18 November 2011 (Fitness)

Words: Mike Sheridan 

There's nothing like a rainy marathon to violently ram some humility down your throat. Having ran 100 kilometres under the midnight sun of The Arctic Circle in July, I went on a bit of a lazy buzz. Now, granted for me a lazy buzz is four odd runs a week, varying between nine and fifteen miles. But I didn’t have the fear, so was sleepwalking through training and basically just keeping the vast amount of chicken curries I consume off my gut. It was a sorry state of affairs, truth be told, but I had the Ultramarathon in Adak done, so was finding it difficult to motivate myself for JUST 26 miles. I figured I could try to go sub 3.10, which is what my frequent training partner, Ash, was suggesting. I had bashed out a 3.13 in Kildare in May, having ran 10 miles the previous day, and could've smashed 3.10 with the proper prep - but still a solid personal best given I was training more for distance.

Anyhow, times were never something I paid much attention to in training until I got a Garmin 410 and measuring my heart rate became important. On the lead up to the Ultra in Sweden a run of 15-19 miles was considered a fairly short one, and I was banging them out four or five days a week. Serious mileage because the fear of not finishing the race hung over me and ultimately drove me on. I think I knew, several marathons in, that no matter what happened during the race - cramp, injury etc - I could finish the marathon, so was contemplating simply pacing my friend who was running her first marathon. "No," Ash told me, "Gun it". So I did, and have never blown up so spectacularly in a race before in my life. Sticking with the 3.15 pacers was fine for the first 15 miles or so; I was taking on water regularly and had stuffed a couple of Viper Boost gels in my pocket for an added kick. A couple of miles after the halfway mark I started tasting salt in the back of my throat - not good. Normally when you're at the point during a run when you've stopped sweating then it's probably too late to even take on water. I had been taking on fluids throughout the race and couldn't figure out why I was struggling. This was when I started trying to figure out what I'd tell people as I stopped and started walking for the first time in a marathon; you really do start to question everything at that point when trying to digest the disappointment yourself. It was like a sledgehammer of humility repeatedly hitting me in the head. It was also the first time that I'd done a race where I had a lot of friends and family dotted around the course, and not just someone waiting for me at the finish line. It was a really horrible feeling; but I think I really needed to fail (if you could call 3.35 failing) to refocus and figure out what I'm trying to do - which is a series of crazy type races that few other people have done.

To recap Sweden quickly, it was an exhilarating experience in a beautiful, exotic place. Ash and I stuck together through the entire thing, and crossed the finish in joint seventh spot at 11 hours and 50 minutes. When the adrenaline left me (literally minutes after said crossing of finish line), I realised just how much pain I was in - as my foot had swollen up during the race like a balloon. The rain had pelted down nonstop throughout the night (we started at 10pm) and my feet were full of blisters and as a result affected my running style. On the course people were dropping like flies, but our conservative pace of about 10 minute miles kept us feeling strong. With about 18 miles to go the pain in my foot became unbearable when I stopped at check points, so we upped the pace to 8 minute miles when we could and finished very strong (then almost collapsed). So you'd forgive me for thinking that a marathon would be a piece of piss, right?

Speed sessions in (the multiple award winning) One Escape aside, I hadn't really trained the way I should have and I paid the price in pain. Lesson learned. Next up? I've already signed up for a 100 mile, belt buckle race in the UK on March 3rd. Yep; chemical imbalance is still in check.