Canberra is one of my favourite places in Australia to visit. It is the capital city of Australia and just 100 years old this year. Architecturally designed, the site was chosen in 1908 as a compromise location between rival cities Sydney and Melbourne and as the capital of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia. Designed by Walter Burley Griffin, the entire city was set out to work in with the landscape, an ideal that has continued to this day. The feeling of space and closeness with the landscape is just about tangible in Canberra, and for that reason I have for many years wanted to run the marathon there.
This was my third stint at training for the Canberra race, and this time most things went well, and so I found myself lined up with about 4,000 others waiting for the combined start of the marathon and half-marathon races in the cool of a Canberran autumn. The weather can be a lottery in Canberra at this time of year, with overnight lows in April anywhere from -4C to +18C. This morning we scored something around +8C, cool enough for us Sydney runners, where overnight lows are still quite mild at around 15C, but positively warm for local runners who scoffed at our fleeces and beanies. One man standing near me at the start and wearing a “Port Moresby Running Club” vest looked nearly blue with cold.
My main goal was simply to post a PB, which should perhaps be a given really in only my second marathon, but so many things can go wrong on the day that it seemed prudent to keep the goal-setting simple. If I could get down around the 4h30m, so much the better, but my race plan was essentially to run the first half at a comfortable pace and see how I fared from there. My nutrition plan was also simple – drink water only and take a gel about every hour. My training had been based on this simple formula and seemed to work, so I was confident of fewer stomach troubles than I had last time.
With all that in mind I moved to the back of the field for the start and pretty soon the gun fired and we were off. The first 10.5km of the marathon was a loop around the imposing Parliament House, which sits atop and under Capital Hill. This was the prettiest part of the course, and I made sure I took the time to soak up the views. The weather was glorious for running, and the wonderful Canberran landscape was topped by the sight of a dozen or so colourful hot air balloons drifting above us. Quite stunning! Runners were in a buoyant mood, with each kilometre marker greeted by shouts of “Yay, we’re into the final 38 kilometres!” (etc), and regular Sunday joggers who were taking advantage of the road closures were ribbed with predictable but happy shouts of “You’re going the wrong way!” as they passed us, for the most part eyeing us with expressions of pity or disbelief.
The first 10km passed incident free and in a comfortable 1:03:14. I took my first gel at this point and settled in for the long haul, the rest of the race consisting principally of two 14km laps set around large parts of Lake Burley Griffin, which divides the parliamentary precinct from the main business sector of Canberra.
At the 16km point I was surprised to be overtaken by the race leader, already on his second lap and having covered 32km. This meant he was shooting through the course at about 3 min/km and would be on target for sub 2h10m! Given the race was usually won in a time of around 2h30m this was a little staggering, but the distance between him and the next runners suggested he was running at an unsustainable rate (which proved to be the case, although he still finished in a creditable time of 2h24m).
About two kilometres later (c.18km) I had my first encounter with Jesus. We were at that stage passing many runners who had reached the turnaround point of the course and who were now running back past us on the other side of the road. Among them was Jesus, running
barefoot , with a crown of thorns on his head and wearing a loin-cloth. Looking just like countless pictures we’ve seen of him, he had a Jesus-beard and a serene smile, and was running well. If the crown of thorns was in any way uncomfortable, he seemed to be dealing with it "blissfully". However, of stigmata there was nothing to be seen, so I must confess to having doubts as to his authenticity … oh me of little faith.
The 20km mark came up in a little over 2h08m, and the half-way point in 2h15:30. I was travelling well and feeling comfortable and began to entertain ideas of a 4h30m finish, all the time of course well aware of the perils of such thinking. I took another gel and fell into conversation with a woman in her mid-40s running her
100th marathon. Sharp-minded viewers may remember I also encountered a woman running her 100th marathon in my first mara, the Sydney marathon last September. This Canberra encounter was more pleasant than the first one, and I had quite a nice chat with her – she was an astonishing lady, having run 100 marathons and 13 ultra-marathons in just 16 years of running! Quite an inspiration, although I simply can’t imagine the amount of time and devotion it must require to chalk up such an astonishing number of endurance races.
The 23km mark saw us briefly back in the parliamentary precinct before commencing the second 14km lap of the lake. At 25km I was surprised by a shout from Mrs MLCMM, who was waiting at the side of the road, camera in hand. A quick, sweaty hug, a posed photo and an assurance that I was running well and I was on my way again. Indeed, I
was running well, but the day was warming up, the sun was out and I was drinking greedily at each water station. Salt was beginning to build up on my face and the conditions were becoming something of a concern, but for the moment all was well. At 26km we mercifully began the second lap and was able to leave behind all the elite runners who had been overtaking us in their run to the finish.
