Maningrida Marathon Part 2- The Race

As we live in remote NT, the weather here is quite tropical with temperatures only dropping to about 26 degrees Celsius at night and humidity of anywhere from 85-95%. Because of this we made the decision to start the marathon at 3:00am, with the hope of everyone being finished at 9:00am.

I made sure to lay out everything I would need the night before, and I woke up feeling relaxed and as ready as possible. When I arrived at the start line I packed a spare set of clothes just in case the predicted thunderstorms arrived, as well as some sports drink into the car that would be following us. After a very tough 32km the week before at 4min:1min intervals, I made the decision to drop back to 1:1 intervals with the hope of sustaining that pace for the whole race.

Ready to go at the start line!

We lined up at the start line and with the Rocky song playing in the background, we began the Maningrida Marathon. I dropped behind the group quite quickly because of my intervals but as we were running several loops of an out and back course, I knew I would be seeing everyone again. It was pitch black so I took the first 12k out and back loop just to enjoy my surroundings and be appreciative for the chance to run. As I began my the 16k loop I put on some music to keep myself motivated. The sun still hadn't quite risen, and the temperature was still sitting at around 26 degrees. At about the 17k mark I stopped to refill my Camelbak with cold water, and passed off my headlamp, as it was now light. I was beginning to feel a little flat at the 8k turn around, when I heard a loud siren behind me. Not knowing what it was, I moved to the side of the road and waited. I eventually realised it was the town firetruck and began to panic, wondering why it was here, chasing me with its sirens on. As I turned around, the driver put out over the P.A, 'WELLLCOOOMMME TO THE 2014 MANINGRIDA MARATHON. IF YOU NEED SOME WATER JUST LET ME KNOW, I HAVE 40,000 LITRES' This was just the pick me up I needed, it was genuinely a real laugh out loud moment. I waved to the people in the truck and began my way back for my final loop.

One of my mantras for a mid-run pick me up!

The final loop was to be 14km, and I was starting to feel it. I had managed to snag an icy pole and refill my Camelbak with water at about the 22km mark, and I knew as soon as the watch hit 35.2km it would be time to turn around and finish it off. I had also grabbed a cold towel filled with ice, which was amazing as the temperature was nearing 30 degrees a this point. When I turned around with 7km to go, I was in struggle town. It was hot, I was tired, and I was barely moving at a shuffle. I turned the music up even louder and began to belt out songs at the top of my lungs.

With about 3km to go, I was lucky enough to have one of the support crew come and run alongside me. He told me stories about the other runners and kept me distracted until the finish line was in sight. At that point we had about 500m to go and he told me to run by myself and finish strong. I sprinted (well at least, I tried to) towards the finished line. I was amazed to see a crowd of 10 people waiting for me to finish with a finish banner stretched across the road. As I broke the banner I couldn't believe I had done it! I was led to an ice bath and everyone was congratulating me and hugging me. It was honestly the best feeling ever!

Cooling off in the ice bath

As I sat down in the ice bath, I was surprised to see the two head runners of our running group presenting us with medals, congratulating us on completing the second Maningrida Marathon. I was honestly blown away by the amazing support on the course. Without the support of my #maningridarunners buddies I would have never been able to complete this amazing feat. They were there for me every long run, every 3am, 4am, 5am start. Throughout the whole marathon they were there with ice and cold water and towels and anything else I could have needed. They erected motivational signs all along the course and never once complained when we needed someone to run with us to get us through a tricky mental block.

Celebrating with my fellow marathoners!

I appreciate that people want to run a big marathon for their first, but for me, my first marathon of 3 people was just perfect. I would not trade it for any other race in the world. It was such a special day and I will hold the memories from this close to my heart forever.

What was your first race experience like?

Ash :)

Maningrida Marathon Part 1- How I came to be racing the Maningrida Marathon!

Ok so this one will take a bit of explaining! I hadn't mentioned it because it wasn't an 'official' marathon. As I have mentioned before I live in the bush. I mean, middle of nowhere. My closest city is an 8 hour drive, and the closest marathon would probably be a three day drive or minimum $800 in flights plus the fact as a teacher I can't really get time off aside from school holidays.

Anyway, a couple of years ago my running group created in informal Maningrida Marathon, and this year we decided to revive it. 3 of us ran the whole thing, with other members of the running group joining us for company along the way. We had all been training together, and 5 of the 7 have a marathon coming up over the Christmas holidays, but the other 2 people had been following the training plan along with us. It seemed like a waste to not run a marathon after all the training, so that's when the decision was made to resurrect the Maningrida Marathon. Basically we just 42.2km on the road leading out of town and members of the running group/friends and family act as volunteers with all the marathon essentials. I had wanted to give the full marathon distance a crack before Dopey, so I decided to join in too. So that is the background story of how I came to be running a marathon at about 2 weeks notice.

