White Nights - my first marathon!

Marathon, Bosphorus, Half Iron Man - this is the chain of events I planned for the summer of 2014 at the end of the summer of 2013, when my ambitions prevailed over my laziness and I decided that it was time to change. Did I believe then that I could do it - NOT AT ALL, but as you know - If you can dream it, you can do it.

Marathon

Marathon is not something you can plan today for tomorrow. It takes time. In my case it was one year of continuous preparation. During this time I managed to run around 1000кm, preparing myself for this event.

Plan

I realized that it was not enough to just run every day in order to make it happen, I needed a Plan. There were several options to choose from: I could find a trainer, elaborate a plan by myself or use one of thousands existing in the Internet.

A trainer was a way too expensive and could hardly fit into my schedule. Elaborating my own plan was dangerous as  I did not have enough experience, using a plan from the Internet might not meet my needs.. At that moment somebody advised me gip.is. It was exactly what I was looking for. You choose your goal (5км/.../half marathon/marathon), start date and competition date, enter your personal data (height, weight, running experience), specify how many days a week you are ready to run and which of them are for long runs. There it is, your personal plan for preparation with different types of workouts and convenient time for you. It was my choice...

Totally I had 76 out of 94 planned workouts (green ones). It was enough to run a marathon.

Registration

I registered for participation half a year in advance. It was my first step. Second was my preparation and third, I  received my number and participant pack.

Here is the list of things I received in the pack.

As you can see, nothing interesting besides a T-shirt... Cluj version was better.

There was a Pasta Party after the registration where each runner could have a small portion of past and a glass of juice. Unfortunatelly, there was no possibility to buy another portion of pasta – there were a lot of runners, like me, who came with their wives, children or friends and had to watch us eat or share those tiny portions. Again, in Cluj when I asked if it was possible  to buy another portion,, the assistant just gave it to me for free...

Marathon

The morning before the marathon started at 6:00 AM. I drank water and had pasta for breakfast. The main idea of early breakfast is to get rid of pasta’s unnecessary ingredients leaving only carbohydrates before race. In order to achieve this, you have to eat 2-3 hours prior to the race.

8:30 - full tank of carbohydrates, heart rate monitor set on, satellites found, all systems were working properly - I was ready. We went to the Palace Square, exactly where my race had to start and finish.

There were a lot of people! Just before the start I ate a “Snickers” and, there I was, proudly standing in the middle of thousands of runners from the whole world, waiting for the start.

START!

The crowd was moving slowly. I approached the start line and turned on my new, but not tested Garmin watch and started running...

As I was an unexperienced marathon runner, I could not create an accurate plan for that race. I decided to run relying on my feelings. I would scan  them from time to time and the whole thing looked like a movie dialog between a captain and his assistant:

• C: Heart rate?
• A: Normal, captain, in between 145-150 beats per minute
• C: Breathing?
• A: Normal, captain, smooth not frequent, can talk with neighbors, but better concentrate to the goal
• C: Muscles and joints?
• A: Normal, captain. Keeping the same pace we'll finish without surprises.

It looked like that :).

I continued running along the quays and bridges of St. Petersburg. There were so many beautiful things around me. I did not digress as we had 2 days to admire them. I thought "I'll try to do as I did in Cluj. First half - slowly and second one - acceleration"... "Yes, captain", I said to myself and slowed down... Disappointment was waiting for me, but more on that later.

Ok, I continued my race, felt happy and from time to time looked at my watch - 8кm... WOW, 8 km already done!!! It was amazing and I did not even notice how it had happened... It was all due to adrenaline... I looked again - 16кm!!! I was not looking for any tricks, I was as happy as a child that everything was happening so quickly and I was approaching half-marathon... But hold on, where were water and food points??!?!? And why were we running  in just one direction? I did not remember the map exactly, but there were a lot of turns... Waaaarily but attentively I looked at my watch..... NOOOOOOO, 8 and 16 were MINUTES and not kilometers..... I felt like somebody took me from the middle of the race and threw myself to the beginning... I understood that I still had to run and run and run... I felt offended like in childhood, but recovered quickly. I did not have time for such thoughts...