Up until the 30km my run had been going very well indeed. I hit 30km in 3h09m, nicely on target for 4h30m, but by now the run was starting to get harder. I took another gel around this time and started to knuckle down to some hard kilometres. From the 31km mark we started a 3km out-and-back section along the lakeside, and it was disconcerting to see all the other runners ahead of us streaming by on the other side of the road. At about 32km I again saw Jesus, still running well, but looking less serene and I knew I was slowly catching him, although clearly, barring some un-divine intervention he would still finish well ahead of me. I again looked at his bare feet and wondered how on earth his feet were holding up on what was now baking hot bitumen. The road surface was unusually harsh – it seemed normal road surface, but my feet and knees were taking more than a usual beating, and I heard numerous complaints from runners about their hurting feet and knees.
My kilometre splits were starting to blow out somewhat, but I was still holding a good average pace. However the 35th and 36th kilometres were tremendously hard, and then finally, inevitably perhaps, I hit the wall. The 37th kilometre I pretty much walked in its entirety, and any thought of a 4h30m finish was gone. Still, I was hopeful that once recovered I could finish reasonably well. My head was still clear, but my legs had tanked. Another gel was out of the question as my stomach was no longer processing any fuel and was giving me a stern warning not to pour anything more into it stronger than water.
The last 5 - 6 kilometres were therefore nothing more than a “survival shuffle”, buoyed only by the incredible support of volunteers, spectators and the other runners, also suffering in the latter parts of the race. There really is something about the camaraderie of suffering in the last part of a marathon that makes it … worthwhile? Not sure that’s quite the right way to put it, but suffering shared is certainly suffering
reduced (if not actually halved) and it’s a great and noble feeling.
The last kilometre was almost heart-wrenching, the crowd support was that great. I was quite emotional when I finally crossed that finish line and found Mrs MLCMM again standing there, camera in hand to capture the moment. I was barely able to walk but she guided me through the finishing chute (fortunately by this stage the number of finishers was diminished sufficiently for the officials to allow non-runners in to the recovery area), collecting water, the all-important medal and to wander groggily around the assorted stands and paraphernalia that is found in après-race areas.
That is also where I saw Jesus for the third time, still clad in crown-of-thorns and loin-cloth but now wearing a pair of sensible running shoes. Later I kicked myself for not getting a photo, but honestly at the time all I could really think about was to keep on moving – if I stopped moving I would sit down, and if I sat down, well I might still be sitting there now.
Eventually we staggered back to our accommodation, mercifully only a few hundred metres from the race finish line, where I collapsed in a chair and attempted to revive sufficiently to fall into the shower and contemplate some rehydration and lunch.
My split times during the race had been automatically posted on Facebook, and I was a little staggered to see a large number of congratulatory message there already, which was every bit as touching as the support of the crowd during the race. So thank you, all of you who have posted messages, and I’m only sorry I haven’t replied to you all individually. But I am touched by your support.
So then it was a three-hour drive back to Sydney, further re-hydration and re-fuelling, a bit of couch time, and then a determined effort to get this report posted, seeing how so many of you were eager for some kind of race report. It’s no great piece of eloquence, but I hope it suffices!
Mrs MLCMM asked me when we returned home if I would like to run the Canberra race again. I said in all honesty that I needed a day or two to consider it. It hurt out there today, it really did, but I learned a lot. My final time of 4h41m was a good 15 minutes inside my previous time in the Sydney event, so I’m of course very happy with that. To improve further, I somehow have to push “hitting the wall” back further and further. I certainly did that this time, and coped with the crash better generally, but to improve much more is going to require a lot more training, all of which takes much time and effort. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, I think.
But! It certainly was a thrill to finally run Canberra – a beautiful, fantastic race, and a big improvement on my Sydney marathon effort. I could easily see myself being lulled into running another one someday, but, as I said, let’s just see what happens next.
Thanks again everyone for your support. I keep saying this, but only because it’s true – I’m only running today because of runningcommentary.net and all you wonderful people who populate it, motivating and inspiring in your own unique ways. So thank you, each and all!
And now, I'm off to bed to sleep a long and very deep sleep.
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At the 25km point - still feeling good, and yes, I
am running backwards (only briefly, for the camera)!
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Relief at the finish line.
![[Image: canberra_mara_medal.JPG]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80315908/canberra_mara_medal.JPG)
One happy finisher with that all-important medal.
Orange Silver April
![[Image: Lindfield%20elevation.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80315908/Lindfield%20elevation.jpg)