I had a back to back 16km and 32km last week and I absolutely suffered through it. I felt like I just couldn't go on. So even up to the night before of the marathon I was never 100% I would make it the whole way. I was just going to turn up and give it a crack, and even better, there were no entry fees so there was no stress if I wasn't feeling strong enough to finish. I really didn't want to risk injury but I did want to give myself a chance to build some confidence, and as my Galloway training program has me running a full marathon in two weeks anyway, I decided to switch it around so I could join my running group!

Feeling like death after 32 hot and sweaty kilometres. 

I will be recapping the marathon in the next couple of days!

Cheers,

Ash.

Week 16 of Dopey Challenge and the big scary 17 miler!

Well. 17 miles (27.2 km for us metric peeps). If I had to choose one word to sum it up, it would probably be SOUL-CRUSHING, I am pretty sure if I use a hyphen it only counts as one word.

Maybe not soul crushing, but enough to make me feel like I am not good enough. I am not a natural runner, and after a bad long run, a seed of doubt begins to flower in my head. Not a beautiful flower either, an ugly 'YOU ARE TOO SLOW AND RUBBISH FOR A MARATHON'  flower. That is a bad flower. So I was feeling a bit deflated after my run, but talking to my running group buddies, this is not an uncommon feeling. So I think even though I am allowed to feel a bit disappointed that it didn't go as planned, the important things are to learn some lessons and not make those mistakes again! Here is a bit of break down of the run.

Kilometer 0-13.5 I was feeling awesome. Better than awesome. I was sure I was positively going to dominate this run.

Kilometer 13.5-21 Maybe not awesome, but still feeling pretty damn good. I was feeling strong and happy and glad to be out running.

Kilometer 21-24 Still feeling pretty good, and thinking that this 24 kilometers felt a lot easier than last fortnight's long run of 24 kilometers.

Kilometer 24-27.2 The wheels fell off. I could barely lift my feet. They were aching and I was hot, thirsty and hungry. It didn't matter how much water I drank I was still thirsty and I felt like it was never going to finish. But then it did. So, yay me!

Although it's easy to whinge about about a rubbish run, I am hoping I can take a few things away from this.

1) I need to run earlier. Even though I started at 5am, where I live it is just too hot to still be running after 8, so now I am doing longer runs I might need to start at 4am. Even though 4am is gross.

2) I need to work out my fuelling strategies. Just because 1 packet of chews works in a half marathon, doesn't mean it will carry me over 28km. Take more chews/gels/something to keep me fuelled the whole way.

3) Try wearing compression socks on a long run and see if it helps with the aching feet.

4) Be happy that I completed my long run. Not every long run can be awesome, and if they all were, everyone would do it and there would be no glory in a marathon.

Any tips on how to pick myself back up after a crappy long run?

Ash :)

Week 14 of Dopey Training

Back to back no. 2 done! With a 10.5 km run walk on Friday (1:2) and a 24km run walk (1:1) on Saturday, it is fair to say I am starting to see what Dopey is all about. I was lucky enough to be on holidays in Darwin this week, so I had some new scenery to enjoy on my long runs, which definitely made it easier!

Some amazing views from this weeks long run.

I was feeling pretty good in my 24 km, aside from some nasty arch pain in my right foot. Although probably not the smartest idea, I was too stubborn to stop so I just kept pushing through. The past couple of days have been filled with icing, anti inflams and rolling on my beloved spikey ball. I am hoping an additional rest day and my smart recovery strategies will have it feeling strong again in no time. Having said that, I am hoping it is not something more serious because I have trained too hard to quit now!

The run walk method made the km's tick by quickly, and aside from the 89% humidity, I actually really enjoyed my runs. They give me such a feeling of accomplishment and I really enjoy the alone time just to think. I feel like the 10km the previous day didn't have much an influence on how I felt running the 24km, but I didn't feel like I could have run a marathon a day after the 24km. Right now all my training has felt pretty bearable, but I am preparing for a few tough runs in the coming months of training. Seeing numbers like 32, 36 and 42km training runs is really scary.

Do you have any advice for arch pain? How do you cope with injury in a training cycle?

Ash :)

Dopey Training Update- First back to back run weekend!