5кm - water point. I was feeling good and skipped it. Repeated "Captain/assistant" dialog, all seemed to be ok..

15кm - on the right and left hand was continuous chain of palaces, and in front of me - food point... I took a banana and understood that there was no need to take additional food with myself as the amount of food and water on water/food points was more than enough. This time I took a bottle of water, drank one-third and get rid of it...

21кm - yet, half marathon in Cluj was easier than this one... Just after 21st km line I remembered that it was the best time to start implementing my acceleration-plan! The captain commanded and...got first refusal... Yes, systems were working properly, but the price of acceleration was too high. Simply, I was quite tired to do that... 

35кm - each step is a personal record. However, the remaining power and desire were hardly enough for the next step. I was on the edge of my comfort zone. There were a lot of people walking at this point, and I had a very strong desire to join them, or to fall down onto the quay or even swim a bit in Neva... Speed went down... The last 10km we had almost no support from Petersburg residents (again Cluj wins). In 50 meters I saw a SHOWER! This was exactly what I really needed, SHOWER! Small acceleration and I entered "Bath room" :). Do you remember, some time ago we used to have cars which washed our roads, so that is what a Marathon Shower is like :). Water immediately washed away all redundant thoughts and there remained just one - "7кm more and the goal of this year will be achieved!". And another, renewed, "Grisha" continued the race.

After the shower I could feel its importance. On each water point I took a bottle of drinking water and another one for mini-shower.

40кm - just a little bit remained. "Captain and assistant" dialog - it's all right, except the fatigue I felt everywhere. I felt that I lacked power in my gastrocnemius muscle... due to fatigue I could not run technically... speed went down... I remembered what was said by one of Kona champions - "If your legs don't want to run, move your hands quicker". Probably it souned strange, but it worked! Through my hands I could speed up my legs, while it was impossible to do so directly... It was my finish sprint... Actively working with my hands, I started to overtake.

The nearer the finish was the more support we had. The most sharp-sighted ones could read my name on my number and shouted "Grisha, come on, go go go!" It really helped and was much appreciated.

42кm - Hermitage was the finish line, I ran as I could, and I almost couldn't... and here is my finish.

I felt as if the concentration of happiness and dignity after the finish line was so big that I could touch and feel it physically... Everyone had a smile on their face and I could read - "Guys, we did it!", and I did it as well. 

I believe that my result was not that bad, at least for the first marathon - 3:42:24. My time was far from champion’s time - 2:16, but better than of 70% of other participants.

Recovering

One of the reasons I like running - is the ability to eat as much as you wish without thinking about consequences! Especially after marathon :). I was recovering so diligently, that over-recovered by 2 kg (on the photo below just the beginning) :). No worries, Bosphor is coming soon and I will get back in shape till that time.

We walked afterwards. It was fun. I was walking like penguin, a very proud penguin. Being AFTER-MARATHON-PROUD-PENGUIN you easily identify other representatives of the same species and tell them - "My congratulations!".

Acknowledgements

Once again, I’s like to thank my wife for her patience and support. Marina, unfortunately, I cannot say that this is the end, you will still need patience and I will still need your support, but you can see that it is worth doing. I’d like to thank my friend Serghei Bacu for his time and help in Moscow. And, last but not least, I’d like to thank Endava, namely Natalia Belicova and Kumail Jetha for financial support in particular and sport promotion in Endava in general.

At last...

For me this marathon was my first step into the world of big sport-events! Once it was done, I don't want to stop anymore.

Was it easy - NO, not at all. Do I want to repeat it - YES, of course! I will definitely do it in less than 3:30, in some other capital, in the same crowd of runners, with the same good mood, but later :).

It is definitely worth trying, doing and continuing!

P.S. Russian version here.