My first marathon!

This weekend I ran my first marathon, here is my humble attempt to write a race report...

During friday it was very windy and cold, I left work looking at the sky thinking about tomorrows run and how I would cope with strong headwind... didn't like the thought...

I checked the weather forcast and according to it the wind should be about 7 m/s, and the temperature around 0°C. Not bad, not great

Went over my checklist (amazing how many things one has to consider) made everything ready and spent the night at friends house playing Risk (strategy game)... didn´t win a single game so I decided that in the spirit of karma that all my good karma was building up for tomorrow.

It was 1am when I got home and I decided to add some songs to the running playilist on my ipod... but then something horrible happened.... all the music had dissapeared from my ipod... no idea how that happened, but meant I had to start from scratch putting in music... not my favorite thing at 1:30... it might sound easy, but my problem is that I have such an extensive collection of music that it is hard to find the right music... Ended up creating 5 playlists, all very different in nature... I always like to choose on the spot what to listen to, according to my mood.

Went to sleep at half past 2, which gave me 5 hours of sleep... I had slept well for the two previous nights so that was fine. Uncharacteristicly (wow... is that a word) I woke up at the first beep of my alarm clock and started getting ready. Had my Herbalife protein shake for breakfast and started putting things in my backpack, making the sjake to dring at the half way mark etc...

When I finally looked outside the sight was breathtaking... clear sky, sun shining and almost no wind... That lifted my spirit immensly and I drove off to the race start. The race number were to be distributed there half an hour before the start.

Got my race number (955) and started snapping pictures of runners collecting their numbers, organizers setting up heaters, the tent, the finishline, the clocks, markings etc... incredible guys the organizers... so many things to do, so few of them, and all volunteering... My biggest thanks to them!! Had a great conversation with couple of runners and orgaizers, everybody being so supportive and encouraging. I turned out to be the onlyone running my first marathon there and those I spoke to were all very happy about having a young person coming in to the sport from the outside (not from the tracks or any sports club).

After a great pre race speach, we gathered at the starting line. I decided to put on Gavin DeGraw, lets make it clear that I am not a fan of his... just fitted the mood very well. Easy enough so that I would not go out too hard.

We counted down and off we were... at second 3 my first problem arised... my watch showed my pulse to be 0... fantastic.... as I was quite sure I wasn't dead yet, I decided this had to be a failure... so the first 300 meters I kept trying to re-adjust the strap, getting the sensors moist... the other runners looked at the new guy like he had gone mad...

The group split in two right from the start and I decided to position my self in the slower group as per my strategy to go out slow... but in that group I kept having to break not to run into the guys around me and I wasted alot of energy trying to go slower so I decided to go to the side find my own slow tempo and see where it would take me... well... it took me to the other group that now had stretched out quite nicely so I placed my self there... only one guy in front of me and he kept increasing the gap, so I didn't have to worry about him, then a group of 5-6 runners quite closely behind me.

At the 3km mark my hip started to hurt... great I thought... is this going to be the case today (sometimes I get these bad, bad, hip pains) at the 4km mark my left ankle started hurting (another regular) and I thought that at this rate I would be in pieces by the first turnaround... ahh... yes... better explain... the course was out and back two times... so each stretch was 10.5km and we ran it twice out, twice back...

Then at the 6km mark something very nice happened, all my pains just dissapeared... I looked at my pulse, steady 158... easier than my training runs... everything was going great... so I just kept running. The course took us to the sea, and it looked incredible in the morning sun, with a clear blue sky... I wish I had ran with the camera to share those amazing sights... well, I just felt so amazing running there and the music changed to a little faster 3 doors down but I checked regularly my pulse to make sure I wasn't going far beyond 165 and I wasn't, most of the time I was running a slow and steady 155-158. What did worry me a bit was that my splits were to quick... I was running at a 5:10 per km tempo and that was rather fast... but I was feeling great, relaxed, not in pain, lungs and heart felt fresh so I just kept at it.

