Marathon Hamburg, April 26, 2015

Disclaimer: Automatically translated from Russian

A day after returning from Hamburg, we went on vacation, then for a long, long time I tried to force myself to combine scraps of text into something more or less connected, so the report is only now. But I recorded the main points and impressions on the same day in anticipation of the return departure, plus I laid out something in Instagram, so that the info is 100%.

So it was mine second a marathon for which I purposefully prepared for 4 months. I wanted to do everything right and not mess up: and run in normal time, and enjoy getting, and not getting out of order for six months due to injuries like this happened last time.

Preparation began with the purchase of a pulse meter and watches, then the choice of a training plan and forward. Prepared according to the training plan with RunKeeper - Sub 3:45 marathon, though in the process of preparation he slightly changed the requirements for the pace and to the start of the target pace he estimated at around 4: 57-5: 02 min/km instead of 5:27 according to plan. Since during preparation he ran through the pulse, and also monitored the pulse during intermediate competitions, he decided to focus mainly on the pulse at the marathon.

He rented his accommodation through Airbnb for 3 months, as he was afraid that all the apartments in this area would be dismantled. With the location guessed - there were seven hundred meters to the start, finish line and place of the expo:

I thought for a long time how to get to Hamburg - by car or by plane. According to estimates, the cost turned out approximately the same, but there were doubts about parking and whether I could steer 8 hours after the race, sitting in the same position. In the end, I chose the plane and did the right thing.

The last two weeks before the race, he settled down morally:

The physical exertion during this period was already small, but tried to listen in every possible way to his body, afraid to harm - it would be a shame to refuse to participate after all the work done. I ran quietly, ate pasta, thought about what I would put on myself and take with me and what strategy I would adhere to. About overeating: during preparation, my weight was 71 kg, for the teiper I ate 2 kg and went to the start with 73 kg, one of which was used up during the race, so after the marathon the weight was 72 kg, for the vacation I increased it to 73.5 kg.

Gathered in a minimal way so that everything fits into a small backpack. Prepared outer clothing for discharge. The marathon belt left at home so as not to change your mind at the last moment and not drag water bottles on itself. In extreme cases, you can always pick up the discarded bottle and pour water there at the water station.

Flew without adventure. It rains and cloudy outside. Immediately went on the exhibit to pick up the starting bag, and only then went to check into the apartment. The hostess met, had a little chat, she, like, used to run for long distances herself, but did not participate in this marathon. The apartment is small, shabby, the conditions are Spartan, but all that was needed was a place where to leave things, bed, shower and silence (she promised to ask the neighbors, who were supposed to come in the evening and move into the second room so as not to make noise especially).

I went to the expo, where I spent a total of 3-4 hours, although a half would be enough:

The main thing I had to do was buy gel at a distance. I bought 5 of those that should have been provided by sponsors during the race, ate one, waited half an hour - it seems normal, although very liquid and very sweet. I decided to buy more than others some super-cheap. I tried it - more like SiS, with which I trained. Plus the tube is smaller, easier to fit in the waist bag, as a result, he ran with them. I walked around the rest of the booths, looked at what was. I was interested in Merrell and Newton, but they were not exhibited. There were Misuno and Asiks, Nike and Adidas. There was a big scene in which there was some kind of electric BMW, which was charged by the fact that people were jumping on glass panels. Mostly the organizers jumped, trying to lure visitors, but apart from a couple of children, no one took part:

A large crowd of people hung out near the Krambacher counter (one of the main sponsors), where they poured beer. As a result, in addition to gels, I also bought a T-shirt and thought to take a bag for gels, but I decided not to take it and did it right, because mine, bought at home for 3 euros (instead of 30), showed herself in battle is not even bad. He walked in the hall of the history of the marathon, where there were stands with photographs of the winners of past years, medals and samples of starting numbers. Among the winners were even athletes from the USSR. All Ethiopian and Kenyan brothers began to occupy the podium only in the 200s, before that there was at least some diversity:

Pasta party turned out to be just a dining room with pasta, where there was not even a special place to sit (in the sense of not because of the number of people, but because of the lack of tables). To be honest, I expected more - the word “ party ” must have been embarrassed.

Went a little walk around the city and look around. Near the expo, where there was a start and a finish line, they set up television equipment, and leveled fences. Passed a couple of kilometers along the track, took a picture of the blue line:

In the evening I also wanted to sharpen pizza, but there were no places in the restaurant closest to the house, in the end I took baked potatoes from the Turks. Lucky - learned without complications and even ate :-) In the evening, according to the plan, I should have had a light run for 15 minutes, but by 7 pm I found more than 20 km, so I decided that it was quite considered and went home to rest.

On the start day, they promised rain from 9 in the morning (just the start time) to 13 hours and a temperature of about 13 degrees:

I decided to dress in the minimum:

He prepared 4 gels, he decided not to take water, as he had already written.

