First of all I don’t consider myself a runner, I’m a plumber and that’s what pays the bills, I run as a pastime, as a lifestyle, but it does not define me or limit me. Secondly I most definitely don’t consider myself a writer, so me writing about running should be interesting!
I look back on the Chicago marathon and the year in running that has been.
I sat down last November after dropping out of the Toronto waterfront half marathon at the 10km point a couple of weeks before. I decided that if I was going to race again I was going to do it properly, to the best of my ability and pour everything I had into it. I knew that if I wanted to run a good race in 9 or 10 months time I would have to be able to do high mileage.
I ran the Berlin marathon in 2017 running it in 2:39, the previous 10 weeks in the lead up to the race I averaged around 50km per week, I knew for Chicago this wasn’t going to cut it. I mapped out my year, everything from tune up races, target times, projected peek weeks, what my food on race day would be, the same songs before every long run, everything was planned.
I ran the Berlin marathon in 2017 running it in 2:39, the previous 10 weeks in the lead up to the race I averaged around 50km per week, I knew for Chicago this wasn’t going to cut it. I mapped out my year, everything from tune up races, target times, projected peek weeks, what my food on race day would be, the same songs before every long run, everything was planned.
I had only two goal races in the year, the national 10km championship in Ottawa and the Chicago marathon. I wanted to start building up my mileage gradually but also felt I needed a spring/early summer race to keep me motivated but knew I wouldn’t be strong enough for spring marathon or half so I decided on a 10km. I wanted 32mins for Ottawa and 2:30 for Chicago. (My pb for the 10km was 35:43 at the time and as I said 2:39 for the marathon)
I ran the tannenbaum 10km in December as a gauge of my fitness running it in 33:27 (pb) this was a good indicator for me to know what my tempo paces ect for training should be in the coming weeks.
I ran my first ever 100km week in December, with no real workouts just steady base mileage. After a few weeks the mileage felt easier so I started to incorporate workouts with the volume. For the first few months I didn’t really go above 110km per week much but had plenty of quality workouts. I could have increased my volume more at this point but I don’t think my body would have been able to do the workouts too.
I ran the chilly half marathon in March, the plan for this run was to go at what I projected my marathon pace would be in Chicago. This was the first real indication for me that the higher volume really works! I ran chilly in 1:12 as a workout!! (a 9 minute pb) my goal for Chicago quickly changed from 2:30 to 2:25. In the run up to Ottawa I never felt better, confident in my training and good course and race tactics advice from my training partner Rejean, I knew I was going to make people hurt! It was a hot humid evening not ideal for racing but finishing in 32:16 (pb) all I thought crossing the line was “tick.... Chicago I’m coming for you.” The next few months was back to basics, running the higher miles, gradual increases over weeks, “patience” was consistently floating around my head.
I got to the start of my Chicago training block where I wanted to be, strong enough to tackle 100mile weeks with hard workouts, but I was fresh going into the block. Over the 10 weeks I averaged 153km per week with most weeks having 3 good workouts.
The last 3 weeks things fell to shit! I got sick and to be honest I didn’t feel better until the Thursday or Friday of the marathon. I remember one morning specifically where I got out of bed and the combination of being sick and the pain/tiredness from high miles and general marathon training I couldn’t walk! I stud up out of bed, felt the pain in my feet and collapsed to the ground. I was close to tears, how was I going to run a marathon in 10 days? To be honest if I wasn’t cheap and everything wasn’t paid for already I would have pulled out at this point. I didn’t have one workout in the last 3 weeks. But the vomiting has stopped the Saturday before Chicago so I said “fuck it I’ll go! See if I can pull something out of my ass on race day”!
The last 3 weeks things fell to shit! I got sick and to be honest I didn’t feel better until the Thursday or Friday of the marathon. I remember one morning specifically where I got out of bed and the combination of being sick and the pain/tiredness from high miles and general marathon training I couldn’t walk! I stud up out of bed, felt the pain in my feet and collapsed to the ground. I was close to tears, how was I going to run a marathon in 10 days? To be honest if I wasn’t cheap and everything wasn’t paid for already I would have pulled out at this point. I didn’t have one workout in the last 3 weeks. But the vomiting has stopped the Saturday before Chicago so I said “fuck it I’ll go! See if I can pull something out of my ass on race day”!
