took a new route after receiving the London Marathon registration pack. In it was the race route. So I decided to run part of it today.
The marathon route - 1st 6 milesWhat I didn't foresee was the distance that would be exceeded by doing this route. This means doing the extra miles without water, powergel, and isotonic drink until I reached home. I have used my house as a water/fuel station since the previous runs. But the extra came out to be 5km!
This worked out to be 15km in total without water or fuel into the body. No wonder I was knackered and anxious when I reached the Tower Bridge. The weather was great and the sun was strong. This further exacerbated the dehydration of the body.
I pushed on for another km and thought "enough is enough". I stopped and reduced to just walking. The watch registered 2hr 12mins.
I was at London Bridge and took a bus back to "base".
Training for a marathon is not only about building the mileage in time for the race. Today I have learned that it is also about listening to the body and learning what crap it can or cannot take. There are limits in all of us and each of us is different.
For me, the lesson is, never underestimate the consumption of water and gel during run. Two, is that 24km is my limit before the tank runs empty.
2 comments:
Good move to have listened to your body. I've made a costly mistake for pushing thro a training session2 days after a bad flu (I should have rested for 2 more days)during the final stage of 2006 Paris marathon bulid up. I did not recover fully since & I'd to work (heart) harder (6 beats per minutes more) to maintain 5min/k pace (From 149 to 155). As a result I lost pace after 35km mark & finished 13min outside my goal of 3hr35 (Boston qualifying time).
I always wear a water belt for runs lasting more than 1hr30 and drink every 30min or so to mimic actual race day drinking pattern so that the system (stomach) get use to the treatment.
BTW congrats for winning your Half marathon PR in Bath. Guess I can't even "smell your smoke" now when I do get a chance to run with you.
A lesson well learnt. Hope you get a better run the next time around..
I'm inspired with your determination and would definitely sneak into your blogspot more frequently from now..
Have a nice day..
Post a Comment