The Marathon...... Race Report

In 490BC, the pesky Persians were on the march to Athens. A victory over the undermanned Greek outfit would have meant that the Persians could have laid claim to all of the Greek Peninsula. As they reached the plains of Marathon, an area some 26 miles from Athens (42.125 kms), they were met by what was basically the last of the Greek army after they had already been on the receiving end of several losses to the Persians in the proceeding three years. This time however, the Greeks had the advantage of being on familiar ground. After blocking off all the exits, they moved in for the kill and destroyed the Persians once and for all.

Wanting to spread the good word as soon as possible, the Greek generals sent a young man named Pheidippides to run back to Athens to spread news of the victory. On arrival he screamed, “We have won!” to whoever would listen and then promptly collapsed and died. And so was born the Marathon.

On February 8, 2009, some 8700 people lined up in the in Nathan Road, Kowloon at the start of Hong Kong Marathon. I was one of those.

At 7:00am my chief support staffer and I headed off from our Happy Valley abode for the train station in Causeway Bay. I felt good. I had no injuries, and felt I had carbed up pretty well the night before with a full slab of baby-back ribs and two pints of Stella Artois from the Jaspas near our place.

As we walked to the station, I noticed a number of other tracksuit clad persons obviously on their way to the race also. When I noticed on chap who happened to be in my age bracket, I asked my support staffer, “Who looks fitter, me or that guy?”

To which she replied, “Actually, he does look in pretty good shape.”

“Well, what about that guy?”

“He looks like he might have done a little bit more training.”

This conversation went on for the next nine obvious marathon runners on the train, until eventually I had to be told, “Sweetie, to be honest, they all look fitter than you.”

It was at that point that it hit me that there was a real possibility that I could well be the very last person to finish this event. I had visions of one lonely cleaner sweeping up the last of the day's trash and I come plodding in after 9 hours or so.

Once we got to the starting area though and I started my warm up, I felt a little better. Surely I could beat some of these people I thought.

On the way to the starting line I was feeling good. I had preloaded a playlist on my ipod that would go for 5 hours. As we headed off, I started with the Matthew Sweet song “Girlfriend”, closely followed by “Rock ‘n Roll Train”, by AC/DC. That pretty much set the musical tone for the first hour.

During this hour, we hardly got moving. The race was so crowded that we had traveled more than 5kms before I really felt I was running and not just along shuffling behind a huge mass of people.

Once we got going around, from 10kms to 20 kms I changed the listening selection and listened to a podcast of Sports Today, the afternoon sports talkback radio show on Melbourne’s 3AW station. After that I went straight into a podcast of The BS Report, featuring an interview by Bill Simmons with Jon Hamm who plays Don Draper in the series Madmen. If you are not familiar with Madmen, do yourself a favor. If The Sopranos was the best show on TV, then this show, about advertising execs on Madison Avenue in the 1960’s, has taken over the title. Well worth buying the DVD’s and watching the whole thing.

After the BS Report, I went back to AC/DC’s new Black Ice album to bring me home. Whole playing time, 5:12. If I was not home by the time the opening chords to "Big Jack", I knew I was in trouble. Or hospital.

The race itself panned out like this:

0 – 10 kms Feeling pretty good. A few slight niggles, but holding it all together.

10-20 kms Still feeling OK. I could feel a little wear and tear emerging in the left and right groin region, but holding a good pace.

21kms Half way and my first goal achieved – Now every step to the end would be one less than one I had already taken.

21 – 30 kms Starting to feel a little full in the legs, but I was actually confident for the first time that I would make it. I crossed the 30km mark at 3hrs and 2 minutes and I was very pleased with that. I started to think ahead to the end. If I just kept this up, I could break 4:15. That would be fantastic.

31kms I’m gone. My legs are shot. I have hit the wall and my legs feel like they are solid rods, which cannot bend at the knees. My run has become a shuffle and people are starting to pass me.

31 – 40kms I had to walk for about 300m up a steep hill to get out of the Harbour Tunnel. Unfortunately, it hurt so much to get started again, that I decided I simply could not stop to walk again. So I shuffled on. Slowly. I'm not sure if this guy actually passed me, but I'm guessing he probably did.

40 – 42.135km The last part of the race is through the streets of Causeway Bay and the streets were lined with people cheering. At least I think they were. I could hear them, but I was so focused on a small patch of bitumen about 2 feet in front of every step I took, I could not appreciate the moment. As I entered Victoria Park and the final 50 meters, my legs were like stone. Every step felt as if I was about to snap with a cramp. I willed myself to go faster, but I just couldn’t break the shuffle stride. Look at the video clip. I am going as fast as I possibly can. While I am very pleased to be a marathon finisher, as I watch that clip I can’t help but be disappointed as I watch all those people go past me. But…. once your legs are gone, they’re gone.

So it’s a week later now and I can reflect on the race. People keep asking me if I’ll do it again next year. All week I have been saying no way, but now that I’m moving freely again, I’m having second thoughts. If I just get some more miles in the legs, maybe I can leave the Cliff Young shuffle behind and finish the race properly.

After all, after Pheidippides finished his marathon, he laid down and died. All I had was a couple of sore legs…….. and pants.