Sleep at 9. At 3:30 a.m., when the Irish neighbors came out of the walk, he stood up and ate a piece of water shaft. At 4 o’clock I woke up ( although by this point I had already slept, but decided to force myself to crush the pillow a little more ) and ate a donat. At 5:50 he got up and ate a banana. The street is light, the birds are singing, there is no rain. Until 8:15 he was warming up, drinking water and vice versa. In short, in every possible way tuned. He left the house at 8:15. At 8:30 he was in his starting paddock number N. There was still no rain, but it was wet and cool. There are many people, a helicopter flies over their heads, commentators shout something into the microphone, music plays. At 9 o’clock a shot is heard, it really starts to rain on schedule, we take off and throw out outer clothing and begin to move towards the starting gate. The adventure begins.

I won’t write much about the running process, I’ll just say that I’m lucky with everything:

• The weather was not hot, the rain was not very strong and not all the time, and when it was, it was very helpful
• Sleep - had a great night’s sleep and rested
• Clothing - did not drag anything superfluous on itself, the cooling system worked normally
• Food - like a camel well stocked with the necessary fuel and water during the teiper, ate correctly before the start, so I was not distracted by the feeling of hunger and did not run with a full belly, took the right amount of gels and used them at the right time
• Toilet - it just didn’t need it
• Muscle condition - the legs worked well, no problem places bothered

Gels: 18, 23, 29, 34 km Water: started drinking after 21 km. Sponge took always when there was an opportunity, the electrolyte took only once, and at the point where they gave RedBull I almost turned away from its smell

Up to 21 km ran very easily, I had to monitor the pulse and slow down in order to maintain strength in the second half of the distance (in Rotterdam, a wall came to me for 21 km). He looked around at the city, spectators, runners, heifivil (then I had to abstain, because the pulse jumps a little from this - while you run up, while you pull out your hand), I tried to notice the photographers in advance:

K 28 km has become heavier. I had to go into economical mode and turn off a little. After 34 km, it is time to negotiate with yourself. Somewhere here I was terribly thirsty. Water stations did not appear and did not appear, and there were very few spectators on this site and no one extended bottles of water. And the rain as luck would have been temporarily turned off. In general, he was ready to ask for water from those who fled nearby. Fortunately, I didn’t have to - I ran to the water station, where I even stopped for 20 seconds to drink a couple of glasses. The last 2 km ran on the principle - it’s hard to run - accelerate. Visually, I already estimated how much was left, and besides, there was a ghostly opportunity to run out of 3:30. Phantom due to the fact that a small area of several hundred meters ran through the tunnel in which the clock lost the signal, so that the readings were compromised.

In general, the final acceleration helped, and I finished with the time 3:29:04 on the watch.

Got a medal, photographed:

I tried to eat the handed out bananas - oranges - watermelons (it didn’t go, as well as beer) and went to hide from the pouring rain in the pavilion, where the people sat / lay on the floor, sun loungers, massage tables, drank beer and water and tried to relax:

After a couple of hours, sitting at the airport, posted in Instagram photo with comment:

Shot off. Let’s look at the official results, but now it is clear that the previous result has been improved by about 1 hour and 8 minutes. Very interesting sensations, but most importantly, nothing seriously hurts. In general, the training plans really work, you just need to get together and master 60 workouts within 4 months.

By the way, out of 64 trainings, only 8 missed, of which 6 due to illness, and two did not run intentionally in the last week, because there were some unpleasant sensations in the legs, was afraid to aggravate before the start. It is also very useful to arrange intermediate competition races.

Official results:

Track - https://www.strava.com/activities/293209817.

A couple more points:

I started from block F from N. It is not clear why he overtook people all the way, clearly not fit in time faster than 3:45. Most likely they simply write to a faster block so as not to overtake. But you need to be more modest, not in B, if you have a hundred kg of weight with a height of 160 cm and you carry another cartridge of 7 bottles of water on yourself.

In the process, I saw a man in a duckling costume, another in a king costume, one blind, one with an Ironman tattoo, one in fivefingers, a lot of Danes. By the way, I have not seen a single pacer. When planning, I had the idea to cling to some group and try to run this way, but I didn’t see it. Later when I watched the recording broadcasts, it turned out that the pacers were, but fled in the leading groups - a group of 7 people was running, of which three pieces were pacers. It’s strange somehow, probably they had a multi-level landscape - one pacer was the pacer of another, who was the pacer of the third, who was the pacer of those claiming a prize. But turtles also need to be given the opportunity to cling to someone. Oh well. He overtook two Russian-speaking dudes who discussed the profitability of such events. And so generally I saw little after the middle of the distance - somehow concentrated greatly. Well, nothing, in the broadcast I looked at what places we were running.

A day after the race, we went on vacation. During the first week there were some problems with straightening, but after 4 days my legs moved away and I even ran. It became clear that, like, nothing broke, everything works, and I registered for the Amsterdam Marathon on October 18.

Upon returning from vacation, I realized that I was already somehow used to four trainings a week, and running without a plan is not very interesting, so I immediately chose a new program for time 3:20 and started it already 22 weeks before the competition. Currently, training is in full swing, but without fanaticism. I dilute the asphalt with trailers. Unlike last time, I’m running at a pace, not a pulse (I just control it). Playing these 9 minutes (and better - more) will be more difficult, so I do a lot of high-speed work, intervals. Progress, it seems, is. Let’s see how it goes next.

Such things.