My 10km split was 52 minutes... not bad, my turnaround split just under 55 minutes... pretty happy happy about that. At the 11km mark I changed my music into Bueno Vista Social Club- Rythmos del mundo where they play with some great bands like Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys etc... take there hits and make it into these latino swing songs... amazing stuff and I flew... the km marks just flew along, and I was running the same tempo and feeling good the whole way. On the way back there was a lot of running groups on the course and people taking a weekend walk... people walking their dogs etc. And while running past, especially the run groups they would step aside and cheer me on, that felt so great and I had a huge grin on my face the whole time, thanking every single person. Then I was told I was in third place after 16km. That really shocked me and started to try to slow down... these guys I was running with were the best marathoners in Iceland, many ultra marathoners and a group that was going to the Boston marathon... If I was going faster than them, I was doing something wrong.

I came to the finish line and turning point in 1:47 which is actually an improvement of my half marathon time by 5 minutes. Jumped into the tent to get my self a Herblife shake drank as much as I could and jumped out again, having lost one runner in front of me, joking with the volunteers... which were simply amazing... One of them, an experienced runner, told me to keep up the fast pace as long as I could, just go for it on the third stretch, because the fourth one would always be hard and there the real work would begin...

So I did, I managed to run around 5:10 pace to the 26km mark and there I saw something fantastic, my family was there, waiting, cheering runners on... it was so great to see them, my little brother came running to me telling me to keep going... it was so great, especially since at that time I felt my legs stiffening up... seeing them kept my pace up for a while but by the 27km mark I was slowing down considerably running a 6:00 pace. At the turning point (31.5km) I had lost a group of four runners past me and no matter what I tried I just couldn't keep up with them. At the turning point I saw my family again... that lifted my spirit again and I changed my music into a much more energetic and happy music in an attempt to get up some rythm for the last 10.5km... but my legs had had it, I increased the turnover but my legs were so stiff and heavy that my steps brought me only a tiny bit forward each step... not good... My family dropped by the course two more times and I told them this was going to be long, long last kilometers... they cheered me on and I kept moving forward, kept loosing runner after runner past me. Each time I tried to keep up, but in vain.

One thing I must say is that all the runners were so supportive as they ran past they would talk to me, tell me to keep going, that I was doing good etc. Really great, something you don't find in other sports (that I know of). When I got to the last drink station at 36km or there about. I asked for water (was going to have my last energy gel), but seeing the state I was in one of the volunteer (again, an experienced marathoner), shook a bottle of coke and gave it to me, probably 300ml of coke, but my god, those were the best 300ml of my life. I didn't get faster but I felt much better and my head got back into the game.

I knew I was well of pace from my first 3 rounds but I had been hoping for a sub-4 hour finish and I started calculating... with 5km to go I had 37 minutes to go. So I kept at it checking my watch at every km mark and clapping my hands like an idiot every time I saw I was on target. with two km to go I had 16 minutes, or 8:00 minutes for each km... sounds so easy and simple, but at that time my left knee was burning and the blister I had developed on my pinky toe of my right foot had bursted so I was limping on both legs.

When I could see the finish line, around 500m off, I just became overwhelmed with joy, grinning like an idiot getting tears in my eyes. I saw my family and suddenly felt like sprinting, and sprinting I did... I ran the last 100m all out and finished in 3:57:58 sub-4 hour marathon, my first marathon... and what an amazing marathon it was.

I could barely stand in my feets as I wobbled inside the tent getting my slef cheese cake and waffles. Chatting with two girls from my swim club, sitting down, trying to walk again, sitting down, trying to walk, sitting down etc. Then there was the award ceremony and some lottery awards. There were 40% chances of winning the lottery awards (there were so many of them), but I knew before hand that I wouldn't win because for me I had already won something much, much, much more important... something that goes well beyond any finisher medal, any trophy or prize. I had finished my first marathon, I knew I could do anything...

Now it is monday, I have already gone to two night shifts (had to work that same night) where I had to walk the stairs of a 8 floors high building, 3 times... That was really, really painfull but I believe it helped recovery greatly as I am now feeling ok, stairs are not my friends at the moment, but I am ok, planning to go for a bike training, swim training and soccer training tonight, although I will not be doing the standing sprints in bike training, not doing the leg drills in swim training and I'll probably just stand in goal in soccer... but I'll be there, two days after a marathon... that's a victory, and I can't wait for my next marathon where I will try to go closer to the 3:30 time...