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Beijing marathon - a brief report
A hasty decision only 3 weeks ago to join this year Beijing marathon, my third time there and my 23th full marathon. To me every marathon is as exciting as the first one because there are so many factors that will affect one's performance. The most important one is lack of preparation. Even with regular high weekly mileage (relatively), 3 weeks preparation is not sufficient, at least to my mindset and confident. So I treated this one as a long training run.
What a perfect training opportunity, having eight thousands runners to train with you, all those spectators, not to mention all those water and fuel supplies enoute. Timing chip and Police there to ensure our safety is a bonus, all for just 150 rmb ( for late entry). It is a bargain right?
Ok, after making the decison to go for this and the Hangzhou one (nov 8 -three weeks later), I put together a rough training program until the Beijing marathon. It is a bit intense during the National day holiday but thanks to many Yiqipao and Free-marathoner runners who trained with me, I managed to fullfill most of them. The only problem is that I still find myself a bit tired after 4 days rest before the big day. Training with Hung Yu gave me inspiration and many idea. He is realy "awesome"and a good training partner, pity our standard is miles apart even after he added some extra 4 kg on his legs.
Arrived Beijing 17th mid-day, the weather seemed to be very nice and relatively warm during the day. Missed seeing Hung Yu at the airport as he misunderstood my arrival time. After picking up my starter pack. I arranged a dinner with a few Yiqipao and Free marathoners runners. I made a mistake of going to the dinner venue recommended by MZoe two hours earlier and end up walking for that long before the dinner. It made my legs a bit tired. A no no before a marathon as it used up yours valuable carbohydrate storage. To make it worse Beijing is very dry and even drinking a lot of water my body still feel dry. Enough excuses for a poor performance Haha!! So my mind was even more relaxed come 18th morning. On the way to Tianmen square the taxi driver did not know today is the big day, almost want to tell him that he is an idiot, we come all the way from all over the world for this big event in Beijing!!!! It is like a Beijing taxi driver that didn't know what is happening on 8/8/2008...xyz@#. After some chatting than I realised that he was a professsional runners for 5000 and 10000m in his teenage. Even gave me some tips on how to train, a bit too late for today I think but I will try for my training. It is sad though that our country's elite runners after retirement - all I have met shown no interest on the sport that they spent night and day for years.
The organisation of this year marathon to me is very well organised. The direction once you reach Tianmen square, the traffic control, the luggage desposite, the starting area, the starting time all according to what was indicated in the runners guide. I was reasonably relax except for a small excitment of almost missing despositing my bag as it intended to departed 4 minutes earlier than what was written. Normaly I gave myself plenty of time for such but I was so relax plus I has to pass a timing watch to No. 7 who is running the half marathon. Quite a few runners actualy has to carry their bags for the 42.195 km. For the organisation part if I am picky, the only defficient is that toilet is not enough and too far away from the starting line. For men may be it is still ok as I saw many release themselves along the 42.195 km stretch, but for ladies, "God bless your bladder"!
Treating this one as a training I stay at the back and was chatting with a few Hong Kong die hard runners until the race started. My calf was still stiff and the right foot hurt a bit for the first 2 km. That almost convinced me that I need to quit. However thinking all the encouragment from fellow Yiqipao runners since my announcemnt of runnng this one, I cannot disappoint them. The Beijing weather is perfect for a marathon, around 11 degree and overcloud. The first 2km was slow because of my legs condition. Also because there were so many runners, plus those fast half marathoners, 9km runners who catch us up in no time. My HK friends disappeared in the crowd but as I warm up and picking up the pace to around 4:50 per km, I soon catched up another die hard marathoner, Mr Yip. I saw him in every marathon that I ran. Age over 60, he is very consistent, pacing very well in every marathon to finish around 3:35 to 3:40. I slow down to his pace of around 5:15 per km and chat for around 2 km than I wave " see you later" as I knew that a good chance he would catch me up today.
As a training run, I didnot really plan how to run this time, just ran as my body permit is my plan. So I sped up a bit when I felt good and slow down if I felt tired. I also try to experiment a bit of taking water and energy drink because in the past 20 marathons, I always have stomach problem. All I drank seemed to stay wafffling in my gut and threw out after the race. So my first intake was at 20km, I stopped briefly to down a cup of gatorade, stretch a bit and than start again. Might be I lost around 30 seconds but it seemed that my stomach is Ok this time. Just 500 m short of the half marathon mark, another Hong Kong friend catch me up, when I realised he is finishing off I was tempted to go with him. But again, I was able to hold that idea and pressed on.
I was very focus on my run so I could not remember too many things on the way, except that I admired those who ran all the way with their bags or those carry the flags of their running club all the way. It is really not easy to do that for 42 km. My salute to them! I also tried to response to some spectators as I think they also need encouragement. As the km built up, the legs started to complain, the cool temperature also make my upper body a bit uncomfortable. At 28km Mr Yip did catch me up as I slowed down thinking that I should reserve my energy for the last 5 km. After going at his pace for a few meters and at the burst of the moment I decided to pace with him and we ran together for another 12km. We past many runners and I felt strong suddenly. At 32km I saw 依禛小姐 on the opposite, thinking it was only a short distance ahead, i yell out, very good but I am catching up!!! Soon I realised it was a good 4 km away as we need to ran around the lake to come back to the same spot. 依禛 actualy clocked a PB of 3:17, and consistently improving. Strangely she seemd to be the only person that I saw from Shanghai during the whole 42 km. At 39km, my heart is still strong but my body has other idea and I slowed to a crawl. Everybody seemd to fly pass me but I couldn't response. Knowing that there are only 3 km left, I just focus on moving my leggs forward, taking one step at a time. Going into the stadium and crossing the finish line is the most precious moment. Once again I did it, 42.195 km. My 18 from 23 attempt. My watch say 3:44, a good 10 minutes slower than last year and 24 minutes slower than my ist Beijing marathon. My " Ah Q" analysis is that it is an improvement, you see, in 2007, I did it in 3:20, In 2008, I did it in 3:33, the different is 13 minutes, in 2009, i did it in 3:44. The different is 11 minutes, an improvement of 2 minutes, well done MM!
After the run, we were given a bag of goodies, important is the water, the print out of the certificate is so quick, excellent. The only problem is the long walk to return the timing chip for the 100RMB deposite. Well it is always hard to get money right? Since I did not has this stomach problem I stay around a bit and good to meet many of our Shanghai friends and learnt a lot of them did their PB and specialy Hung Yu did a sub-3. Realy feel proud of them. After that I went back to the hotel, has a hot bath and went to sleep for an hour. Than go to downtown Wangfuzhang to eat some congee, walk around a bit and meet Mzoe and Hung Yu for a after the race review dinner. We tried the famous lamb pizza and has a good chat until late. Hung Yu is very keen to convince me to start with him a training program to go for a PB for the next marathon, but I was so tired from this one that I don't even know if there is a next one myself so kindly declined his offer at least for the time being. Suesu arrived in Beijing but didn't want to come out because of the strong cold wind that started blowing right after the marathon. Guess we were blessed this year!!
Afterall, I quite enjoy the Beijing marathon, the organisation, the atmosphere and the city itself. Sure will come again at least for the half marathon. |
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发表于 2009-10-23 11:44:46
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