My day ended with a disappointing time, but overall I enjoyed it for reasons other than my inability to improve my personal best (PB). I learned my lesson from Mt Glorious this year that if things don't go to plan, I must still try and enjoy the day and make sure I finish the race regardless of the time it takes.
I had spent 4 and a half months training for the Marathon this year, which I thought would be more than ample time to get conditioned enough not only to finish the race but to radically improve my time from the Brisbane Marathon 2 years ago.
I started training in March by following the TrainAsOne adaptable training platform that changes based on current physiology, current fitness, previous runs and weather forecast. It is a platform I have been using for just over a year. I had great success with it for last year's Brisbane Half Marathon, where I shaved nearly 5 minutes from my PB. I thought that it would be a sure bet for improving my times for the Gold Coast.
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| Great sunrise over the Gold Coast on marathon day |
Hmmm, it would have been a sure bet if I had trusted the training platform as I had last year. Around halfway through the plan, I decided that the distances it was asking me to run were not long enough. I abandoned the plan and resorted to using Hal Higdon's online static plan for a time that would get me close to 3 hours and 45 mins. I am not sure if this contributed to my dismal time, but I think it might have played a part. It's possible I over-trained this year, leaving me with impressive Strava stats but maybe not as well prepared and fresh enough for race day. In any case, I thought I was well prepared and felt good in the weeks leading up to the race. I even managed to squeeze in a couple of sub 20min parkruns, which I thought must be a good indicator of fitness and form.
One of the best parts of training this year was doing it friends. Some of which were also running the marathon with me. This was a great incentive and made the Sunday morning long runs much more bearable, especially in the dark and relative cold of Brisbane winter. There were 4 of us who were running together, well Steve, Nathan and I were. Tom is way too quick for us to keep up with. It was particularly special to pray together and commit the journey ahead to God and to give Him the glory.
My preparations for race day itself went well, I had really rested and tapered well during the previous week. As a family, we even went away for a few days to a farm stay which helped me relax and take my mind of work as well as the upcoming race. The day before the marathon, I really started to feel nervous. I guess with the anticipation, but also with my usual concerns before the race. Access to toilets on the morning was always at the forefront of my thinking, but I made sure I went through my routine as well as possible making sure I took Imodium 1 hour before the race. Funny thing was my 2 friends running with me also took it, which oddly enough felt comforting knowing that they may have similar issues in the race.
We arrived at the race precinct at different times, but all met up near the bag drop area really excited to be there. The Gold Coast Marathon has to be the largest event I have taken part in. The Noosa Triathlon came close, but as everyone started in waves of competitors it wasn't quite the same feeling as being on the start line with nearly 7000 other people for the marathon!
The plan this year was to hold a 5:10min/km pace, which should have given me a finishing time of around 3hours and 40mins. My PB for the marathon distance is 3hours and 53mins, which I was very confident of beating given how much I felt I had improved over the last couple of years and my current fitness level.
At precisely 7:20am the starter gun went off and the race began. Steve and I decided to run together for as long as possible, but if either of us was to drop off the pace the other shouldn't wait and run their own race. Well, that was the plan anyway! For the first 25km or so that is what happened. Nathan was planning to hold back, maybe we should have stayed with him!
It felt like an absolute joy to be running from the start line at Southport heading south across the Sundale Bridge, I felt very relaxed and had to try hard to keep my pace under control as we kept speeding up. Seeing the beaches on our left heading onto the Surfers Paradise esplanade was beautiful in the early morning, I was surprised at how many people were out and about watching the runners come through. We managed to chat and talk about our race strategy, the other runners and whether we would see the elites coming past the other way. The atmosphere was great and the street entertainers really kept spirits high in that early part of the race. Steve even spotted his son and daughter in law, so that gave him a boost.
After around 10km I was still feeling really good, but I noticed that I had some pain in one of my toes, probably the start of a blister ironically due to some taping on another toe to prevent blisters!! It didn't feel good, but I decided to push on as it was pain I could deal with. Although it was a constant niggle that progressively got worse as we approached the turnaround point at Burleigh Heads.
The crowd at the turnaround was massive and were calling out our names as we turned! That's the great thing of being able to add our names to our number bibs, awesome idea. We spotted Nathan on the other side after we turned around and began heading back up towards Surfers Paradise once again. 15km down, only 27km to go!
After around 15 to 20km is when the serious business in a marathon starts, fatigue starts to creep in slowly but there is still such a long way to go.
