Arrived in CPH in 25 degrees of heat, and went to the Expo to pick up my start number. Jumped off the bus in the center of CPH to walk through the remnants of Copenhagen Carneval - a most excellent early summer evening with thousands of people enjoying the evening sun at sidewalk cafes.
Checked in to CabInn, who kindly extended my checkout to 1600 - giving me the chance to have a hot shower and change clothes after the marathon. After finding a naked man in my bed (!) when I unlocked my hotel room door, I politely asked for a new room and decided I had had enough big city life for one day and went to bed early.
Race start was set for 0930, so I got up at 0530 for an energy bar, beetroot juice and some water, and headed for an early breakfast at 0600. Mueslie, oats and coffee dispatched, I headed for the start line at the harbour at 0800, deviating for a call of nature at the Youth Hostel at Langebro Bridge.
I found the 4:30 starting area, warmed up a bit, handed in someones lost car keys and used the portajohn (again - a recurring theme, I also filled the harbour a little later, as well as 2 pitstops during the marathon itself).
At exactly 0930 the race started, and almost as precisely the heavens opened. From the extreme heat of Saturday, we pretty much ran in rain for the rest of the marathon - I once read that perfect running weather is bad spectating weather - today was perhaps a bit too perfect for running as we ran through a deluge for about 30 minutes in the beginning of the race!
0-10km.
Held my target pace of 6:20/km for a 4:30 finish. Last weeks aches and pains had disappeared and I enjoyed revisiting the city we called home for 10 years.
10-20km.
Held my pace, and began relaxing a bit as there was still no pain to suggest that I would have any problems with my hips or achilles. The cobblestones were a bit hard on my minimal Vibram shoes, but fortunately these were only short stretches. Headed out to Vesterbro and passed my regular crisis point of 17km without any problems.
20-30km.
Passed the half-marathon point on schedule and all systems intact, slowing every km to drink a mouthful of electrolyte from my camelbak and eat a mouthful of fruit bar. Still raining, but not as heavily as earlier. Due to the loopback nature of the course we could see the runners still heading to the half-marathon point... some of them were already suffering, and I made a conscious effort to ignore them and continue my own race. Back into the city along the harbour, through Nyhavn, Langelinie (the little mermaid) and Kastellet, moving closer to Østerbro and the magic 32k marker - my longest distance to date.
30-42km.
No-mans land. I had never run this far before, and I knew it would be a Dark Place. After 30km most runners have used up their available glycogen depots, and marathons are traditionally considered to consist of two halves: the first 32km, followed by the torment of the last 10km. Somewhere in this final stretch, "regular" fatigue becomes a pleasant memory for most, as your body starts to consume itself.Fatigue had begun to set in after 21km, and my heartrate now lay dangerously close to 90% - inefficient, anærobic metabolism territory which can reduce you to a shuffling wreck within a single kilometer.
With 5km to go I threw caution to the wind and latched on to the sub 4:30 'bus', but the extra effort tipped the balance and I hit the 'wall' at 40km - a calculated risk as I felt I could force myself through the last few km. And force I did, reduced to a shuffling run barely faster than a brisk walk (an attempt to walk produced a cramp of biblical proportions which forced me back into a run).
The last 500 meters hurt - my body began to protest and warn me of an impending shutdown. Crossing the finish line was going to be not so much a triumph as it was a necessity - there would be no elation, just one eye closed and the other desperately fixed on a point just past the line.
And then, two hundred meters before the line I realized I would make it. I would run a marathon. Months of training and focus combined in those last meters and I emerged from the darkness of the last 10km a different person than when I went in.
Final time: 4:32:13
Minutes after crossing the line, my family called - they had been tracking me online and had watched me cross the finishing line - an experience as amazing as crossing the line itself!
Within minutes I had replenished my glycogen depots (blood was again being diverted back to other bodily functions than forward movement) and all systems were back to normal. As a biological experiment, the marathon takes some beating!
So - the classic question: will I do another? Oh yes sir - Berlin is only four months away! But however many marathons I do, I'm guessing nothing will ever beat the experience of the last 10km of my first marathon!
Lessons learnt:
1) Choose a well organized, local marathon - where you are familiar with the route - for your first, and train for it seriously. No other marathon will ever be as significant as the first.
2) Optimize your resources. Prioritize eating and drinking in the days before, and during the race, and stay in your aerobic zone for at least the first 40km. Having trained for so long, it was heartbreaking to see fellow first time marathoners hit the wall at 30km with almost no chance of completing a further 12km. I should have forced myself to eat at 30km to have had a chance of beating the 'wall'. I consider myself lucky to have been let off with a warning, only having to endure it for 2km.
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