Vat_Man Tries The Marathon...

[vat_man]

Heh - that's pretty ordinary.

There was a marathon held in nothern NSW recently that had to make rapid alterations to the course because part of it was flooded overnight.

Basically, the event consisted of the competitors running about a mile behind a Toyota Landcruiser equipped with GPS plotting and making up the course as it went out from road maps and reports on what was flooded and what wasn't.

They got it done - probably the first marathon run where the course hadn't been finalised even as the runners were out on the course!

 

[Sage]

Woah! That's quite a, uh, predicament!

 

[ving]

strewth vatty!!!
I am tired just reading this!!

 

[miniMADness]

dear god, how anyone can run that much without stopping to walk is beond me! vat_man, you rock!

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Originally posted by vat_man
Okay, vat_man’s marathon report…

[snip]
It’s a pretty serious hill there, just at the back of Darling Harbour (Giles might remember it – it’s the ramp at the back of the Imax Theatre there).
[snip]
So, was it worth all the work and pain? Absolutely. Will I do another marathon? Absolutely. I’m planning to do three next year. Am I sore right now? Good god yes – yesterday at lunchtime I had a massage that would rate as the most painful hour of my adult life. I’m probably as sore today as I was yesterday, but with a little strength returning to my quads, so we’re progressing.

Just amazing. I’m rapt. Would have been nice to get under 3h30m, but given the conditions I’m very pleased with around 3h38-39m. I ran the whole way (well, apart from my pitstop at the ten km mark, but the alternative was wetting myself), and I finished well. Can’t wait to recover and get after a half marathon – but I’ll have to. They say it takes 4-6 weeks to recover properly from a marathon. Nuts.

Yeah, I remember that bridge - we had a fairly good view of it from our hotel. Some quite appalling lane discipline showed by the drivers on it, and we witnessed two accidents on it in the four days we stayed in Sydney!

Excellent write-up Vat. And it's cool that you're going to go on and do more running, rather than sitting back and atrophying after your immense achievement.

Good effort!

 

[Sage]

Not to hijack vat_man's thread, but a quick report on the meet yesterday:

While it was exactly the same course as last year, far fewer people got lost, thanks to people directing us who actually knew the course (though a few people still got lost, but oh well...).

Unfortunately, half-way through my race I developed the most horrible stomach cramp I have ever had - It extended from the right side of my stomach all away around my side. To add to that, my back also gave out and I got a headache. I forgot that the course was mostly tall, thick grass, which was a pain to run through, even though it helped to cushion my feet quite a bit (there is practically no useable cushioning in CC racing flats).

Anyway, I turned in an okay-but-not-totally-awesome 19:38, which was a 39 second improvement over my time from the course last year; I placed 16th overall in my category (Boys Junior Varsity).

I had an excellent finish though. Towards the end, my cramp and headache had gone away, so I was able to focus more on running... as I turned the corner to enter the final straight (a 150-yard sprint to the finish line), some kid from another school came from behind me, took the inside curve, and rammed his shoulder into mine (well, "rammed" is a bit of an exaggeration, but he did hit me with a fair amount of force). About 20 feet later, he was two or three body lengths in front of me, and we passed my coach, saying "Pass him Sage! Don't let him stay in front of you!". Boy, did that up my spirits - At that moment, I went fell throttle and sprinted like I was running from the devil himself. I passed him up with about 20 yards to go, and get on chugging and won over him by a pretty good margin. Wow, did that feel good!

 

[Vasco]

Congrats vat! Must've been really hard...I walked our 3km Cross Country try outs (well, about a quarter of it) as I got really tired after the first part. So did you buy the paper to see what you came and everything? (It had a few pages with everyone's name and time on it)

 

[vat_man]

Of course I did!