Something I haven't mentioned so far that concerned me when I first woke up that morning was the weather. Usually during a Brisbane winter, it is under 10 degrees celsius (C) in the morning making any sort of running very pleasant. Today however was not cold, not even close. When I woke at 3:30am to get ready, I stepped out of bed and felt warm, very unusual. Also, on the drive down to the Gold Coast there was a touch of rain and it was very overcast. It turns out that when the race began, the temperature was 16 degrees C! Almost double what it should have been, not only that but the humidity was incredibly high as well (I later found out that it was between 95 and 100%!!).
After 21km and the halfway mark I was beginning to fatigue which is not unusual, but I was absolutely drenched in sweat which was! We ploughed on, but were now quiet without any of the chat we were enjoying in the early part of the race. I was taking on enough water and keeping my nutrition under control, eating a gel very 5km, I thought things were under control even though it was warm.
At 25km, I turned to ask Steve if he was OK, but his response shocked me; "you push on James, I think I might have to stop and walk for a bit" came the reply. That was a surprise, especially given the pace and distances he had covered in training. So I pushed on and he dropped back but I was concerned for him.
I kept going through 26, 27 and 28km but was now beginning to feel very rough and yet it was still so early in the race! This was definitely not the plan for the day. I started slowing after 28km and realised that I needed to stop for a bit, my heart rate had also increased significantly in the last couple of kms which was not a good sign.
I decided to walk 100 metres and run the remaining 900 of each km to see if that settled me down. I managed it for a few more kms but I was slowing more and more the further I went. I managed to keep this tactic up back past the start line and up towards towards Labrador until the 35km mark, but then needed to stop and walk all together. That's when I started seeing the carnage.
At first it was one or two people lying down exhausted by the side of the road, then I saw first aid volunteers helping others who were clearly in distress and eventually those with drips in their arms clearly dehydrated. The one moment that really did shock me was seeing an ambulance with full lights and sirens blaring go past me and stop about a hundred metres up the road, when I reached the scene I saw a poor guy having a seizure on a stretcher whilst being bundled into the ambulance! It was at that point I decided that walking to the finish line was going to be good enough, at least that would mean I finished and I would get my T-shirt and medal!!
It was at this point just after 37km that Stephen caught me up, he had managed to run a bit more after stopping earlier in the race. It was great to see a friendly face at that point, seeing as there was still over 5km to go. We walked mostly and trotted a little, it wasn't pretty but we were making progress.
Even though both our goals for the day had long disappeared, this part of the race was strangely a lot of fun and very emotional in places. The camaraderie between a lot of runners at this point was incredible, we even saw other people we knew from our local parkrun, which was awesome. The mutual support to keep each other going, by throwing an arm around another straggler or just a word of encouragement from another runner passing by was very special. Even the crowds kept us going offering us sweets and calling out our names as we trudged past, it was simply a humbling experience and atmosphere. I even had time to contact my wife on Facetime to let her know what had happened so far.
Steve and I started worrying about Nathan who we hadn't seen on the last turnaround point, we started to wonder if the heat had got to him too and maybe he had dropped from the race. We looked out for him but couldn't see him, we had to assume he was OK. On we went slowly getting closer and closer to the finish line.
The crowds were getting larger and the cheering and encouragement got louder as we passed the 40km and 41km marks, walking and jogging if we could back towards the race precinct. Finally, at 42km we turned left into the Broadwater Parklands where hundreds of people were waiting to watch friends, family and strangers make it to the finish line of their marathon. Mostly exhausted and satisfied at the amazing feat of endurance they had just undertaken, what an achievement for everyone who crossed the line. And now it was our turn, getting closer to the finish line and then over it - not forgetting to stop our watches!
We had made it, not even close to our target times but we had made it. That was the most important part about the day at that stage. Stephen saw his family just as he crossed the line, and with them was Nathan! He had managed to overtake us without us seeing him and had been finished for nearly 30mins already! He smashed his goal, which was awesome and incredibly inspiring. But I needed to find a chair as I was beginning to feel very faint.
As we went through to the recovery section past the finish line we were handed water, fruit and Endura recovery powder, which frankly was awful. But the fruit tasted incredible and the water well needed.
We made it through recovery, got handed our finisher's medal and T shirt and went out to find Nathan, and Steve's family. We found somewhere to sit and then had to lie down immediately in case I passed out!
My finisher's time was unimpressive, my previous marathon in Brisbane was 3 hours and 54 mins. Today's time of 4 hours and 22 mins was nearly half a hour slower.