This past weekend was a momentous one, my FIRST BACK TO BACK training weekend for Dopey. The plan called for 4 miles on Saturday and then the big 13 on Sunday. While slogging away on Sunday, a thought crossed my mind. While looking at my training plan, I always look at the big picture. In that regard, this weekend's past back to back run was nothing. I mean, nothing! I need to double these distances just to get an idea of the epicness that is the Dopey Challenge. But then I had an epiphany!

I almost ran the equivalent to Dumbo Double Dare, or Glass Slipper (runDisney challenge races which involve 10k and half on Saturday and Sunday) this weekend! That is awesome! Just because this weekend's runs were small in the big picture, they are still big achievements. It is pretty easy to get caught up and always look to the next week, and bigger run, but sometimes its fun to stop and enjoy an accomplishment, even if it is just a step to towards the bigger picture.

It was running gear central at my house on Saturday night!
It meant I was up on Sunday at 5:15am, ready to go!

As for my run, the mental game begins now. I have never ran 13 miles for 'training' in my life, normally this past weekend would have been race time. Physically I know I can keep running, but mentally it is really hard to see numbers like 15, 17 and 20 followed by the words miles on a training plan. Swap the miles for km, and sure no problem! And this weekend was also the beginning of more back to back runs, but hey- if I did this weekend, I am sure I can do a few more!

A very happy camper with 13 miles in the books!

How is your training going? Do you have a big race coming up?

Ash :)

We have to share the running love!

Okay, just to make this clear I will give you a bit of background. I am not a sleek looking runner with brand name gear and world record pace. I am more of a uncoordinated elephant plodding along, but a very happy and self assured elephant. I honestly couldn't give a two hoots what other people think of me when they see me running my awesome Galloway intervals and stopping to pull out my wedgie. Such is the life of a runner, and in this case a slow and happy runner.

But when you ask about my upcoming races and I tell you about 1/2 marathons on consecutive weekends and my new obsession, the Dopey Challenge, DO NOT ASK ME IF I THINK I WILL FINISH.

Of course I think I will finish! I am blindly optimistic. And barring some horrific injury, I WILL FINISH! I cannot afford to be thinking negatively 5 months out from the event. All I can do is train my little heart out and hope for the best. So when sometimes tells you about their crazy 150 mile ultra, don't ask them 'Do you think you will finish?' because I guarantee you, that they would much rather hear you say '150 miles! You will smash it!'. A little positivity goes a long way people, so hand it out at every opportunity you get!

Generally speaking, I am one happy chappy!

What's the best thing someone has told you before a race?

Ash :)

The wise Garmin knows all.

While on my 7 mile (11.2km) training for RunDisney's Dopey Challenge, I found myself with a lot of time to just think. As I plodded along, I found myself feeling stronger and stronger with each passing kilometer. Now in no way am I complaining about this, but in my experience I am a runner who doesn't really get into the groove of my run until about the 7-8km mark. This is one reason why I really struggle with a 5k, just as I start to feel like I am finding a comfortable rhythm, the race is over. And last year in my maiden half marathon voyage I copped a second half split (10km-end) of 1:11, which is actually 6 minutes faster than my 10km PR. Weird hey?

Anyway, my very wise Garmin obviously records a variety of information, and mostly I am just checking my overall pace/km to check I am still working with RunDisney cut off time (which I am- WAHOOOOO). Today I though I would have a little look at my splits per interval (on a long run I use 1:1 Galloway intervals).

These are the splits from the beginning of my run (warm up, then 1 min run: 1 min walk)

These are the splits from the end of run

As you can see, my run splits improve by over a minute from in the range of 7:14/km-8:13km to a best interval of 6:03/km.

This showed me to two things: 

1) I am not crazy, I didn't just feel like I was running faster, I actually was running faster!

2) If I can find a good warm up that works for me and can get me running those kind of times from the start I will be in much better shape for the Dopey Challenge.

Do you ever look at your GPS data? Have you ever found anything interesting?

Ash :) 

First Official Dopey Training Run!

Yesterday I completed my first official Dopey Training Run!

An easy 10km was the start of what I hope will be a focused and ultimately successful training series. I am super nervous so any words of encouragement would be appreciated. It is going to be a tough slog but it will be worth it when I get there!

I have my training plan all printed off and I am ready to get stuck into it. I can be a bit lazy so I am sticking the training plan up next to my bed so every morning when I wake up it will be there staring in my face saying 'RUN LAZY BONES' and hopefully I will be able to say 'Sure thing!' Dopey is going to be my first marathon so some people probably think I have bitten off more than I can chew but life is short so you have to take opportunities when they come up and make the most of them.

28 sweet weeks of Jeff Galloway training goodness!

Say something nice to keep me motivated! Please!

Ash :)