4:25 official time. 4:18 for my own benefit and record to beat. Alhamdulillah. None of this would have happened without his blessings.
Flash back to how the whole marathon journey begins.
I never knew marathon distance was 42.2 km. I thought that was crazy. But knowing that the prestigious races, the World Marathon Major is at that distance, I had silently developed that long for that distance.
My first marathon was in 2014. Based on my recent HM at that time, I might be capable of sub 4:45. So I had an eye for that Sub 5 hours marathon even for my VFM and was fulfilled only in Twincity 2016. One major contributor to the delay was of course pregnancy with Naela. So that eye for sub 4:30 began in 2017. So having it achieved clean in 2019, it took 2 years as well. Looks like I may have a chance for a breaking 4 in another 2 years, if the projection works out the same maybe?
2017 was a big challenge. Due to the late discovery of the severely low Hg level that I was having, my training in 2017 post MWM was next to non-existent. I had to start from scratch in 2018. But due to the sudden ramp up, my shin took its toll. I had broken that 4:40 barrier even with prayer time for SCKLM 2018 but my shin was as well. Both of them as at end of July. So I had to train for Berlin with this condition. Berlin's result was not what I had hoped for. The circumstances was very fitting for a PB, but all I could was only a mere 4 mins. I had myself to blame for this. My legs was not fresh in the days leading to the race. The very recipe for some failure.
With all the lesson learnt, and frankly with some inspiration from other fellow runners that I stalked on Strava, I started to device a new plan for the next marathon. The major strategy was:
- Move the running to wee morning, because that's when you can guarantee a solid training is in.
- Longer easy days, instead of normal 5 and 7. My basic easy days was 10km throughout.
- 1 midweek longish.
- Almost daily wall sit, plank and abs as strengthening staple.
Quite frankly, none of the above was perfect, especially the strength part. But we do what we can and anything positive that you do differently will always contribute to some benefit if not much.
The LSD itself was not as smooth as well. I had few weeks where it felt off and I couldn't complete the supposed LSD distance. I should have ramped up to 30km sooner, so I could squeeze a couple more of workout about that distance. But running is always a balancing act. Both literally and figuratively. You need to balance your own body limits, with the amount of training needed in order to achieve good result. And patience is what everyone needs to have. As Allie Kieffer puts it. "We're just stacking progress on top of progress. Slight improvements each segment equate to big gains over time. To get faster, you don't need to change your training, you just gotta keep doing it".
I had no tune up race this time. So I had quite vague idea of how I had progressed. But some of the key workouts within 2-3 weeks before race day (the midweek MRP and final LSD) showed that I was capable of sub 6 pace at least the last 20 plus km, if not the whole marathon. I think this was one of the important element in planning the race strategy. Which I think was decent enough for my own limits and big enough to motivate me.
So the race plan goes like this:
10km - 6:35 overall pace
20km - 6:15 overall pace
30km - 6:04 overall pace
42.2 km - 6:00 overall pace.
I had already prepped my mind for inclines sporadically throughout the route. So, conservatism is a must. And Berlin's memory still remain, where I felt that I had breakdown when you pushed yourself too much. I need to engage my cruising speed. So I tried so much to steer clear from that region.
So my eyes were so fixed on 4:20 overall with prayer time as my gold target and 4:20 without prayer as my silver target.
I had to start a bit further from the starting line. I crossed the line only at 1.5 mins minimum. So any chance of a placing definitely off the table. As we started, I kept to my strategy of very light cruise and hold the pace as much as I can. Heart rate was not too bad, but it wasn't too low. Which is quite expected since, I'm at that time where my RHR is generally high. Totally no explanation for this but it happens. But it did serve as a good indicator still. 16x was still fine at least. The early hill section from the route was not helping as well. My mantra throughout the earlier part of the race was, run your own race. Remember that feeling of a cruising effort. It was so tempting to speed up at the start when energy was high, and there were a lot of people around, and you were actually left quite behind.
Prayer stop was at KM 20 as expected. Some guys were already getting ready for their solat when I reached. I was struggling on my own, spreading out the newspaper for my prayer mat, and getting some wudhu. Didn't even bother of waiting for the feet to dry up and I straight away put on the socks. It could be recipe for trouble, with the feet being wet and I think same dirt got into it. But it turned out alright up to the very end.
I had to play catchup after that. The pace when I stopped was 6:12, which was almost like I had planned. The next part was a challenge as I need to aim for getting a 6:04 average pace overall. All I could come down to was only 6:07. Lap pace was anywhere sub 6 average, which was fine. At that point, I was so glad that the sub 6 targeted marathon pace was quite spot on. It was definitely a pace that I could sustain. That realisation is so important. I hope I am mature enough to identify this pace in the future as well. So come KM30 stop, I had to text home and my kids' mom to settle the football matters. The pace dropped to 6:08. So I know I wasn't drifted too far off. From then on, it was definitely a bit more struggle. But it wasn't like any of the previous marathons. It wasn't as dreading. And that was what I liked the most. Being able to maintain that pace until the end. And not giving in to temptation of going faster than you should. I had minimal walks as well. Water station breaks were also very minimal and only to finish off the drink. I was still running on most inclines until that KM 38. Even then, it was only near the top. But I think I had some walks again after 40km.
I saw some pacer balloon up front. At first I couldn't believe that they were 4:30 pacers. I was so sure I was so much capable of many minutes before 4:30. How could they be so ahead of me. Then suddenly Azra appeared out of nowhere, so excited. That somehow gave me a lot of boost. I sprinted to the finish along with the 3 ladies that I had played catchup with since KM38.
The time on the clock was 4:27, which was quite a disappointment. I was sure that the 4:18 displayed on my watch had some truth to it. It turns out that my starting time was quite late. Result wise, it's not something that I was so happy about. But execution wise, I don't think it could be better. There was some slacking definitely but it was quite minimal. Most importantly, I didn't have any tummy issue. Which can never happen without the Almighty's help. And with that, I was beyond grateful.
Twincity Marathon 2019
Date: 20 Jan 2019
Venue: Persiaran Flora, Cyberjaya
Distance: 42.2 km
Position: 19
Official Time:4:25:25
Personal Time: 4:18:56
Pace: 6:06
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