I had a choice with getting a result like that. Firstly, I could have chosen disappointment; I didn't achieve my goal of getting under 3 hours 45 mins, nor did I even beat my previous best. After working so hard in training for so long, it could have been easy to feel miserable about it.
The second choice is the one I decided to take. Ultimately, I finished the marathon regardless of my time. That is an achievement that many people will never make, not only that but I did it with a chronic health condition. I ran with great friends and was even spotted wearing my Running Dads OZ (RDOZ) singlet out on course. Although, I will admit there was a hint of disappointment at the result.
I enjoyed every minute of the Gold Coast marathon experience and cannot wait to come back again next year, I even have my new training regime already planned out but that is a story for another day.
One of the best parts of training this year was doing it friends. Some of which were also running the marathon with me. This was a great incentive and made the Sunday morning long runs much more bearable, especially in the dark and relative cold of Brisbane winter. There were 4 of us who were running together, well Steve, Nathan and I were. Tom is way too quick for us to keep up with. It was particularly special to pray together and commit the journey ahead to God and to give Him the glory.
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| From right to left; Steve, Nathan, Tom, Jason and I |
My preparations for race day itself went well, I had really rested and tapered well during the previous week. As a family, we even went away for a few days to a farm stay which helped me relax and take my mind of work as well as the upcoming race. The day before the marathon, I really started to feel nervous. I guess with the anticipation, but also with my usual concerns before the race. Access to toilets on the morning was always at the forefront of my thinking, but I made sure I went through my routine as well as possible making sure I took Imodium 1 hour before the race. Funny thing was my 2 friends running with me also took it, which oddly enough felt comforting knowing that they may have similar issues in the race.
We arrived at the race precinct at different times, but all met up near the bag drop area really excited to be there. The Gold Coast Marathon has to be the largest event I have taken part in. The Noosa Triathlon came close, but as everyone started in waves of competitors it wasn't quite the same feeling as being on the start line with nearly 7000 other people for the marathon!
The plan this year was to hold a 5:10min/km pace, which should have given me a finishing time of around 3hours and 40mins. My PB for the marathon distance is 3hours and 53mins, which I was very confident of beating given how much I felt I had improved over the last couple of years and my current fitness level.
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| on the start line |
At precisely 7:20am the starter gun went off and the race began. Steve and I decided to run together for as long as possible, but if either of us was to drop off the pace the other shouldn't wait and run their own race. Well, that was the plan anyway! For the first 25km or so that is what happened. Nathan was planning to hold back, maybe we should have stayed with him!
It felt like an absolute joy to be running from the start line at Southport heading south across the Sundale Bridge, I felt very relaxed and had to try hard to keep my pace under control as we kept speeding up. Seeing the beaches on our left heading onto the Surfers Paradise esplanade was beautiful in the early morning, I was surprised at how many people were out and about watching the runners come through. We managed to chat and talk about our race strategy, the other runners and whether we would see the elites coming past the other way. The atmosphere was great and the street entertainers really kept spirits high in that early part of the race. Steve even spotted his son and daughter in law, so that gave him a boost.
After around 10km I was still feeling really good, but I noticed that I had some pain in one of my toes, probably the start of a blister ironically due to some taping on another toe to prevent blisters!! It didn't feel good, but I decided to push on as it was pain I could deal with. Although it was a constant niggle that progressively got worse as we approached the turnaround point at Burleigh Heads.
The crowd at the turnaround was massive and were calling out our names as we turned! That's the great thing of being able to add our names to our number bibs, awesome idea. We spotted Nathan on the other side after we turned around and began heading back up towards Surfers Paradise once again. 15km down, only 27km to go!
After around 15 to 20km is when the serious business in a marathon starts, fatigue starts to creep in slowly but there is still such a long way to go.
Something I haven't mentioned so far that concerned me when I first woke up that morning was the weather. Usually during a Brisbane winter, it is under 10 degrees celsius (C) in the morning making any sort of running very pleasant. Today however was not cold, not even close. When I woke at 3:30am to get ready, I stepped out of bed and felt warm, very unusual. Also, on the drive down to the Gold Coast there was a touch of rain and it was very overcast. It turns out that when the race began, the temperature was 16 degrees C! Almost double what it should have been, not only that but the humidity was incredibly high as well (I later found out that it was between 95 and 100%!!).
After 21km and the halfway mark I was beginning to fatigue which is not unusual, but I was absolutely drenched in sweat which was! We ploughed on, but were now quiet without any of the chat we were enjoying in the early part of the race. I was taking on enough water and keeping my nutrition under control, eating a gel very 5km, I thought things were under control even though it was warm.