I had readjusted my goal halfway during the block to 2:22, ambitious? Possibly! But during the block I ran the Leinster Provincial half marathon championship at home in Ireland finishing second in 69 mins (pb) 42 seconds behind the winner who set a course record and a couple of weeks later the Toronto Island 10km as part of a 100mile training week in 31:16 (pb) So ya I thought 2:22 was very possible. Im a firm believer in visualization of goals but not dreaming of things, my goals have to be realistic.
I ran Chicago actually feeling pretty good on the day considering how the previous couple of weeks had felt, I went out aiming for 2:25 again not 2:22, the pace was comfortable but at 22km I cramped I guess I could only re hydrate so much in the last couple of days, I didn’t panic at this point but I was like “ah for fuck sake” in my head, I knew if I kept the pace up I probably wouldn’t finish so I didn’t really slow but I definitely held myself back a little saying “I’ll go to 30 anyway and see how it feels” the cramp felt the same at this point so I said “I’ll do 16 mins more and see” this was then 35km, at this point I was in chinatown and from watching replays of previous years races I had said before the race over and over in my head “once I get to Chinatown I'm more or less finished” mentally this was very helpful!
I crossed the line 2:25, I was happy with with I had done but also it was very anticlimactic, I had so much belief all year that when I did it, it felt like ya well knew I was going to do this! I actually saw a friend at the line and before he said congratulations I shouted “how did Kyle and Eric do????” "they fucking killed it" he replied.....which they did!! But for me it was a strange feeling I had come so far to feel nothing?? The next few days I was inundated with congratulation msgs and offers to go on a podcast etc it which I was extremely grateful and still am but I sort of pushed all to one side. I was slightly embarrassed to be honest, I felt I was in 2:22 shape but was 2:25 a failure?, it was still 5 mins faster than my original goal I had set in December. I felt disappointed in myself. Was it worth it? What was I expecting to feel when I crossed the line? I don’t know. But I wasn’t expecting to feel nothing.
Time has past and I have read back though my training log and I have pulled my head out of my sweater and remembered how far I have come. At the time after Chicago I had the 12th fastest marathon time in Canada all year and coincidentally if I was registered with Athletics Ireland I would have the 12th fastest time there too!
Will Chicago be my lifetime best? I hope not, but ya it’s possible. I still have huge goals for myself and I'm going to work hard to make them a reality but I think if this year thought me anything is it’s important to look to the future but it’s as important to look back and remember where you have come from.
Realizing you have grown is sometimes more important than dreaming.
A lot of people asked me over the past weeks, how did you do it? What changed? And to be honest most people don’t believe me when I say “I just decided I wanted to run” but it’s true. People say to me, “but you had the talent” for me talent might separate a 2:50 runner from a 2:40 runner but both of them have to work damn hard to get there. So when I say “I decided” I mean it. I stated to train for performance, wether you are trying to break 4hrs, qualify for Boston or qualify for the Olympics if you want to succeed you should be training for performance. This meant I was doing everything possible to give myself the best chance of improving, not just running.
My alarm went off at 4:30am daily since last December, I did my activations and stretches and was on the road for 5:30am with Rejean. I ate what I needed to eat within 20 mins of finishing runs. I read about running everyday, I ate good food and did core work every night before bed and was asleep most nights at 10pm I was more regimented on tracking rest times between intervals in workouts, no unnecessary stops on runs. I ran my fast stuff fast and my slow stuff slow.
When you start to do all these things, it’s impossible for you to not improve. I surrounded myself with people I admire and respected as runners and am very lucky have have positive friends around me in my daily life, taking every little grain of advice I could from them, and implementing it into my own life and training.
This year I had pb’s in every race I ran and some distances I had 2 and 3. 1500m, 5km, 8km, 10km, half marathon and marathon I pb'd in them all.
The most important thing was I was patient, results don’t happen overnight so before I started all of this I told myself that, just say at it and trust the process, it might not happen this year but it will someday. We all want these quick results but if your patient you will have huge results and you will be a runner for life. Cam at Scotia is a prime example, he could have ran a marathon years ago and probably easily go sub 2:15, instead he waits and his first one he breaks a 43 year old record.
As I said I’m not a writer and I’m not comfortable at all talking like this, but Eric Bang said to me after Chicago
“what you just did today will make more people aim for sub 2:30”
So if me sounding like a asshole here helps just one runner step things up then I’m ok with that!
