I ran my first marathon yesterday in Helsinki, and felt that this is a
good time to stop lurking here at rec.running.
I've been running for three years now, with the first summer going from
1km to 10km, last summer from 10kms to 20km and last winter and this
summer consisting of a long run and approximately one short run a week.
All along the progression the advice in this newsgroup has been
invaluable, as has been the help and motivation from my old friends,
many of whom have started running in the last years.
My longest run prior to the marathon was 3 hours 15 minutes and my last
long run was 18 kilometers in 2 hours flat.
The weather forecasts had been all over the place prior to the marathon.
There was a large weather system going over Finland, with a good
possibility of 25 m/s winds and rain.
We were lucky. The temperature was about 17-20 degrees Centigrade with
no rain whatsoever.
The event has grown in popularity, 6830 participants had registered, but
I'm not sure on how many actually participated. The amount of runners
was reasonable. Most of the course had at least one car-lane in each
direction, with only a few spots, where there were too many runners for
the width of the course.
The technical aspects of the race were good as well, the drinks,
bananas, wet sponges, pickles and what have you, had not run out, with
the exception of the sports drinks at the Nokia building post.
My race strategy had been to run with the group going for a five hour
finish in the beginning and increasing pace, if I feel up to it
somewhere prior to the 30 km mark.
Somehow I lost the 5-hour banner waving runners in the very beginning
and started running at the pace that felt the most comfortable to me. I
wound up running at about 6:45 per km, with the fastest km being 5:59
and the slowest 7:15.
The first half of the marathon went at 2:20. This had been easier than I
had thought. I had run the Helsinki City Run half marathon this spring
in 2:16, with a too fast beginning and a very strained last few kms.
This time it was nothing like that. I chatted with the other runners,
enjoyed the scenery and generally tried to relax, just as if I was on my
regular long run. The huge amount of people really made my day. The
Helsinki City Run had had a lot less runners and at my pace it had felt
less of a communal experience than the marathon did.
The first real challenges of the run began at around the 27 km mark. I
was running with almost one year old New Balance 855s, and they were
pretty beat up. This, a little bit of extra body weight and the strains
of running ensured that the soles of my feet were hurting on each step.
I tried to console myself with the fact that I had bought a new pair of
shoes the day before (New Balance 1221s) and that this would be the last
time I run with my old pair.
I kept my pace however. I was not running out of energy, and passing the
runners who had slowed down to walking felt empowering. The web site of
the run shows that I had passed 856 runners in the second half of the
event. Pretty good for a first timer, eh.
Between kms 31 and 33 my brother came to cheer me. Instead of just
saying "Tsemppiä" (="Keep it up"😉 he ran beside me with a full backpack,
jeans and suede shoes. He also helped me keep my pace. I'm sure I would
have run this part of the course almost a minute slower without having
someone run beside me, as we were running a bit faster than the main
crowd be this point.
All in all my family came to cheer me at seven different points along
the course, which was quite an accomplishment in itself and only
possible due to good knowledge of the local transport system.
The run became harder each kilometer after the 33 km mark, but I more or
less kept my pace. There were runners by the side of the road at the end
of each incline, and seeing them helped me keep to a more or less even
effort rather than keeping to the pace.
The hardest part of the course is the 20m hill right before the 40km
mark. I ran up the hill, even though I had in advance given myself the
"right" to walk there, if need be. This kicked off my sprint to the
finish. I couldn't pick up speed during the 40 - 41 km part, most likely
recovering from the uphill, but the last full km between the 41 and 42
km mars went in 5:59, even though I had to wait for several seconds for
cars to pass at the Norderskiöldinkatu lights. The last several hundred
meters of the course were a steep downhill, which I ran as fast as
possible -- this brought my pulse up to nearly 190, substantially above
the 162 average I maintained along the course.
I finished in 4:42, and the feeling was euphoric. A lot of preparation
and running in the cold, wet and hot temperatures were worth it. Looking
back, I feel that the run could not have gone better. running felt good
all along the course, even during the most difficult parts, and the
sense of accomplishment is incredible.
The only real unplanned difficulty along the course was that my arms and
hands felt very weak during the last few kilometers, a sensation not
unlike that of staying too long in a hot Sauna. I drank a liter of water
prior to the run and two cups of sports drink at each of the drinking
stations, but could the loss of sense still have been from dehydration
or an imbalance in salts, I wonder.
I can't wait fro my legs to be in running shape again, new new shoes beg
to be run in, and I'll most likely be re-running sunny the marathon in
my mind during the runs on dark cold nights of the fall and winter.
Petri Aukia
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Petri Aukia