At 25km, I turned to ask Steve if he was OK, but his response shocked me; "you push on James, I think I might have to stop and walk for a bit" came the reply. That was a surprise, especially given the pace and distances he had covered in training. So I pushed on and he dropped back but I was concerned for him.
I kept going through 26, 27 and 28km but was now beginning to feel very rough and yet it was still so early in the race! This was definitely not the plan for the day. I started slowing after 28km and realised that I needed to stop for a bit, my heart rate had also increased significantly in the last couple of kms which was not a good sign.
I decided to walk 100 metres and run the remaining 900 of each km to see if that settled me down. I managed it for a few more kms but I was slowing more and more the further I went. I managed to keep this tactic up back past the start line and up towards towards Labrador until the 35km mark, but then needed to stop and walk all together. That's when I started seeing the carnage.
At first it was one or two people lying down exhausted by the side of the road, then I saw first aid volunteers helping others who were clearly in distress and eventually those with drips in their arms clearly dehydrated. The one moment that really did shock me was seeing an ambulance with full lights and sirens blaring go past me and stop about a hundred metres up the road, when I reached the scene I saw a poor guy having a seizure on a stretcher whilst being bundled into the ambulance! It was at that point I decided that walking to the finish line was going to be good enough, at least that would mean I finished and I would get my T-shirt and medal!!
It was at this point just after 37km that Stephen caught me up, he had managed to run a bit more after stopping earlier in the race. It was great to see a friendly face at that point, seeing as there was still over 5km to go. We walked mostly and trotted a little, it wasn't pretty but we were making progress.
Even though both our goals for the day had long disappeared, this part of the race was strangely a lot of fun and very emotional in places. The camaraderie between a lot of runners at this point was incredible, we even saw other people we knew from our local parkrun, which was awesome. The mutual support to keep each other going, by throwing an arm around another straggler or just a word of encouragement from another runner passing by was very special. Even the crowds kept us going offering us sweets and calling out our names as we trudged past, it was simply a humbling experience and atmosphere. I even had time to contact my wife on Facetime to let her know what had happened so far.
Steve and I started worrying about Nathan who we hadn't seen on the last turnaround point, we started to wonder if the heat had got to him too and maybe he had dropped from the race. We looked out for him but couldn't see him, we had to assume he was OK. On we went slowly getting closer and closer to the finish line.
The crowds were getting larger and the cheering and encouragement got louder as we passed the 40km and 41km marks, walking and jogging if we could back towards the race precinct. Finally, at 42km we turned left into the Broadwater Parklands where hundreds of people were waiting to watch friends, family and strangers make it to the finish line of their marathon. Mostly exhausted and satisfied at the amazing feat of endurance they had just undertaken, what an achievement for everyone who crossed the line. And now it was our turn, getting closer to the finish line and then over it - not forgetting to stop our watches!
We had made it, not even close to our target times but we had made it. That was the most important part about the day at that stage. Stephen saw his family just as he crossed the line, and with them was Nathan! He had managed to overtake us without us seeing him and had been finished for nearly 30mins already! He smashed his goal, which was awesome and incredibly inspiring. But I needed to find a chair as I was beginning to feel very faint.
As we went through to the recovery section past the finish line we were handed water, fruit and Endura recovery powder, which frankly was awful. But the fruit tasted incredible and the water well needed.
We made it through recovery, got handed our finisher's medal and T shirt and went out to find Nathan, and Steve's family. We found somewhere to sit and then had to lie down immediately in case I passed out!
My finisher's time was unimpressive, my previous marathon in Brisbane was 3 hours and 54 mins. Today's time of 4 hours and 22 mins was nearly half a hour slower.
I had a choice with getting a result like that. Firstly, I could have chosen disappointment; I didn't achieve my goal of getting under 3 hours 45 mins, nor did I even beat my previous best. After working so hard in training for so long, it could have been easy to feel miserable about it.
The second choice is the one I decided to take. Ultimately, I finished the marathon regardless of my time. That is an achievement that many people will never make, not only that but I did it with a chronic health condition. I ran with great friends and was even spotted wearing my Running Dads OZ (RDOZ) singlet out on course. Although, I will admit there was a hint of disappointment at the result.
I enjoyed every minute of the Gold Coast marathon experience and cannot wait to come back again next year, I even have my new training regime already planned out but that is a story for another day.
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