As the previous marathon post said, I was not planning to run a marathon in 2023. A busy year with the start of residency, finishing a book manuscript and regular family and work life seemed enough already. Yet, in early August, at the end of our summer holidays, I started to think what if... So I picked one of the latest marathons of the season which was reasonably close and still big enough for a runner with my pace. It ended up being the Frankfurt marathon. With its flat course, 6,5 h time limit (which I thankfully don't need but still!), more than 13000 runners, and 6 hours from our house, it seemed like an appropriate goal.
Training this time around
- I made a 13-week training schedule myself, adapting a few previous schedules and some from the internet. I thought I needed to make it myself as I had fewer weeks to train than most schedules on the internet AND working evenings/nights AND a one-week trip to Norway coming up. I followed it for 10 weeks and then discovered a Belgium app called Trenara which I used for the last 3 weeks. Whereas my original plan didn't include intervals and tempo runs (pure laziness, regular marathon training seemed hard enough), I did some intervals with Trenara. It had also more KM in the end than I originally intended to do.
- I ran mostly in the evenings after our little girl was already asleep. She is pretty clingy to me now and I want to spend as much of my free time with her as possible. I also wanted this training period to be easier on our family than the previous one. I did the 24K long run on a Sun morning and 2 shorter 12-16K runs on a few Saturdays, so those were the only times my husband needed to back up. I ran the longest 32K when my parents-in-law were over and caring for her.
- On the contrary to the previous time around, I had some digestive troubles with the supplements this time (a switch to Maurten was a solution) and experienced some pain in the left hip when I was increasing the mileage faster. I went to a sports physiotherapist quickly and it turned out to be nothing harmful, but coming from the fact that the muscles around the left hip are less trained and the left hip is compensating too much. She did some tricks to have the pressure taken away and gave me some exercises for the hip. I saw the sports physiotherapist again 3 days before the race and he said that nothing is needed before the race as some stiffness would be protective for the race. He was right, the hip didn't bother me at all!
- I managed to keep myself to about 90% of the training plan despite the pitfalls previously mentioned. Some trouble was caused by a heat wave in September (!) and of course the trip to Norway.
- No extensive post-long run blues like last time, really maybe only once. Maybe I fuelled better?
The race
- It was there, the Race Day. We traveled to Frankfurt the day before yesterday, visited the expo to get the starting number, the stash (nice things: a sports towel, 2 Maurten gels, 2 oat bars, water, a 0.0 beer, some commercial things), and ate at the pasta party (one meal and 3 drinks were included). Bring the cash though, so you don't need to walk all over to find it. All was very well organized. We slept at a hotel very close by so we had a relaxing evening with a sports drink and chocolate and tried to have an early night.
- After restless sleep and the clock falling back 1 hour, it was 7 AM and time to get up. We ate at the hotel (white bread and buns with jam, black coffee, and a banana plus one to go) and killed some time before going to the race. The start was scheduled for 10:10 and I could even have gone there later, as I was waiting a long time until it was time to go. As it was supposed to rain most of the time, I was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt, shorts, long compression stockings, and a cap for the run.
- I was attempting to run a sub-5 marathon. I thought I could do all the KM under 7 min/km, while running the first 15 km with an HR under 165 bpm, the next 15 km between 165-170 bpm and let the HR get higher for the last 12 km. I managed this for 5 km, but then the HR went up to 168-169 and I decided that as I was feeling ok, I would leave it at that. During the Amsterdam marathon, my HR was around 151 bpm for 20 km... But it wasn't windy either then. It definitely felt harder from the beginning and I didn't have that runner's high or flying feeling at all.
- I somehow managed to get extra 400 m on my Garmin right at the beginning (GPS getting confused with the skyscrapers?) and later gained some 250-300 m despite trying to run very close to the blue line that marked the most economic route. This was frustrating as I was hitting km adequately only to see that the km posts really came later.
- Fuelling: the nutrition was very adequate on the track, water and sports drink every 5 km and from 20 km on more frequently even. I think you could run it without your own nutrition along. I had 1100 ml sports drink with hydro tablets in it (AMACX) and Maurten gels (on 7, 14, 21, 28, 35 km, the last one with ). I also took a Dextro glucose tablet at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 39, 40, 41K. So I really only took water from the nutrition posts (and one gel they handed) but that might be for the best if you are not used to what they are providing.
- First 10 K I wasn't sure I could make my goal, then the next 10 K were hard again. It started to rain heavily from around 18 K and continued right to the end. So so much rain... From 20 K I saw that I could make it. Despite the 4h59m pacers having passed me at first, I passed them at around 35K (I think they were running the first half quicker than the last half) and then tried to gain speed as I could do it HR-wise (I was around 167-168-bpm for the last 12 K). And then it was 40 K and time to give it all you have! I ran through the Messe-hal with a huge smile. I've made it!
Recovery
- My legs were very wobbly right after and hurt badly. My husband waited for me, we returned the chip (on the second floor, what are you thinking??) and got to the hotel so I could take off all the clothes that were soaking and have a warm bath. I ate, lay down for 30 minutes and we went off for dinner (delicious ramen!). All of Frankfurt was filled with people who could barely walk :-)
- 1 day out of the marathon: I have not slept great (it is hard to settle!) but my legs hurt less than I thought, although the stairs are bad still. I will try to keep high on carbohydrates to prevent the sluggish feeling I had last time around. More water and more carbs...
What would I have done differently?
- More interval runs in the training! There really is no excuse for that.
- If I need to see a physiotherapist just before the race, do it a week in advance.
- Now it is the time to get faster, I feel I'm stuck at this tempo and it annoys me (although I have definitely won over a minute per km from where I was coming just post-pregnancy). I hope to be training with a PT upcoming months to solve this puzzle on how to go further.