Category: Personal

Personal

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I did it! Mara-DONE.

Today, I ran the Melbourne Marathon. My time was 5hrs 10min, which was a bit slower than I expected. But the goal was to complete it, and that I did. It was really, really, REALLY hard. I was going fine until about the 32km mark feeling strong and cruising, when muscles in my legs started to cramp and had to switch to alternating between walking and running for the remaining 10km. I can still walk, but it’s a bit like The Mummy, all stiff-legged and slow. (Update: looks like I listened to too much well-intentioned advice and drank far too much water, resulting in a classic case of hyponatremia.)
Last year when I ran the half marathon, I said that I wanted to lose another 20kg before the full marathon. Unfortunately I only lost 5 of those 20, and really felt it in the latter stages. Looking on the bright side, I lost a shade over 3kg during the race 🙂

It feels really good to have achieved such a huge personal goal. But I don’t think I’ll do it again. I may run more marathons, but with more preparation, and definitely not until I’ve reached my goal weight of 83kg or less. What I won’t do again is run for five hours, the last two in serious pain. That’s just nuts.

Martin and Daniel at the Starting LineDaniel with me at the start.

Footnote: The weather was absolutely perfect! A bit of drizzle at the start, 10 deg C, bright and sunny with a max of 17 by the time I got to the city, and a howling (20-30kt) cool southerly the whole way. I only caught a bit of a headwind after turning at the Beach Rd-Nepean Hwy roundabout, and then only for a couple of minutes. The rest of the time the wind was at my back and constantly cooling me down. A runner could not ask for more! Especially after a week of high-20s and more 25-30 days forecast for the coming week.

Stats from the heart-rate monitor:

Km Time Av HR Notes
1 5.25 152 Too Fast! Slow down!
2 5:33 142 Still a bit fast, but the HR is settling
3 5:58 143 That’s more like it!
4 5:54 145  
5 6:07 146  
6 6:08 147  
7 6:06 145  
8 6:09 148 HR still a little high
9 6:09 147 nice and steady
10 6:19 147  
11 6:35 148 drinky
12 6:09 147  
13 6:11 147  
14 6:15 152  
15 6:23 152  
16 7:06 149 toilet break 🙂
17 6:35 150  
18 6:37 151  
19 6:39 152 still feeling great
20 6:54 158 getting into the hills
21 6:58 159 hills
22 7:03 158 more hills
23 6:46 157 a few downhills 🙂
24 7:41 159 I’m really sick of these hills
25 7:07 159 still more hills
26 6:48 167 need to slow down again
27 7:44 157 better
28 6:42 165 too fast again
29 7:36 154 much better, feeling great
30 9:35 153 stopped to see Deb and the kids at South Rd
31 7:53 155 slowing a little, starting to feel sore
32 9:28 145 had to start walking halfway through this one. The cramps have hit.
33 8:39 138 cramps marginally better
34 8:51 137 well, at least I’m not going too fast anymore!
35 9:37 127 really struggling
36 9:50 134 more walking than running now
37 9:07 139 a bit more running
38 8:53 145 able to do a bit more running. Hi Bobby!
39 8:58 143 still doing a bit more running, but it’s barely faster than walking…
40 8:54 140  
41 9:23 134 cramps are bad, just walked this one
42 + 0.2 11:21 135 managed to run the last 200m! glad that’s over
Total: 5:10.06 149
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Delete Meat

I’ve become a vegetarian.

I had my last carnivorous meal on the 12th of September. I’ve been reading a lot over the past few years about the impact on the planet of our western obsession with meat: most forest clearing is for cattle grazing land or for crops to feed cattle; the sheer inefficiency of feeding an animal 7-10 kilograms of grain and soy protein to produce 1 kilogram of meat, not to mention the thousands of litres of water that go into both; the cruelty that is unnecessary but commonplace, particularly with chicken and pigs; even the simple fact that we actually don’t need to eat meat.

The time comes when the weight of that knowledge pushes me to say to myself “So what am I going to do about this?” I can spend time taking in all this information, but if I don’t actually do something about it, I’ve just wasted my time. And inaction is not an option: inaction is too generous a word, because not changing means choosing to continue. It means continuing active financial support of the very industries that are destroying the planet, and leading too many people down the road to obesity, ill health and misery. I won’t participate in that any more.

The most interesting revelation on becoming a vegetarian is that it’s pretty easy. I’ve learned a lot about healthy eating over the past few years, which has meant that I haven’t been eating much meat. So it’s not really a big jump to substitute something that amounts to only 5% or less of my existing diet. I love cooking and trying new things, so this is now a new area of culinary exploration to enjoy.

Some people do tend to find it difficult to adjust, though. I guess it can be uncomfortable to process change at such a basic level in someone you know. I found a similar reaction when I’d lost a lot of weight, and mentioned that I still needed to lose a lot more. My appearance had changed enough to cause them to update their mental picture of me – the brain essentially stores our images of people in the form of caricatures – and suggesting that there was more change to come was quite unsettling for them.

I deleted television almost four years ago. Now I’ve deleted meat. What’s next? That’s what I worry about…

If you’re interested in what being a vegetarian is all about, there is a wealth of information on the web and veggie123 is a great place to start.

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Marathon

So I’m all paid up and registered for the Melbourne Marathon on the 8th of October.

I’ve been concentrating on the longer runs lately, going for two or three one-hour runs during the week, and a longer one on the weekend. My long run last Sunday was two hours, and I was pretty sore the following day (knees and hips mainly, muscles in the legs feeling fine), and not too bad today. Certainly much better than after my half-marathon last year. So I feel pretty good about completing the distance, but it will definitely take me at least 4 hours.

So if you’d like to come and cheer me along, the course is on the website. I’m going to pace myself at 6min/km, so I expect to be at the 10km mark at 9am (Thames Promenade & Nepean Hwy), 20km at 10am (Reserve Rd & Beach Rd), 30km at around 11-11:10am (South Rd & Beach Rd) and the finish line between 12:15 and 12:30. I think I’ll need the most encouragement after the 30km mark, so feel free to sleep in and come to the later stages to give me a boost.

My race number is 681 (with a red background, indicating full marathon competitors).

Wish me luck!