The Event
The start of the 30th year anniversary run is close to the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, on the Mäntymäentie-street in front of the statue of a great Finnish runner, Paavo Nurmi, at 3 PM. Helsinki City Marathon is a one-start-event. The 42,195 meters long route goes around Helsinki finishing outside the historical Helsinki Olympic Stadium.
This year's event was held on Saturday 14th August 2010
Why?
So, why do another marathon?! I promised myself when I did the London marathon that I would never do another marathon again, so why have I agreed to take part in Helsinki? Well, these are the reasons I could muster up:
- I had done London in my old home country. Why not do Helsinki in my new home country?
- I had done the half marathon in Helsinki already, why not do the full marathon too!
- I had done so much training already; it would have seemed like such a waste to stop! Another couple of months and I should be in good shape for a marathon.
- I think I felt I could have done a little better than the London marathon. For London, I had trained only 3 months. By the time this event came round, I would have 7 months training under my belt!
So, there you have it! I decided that I would take part in the Helsinki marathon at the end of May and signed up one month later.
Training
So, I had already been running since January 2010, although the first two months were only limited to a few runs because of the extreme cold temperatures of the winter. It was in March that my training started “properly”. I had gradually built up my distances and did my first half marathon in May (Helsinki City Run). As we entered June and I thought about beginning to up my weekend runs to longer than half marathon distance, I got ill! First of all a nasty cold followed immediately by some strange bug that knocked me out completely for a few additional days! So, a gap of a few weeks in my training appeared in June and even when I came back, it seemed to take some time before I was running the distances and pace I was at previously. July was a hard month and the weekend runs grew and grew until my last big run of 32 km (20 miles) before the taper. July was also an obscenely hot month with the temperatures regularly being clocked around the 30C mark! I was a little worried as time wore on because the race day, being in the middle of August, could quite possibly be very warm indeed! I was assured by many people though that the temperatures would drop by then and that most years it was quite pleasant. Because of the warm temperatures in July, I did a lot of my runs in the evening, starting as late as 9-10pm sometimes (even then the temperature was still around 25C!) and not getting home until midnight (if it was one of my long runs).
So, as the race day approached I felt as ready as I could be, but my training had taken a little knock so I felt I hadn’t done as many long runs as I would have liked to have done. However, in my long runs, I had managed to run the entire distance, even in the 32 km (20 mile) run. My ultimate aim for the race would be to run the entire distance, but at the very least, I wanted to run the first 32 km (20 miles), as I knew I could do this.
Race Day
The race was to start at 3pm on Saturday 14th August 2010. However, I arrived in Helsinki with the family a lot earlier than this as my son was taking part in the mini marathon in the morning. The mini marathon was 1 km race for children of all ages and I ran alongside my (soon to be) 8 year old son for the duration of the race. I was very pleased as he finished with a very good time of exactly 5 minutes! That’s a pace that I would be very happy with in my race that afternoon!
Shortly after this, we moved into the city centre for some lunch. I wanted to eat around two and a half hours before the race start. We found a nice little restaurant where I ordered my last meal of pasta and chicken.
After lunch, I moved towards the start area by myself whilst the family did some shopping. They were hoping to see me en route a little later. Again, the start would be from Töölö at the Olympic Stadium.
The Race
Around 15 minutes before the scheduled start time, I took my place in the crowded start area. I was probably starting somewhere in the middle of the crowd. The 15 minute wait seemed to take a long time and was very congested. With the
temperature being 29C at the start and being crowded in around many people, it
became quite uncomfortable, so I was glad when we were finally setting off.
I made sure I started at a very steady pace given my experience in the half marathon a few months ago and the very hot conditions that I was facing on the day. A few kilometers into the race and I saw some friends (Olga, Jani and their daughter) which was nice. At the beginning of the race there were quite a few people cheering everyone on and it was shortly after seeing my friends that I saw Minna and Samu just as I came back on to Mannerheimintie.
After leaving Mannerheimintie, the crowds thinned out a little and I was keeping a constant check on my watch at the pace I was running. I was happy with the way things were going at this point. I also ensured that I was getting plenty to drink at the refreshment stops as I knew hydration was going to be very important today!
The first 10 km (6 miles) passed by without any problems and as I approached 15 km (9 miles) I could just start to feel some problems in my legs. They felt tired and quite heavy already and I was a little concerned by this. The next 5 km (3 miles), became quite a battle and I could quickly feel my legs deteriorating further! I managed to get just past the half way point (21 km - 13 miles) before I stopped at one of the refreshment stops and walked with my drink for a while. After a minute or so, I picked up the pace to a run again but was really struggling. It was at this point that I realized how difficult the rest of the race was going to be! I continued with a combination of running and walking and as time went on the runs became less and the walking became more.
At 30
km (19 miles) I was beginning to wonder if I would even make the finish line! Every stride
became more and more painful. I was quite baffled by all of this though! It’s
not as though I hadn’t run these sorts of distances in training. My biggest run
in training was 32 km (20 miles) and I managed to run all of it (although I was feeling a
little pooped by the end of it!). The last 10 km (6 miles) became a massive battle to get to
the finish line. Each kilometre marker seemed to take longer and longer
to reach.
The last kilometre gave me an indication that I was not the only one suffering though. During this final kilometre, I saw two people collapsed on the ground with medics around them and another throwing up in some bushes on the side. As the finish line approached, I dragged myself into a sorry little run and as I passed the finish line, I had a massive sense of relief that it was all over! Many people after finishing a marathon have a sense of euphoria which masks the tiredness of the body. I just wanted to get through the finishing area and have a sit down! Anywhere would do! Just to rest my legs!
Results
My gun time was 4:53:45. My chip time was 4:51:29. My final position was 3,735th out of the field of 5,095 runners who completed the race.
A full round up of the results can be found here