I have tried to explain what happened at my mary last weekend. Let me set the stage, it might be a tad long.
Came of an injury after Running a mary in Sep in Toronto. Used BarryP plan and last 4 weeks before taper were 70k with one of 78k. 2 longest runs - 31k and 33k with 16k at MP 4:30m/km with the last 2 at 4:05 according to Macmillan this should be good for MP. Nutrition on 31k was 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of gatorade 591ml on a treadmill at 22C. All other long runs were on nothing ei 21-28k except water.
Race day - wt 66.2kg in am. Regular breakfast with yoghurt cereal and fruit at 6am. Small coffee and piece of banana cake with honey. 8am 1 Hammer gel and lots of water. 591cc gatorade 15min prior to 9am start. Bad weather - I like it warm - cold 9C with 30-40km/h winds NE and rain. 22k were downhill with the wind but mostly covered streets so you didn’t feel the wind, 125m drop to the lake. Kept GPS pace of 4:24 for half and timed 1:33:00 but GPS stopped matching course after 4k was getting about 300m long by half. GPS calibrated to bike and very exact day in day out on country roads, within .1%.
1 gel at 15k and some water during 2 stops. Bottle of gatorade from family at 21k and finished by 29k sipping. Turned and heading into wind and rain. At 30k I was still on 4:26 pace roughly with timed 2:14:00. On pace for 3:10. Felt very good at this time and kept the pace around 4:25GPS. Passed a few people and kept going did not feel thirsty or like eating at all after that gatorade. I was still passing people and got to 38k with still about a half minute in hand for a 3:10 if I kept the pace. At this point a lady passed me I could not keep up with her she was going for the same time.
Before 3k to go there was a turn into the wind which had now changed to North 30k/h and an uphill climb of about 75m to the finish. At the 3k mark I had to walk, then walked and run till the end. Several of the people I passed repassed me. Finish was 3:13:20 chip but my GPS said 42.9k and pace of 4:31.
So my questions that I have been debating is -
Was it my nutrition ? should I have eaten a gel or gatorade or
Too fast a pace into the wind on the last 12k, did I go too early?
This is only my 2nd mary so I can’t really judge. I was not dehydrated as I drunk only 1l of fluid over the next 3hrs due to a trip and had to pee a large amount by 4PM. Now that I made Boston I don’t want to make the same mistake at that event as I won’t be racing another Mary till then. Any thoughts would be appreciated
I will venture a guess from the safety of my couch. My interpretation of the race is that you were more likely lacking leg strength for the full distance rather than mishandling your nutrition. Did you get in enough hill training during the previous 16 weeks?
IMO, Hill training is critical to a successful marathon.
Marathon bonks are nearly overwhelmingly due to fitness reasons. The race isn’t sufficiently long for a true nutritional limiter unless you are intentionally ‘starved’ the day before (which almost never happens) and also sufficiently out of shape so you don’t fat burn efficiently - which is really more of a fitness limiter.
It’s unusual and possibly rare for someone to really be able to just ingest more calories and go significantly faster on race day.
Hydration, on the other hand, can matter a lot, particularly on hot days. If you don’t hydrate on a hot day, your speed will drop when you start losing enough fluid and you start losing cooling/sweat as well.
Almost all folks who train adequately for a marthon with the intention of really RUNNING the whole thing (even slowly) with a good, long buildup over 12-24 weeks with adequate mileage, would be able to complete the marathon at pretty much the same speed even if they didn’t take in any calories on the course, and just drank water the whole way. The training effects allow you to go in to fat-burning mode fairly quickly, and thus your calories aren’t only coming from your carbo stores.
For longer races like the ironman (or even half-iron), nutrition can be key - you’ll bonk out if you neglect it. But for a typical marathon run <5hrs, and especially for ‘fit’ marathoners close to the BQ times, which are generally closer to 3-3.5 hours, you don’t bonk because of nutrition.
I’m going to agree with the others. It was probably your fitness level. 70k/ week is not very much running, especially for a marathon.
Also, stop referring to your gps. When it comes to the race, what your gps says means nothing vs how the course is measured.
Stop calling it a “mary” too, please.
I apologize for calling it a mary.
I was referring to the GPS as a way of questioning whether I was going too fast. And should I train 3-4 sec/km faster than planned MP for the next race using GPS ?
Thank you for your replies. I just need to do more hills, I only have hills 12k from my house which I run. Regarding distance I was hoping to get solid 90k/week for Boston if my body can handle it.
Would longer runs into the 36 or 38k range be better or stick with 34k and fast finishes ?
I’m going to agree with the others. It was probably your fitness level. 70k/ week is not very much running, especially for a marathon.
Also, stop referring to your gps. When it comes to the race, what your gps says means nothing vs how the course is measured.
Agreed that 70k/week is a pretty low peak training
The GPS is actually telling you something important here, which is that you took a crappy race line for whatever reason (crowds in the first half usually) and worked slightly too hard for your time
While I was reading your post, even before I saw other responses I thought it screamed “lack of fitness”. At a minimum you should be looking to have peak volume in the 100-120K range. It doesn’t sound like nutrition or pacing were really the problem. You simply ran a good pace for as long as your fitness provided. After that you crashed and burned.
More is almost always better when it comes to the marathon. For the long run, I would try to do at least one or two runs of 38-39k, and the rest can be 34k. Try doing faster paced runs too (faster than MP). For me (and others I train with), I find that doing track work as if I’m going to be racing a 5-10k to help a lot. For Boston, I highly recommend you try to find someplace to run downhill for long periods of time. The Newton hills in Boston are nothing, but the first 15 miles of running down hill can kill you.
Plenty of people have a rough time near the end of a marathon (and as coach Paulo said, it most certainly is NOT a lack of leg strength!).
I’ve never heard of anyone walking though with only 3k to go. That would be serious HTFU territory there, no matter what you felt like. As was noted, you likely needed quite a few more miles in your legs, long runs with marathon pace near the end of them, etc. You will do fine next time next time, just be a little tougher mentally!
I agree that my reference to leg strength was probably worded poorly. I went on to tell the OP that he probably needed more hill training. Others have said that he just didn’t put in enough miles during the key weeks leading up to his race. I would agree with that too.
I recall that during my marathon years, my weekly hill training gave me great confidence. What I felt as leg strength was probably just solid fitness level.
I didn’t really walk all the 3k, at 3k I had to walk and then run again, I did 5:30 pace the last 3k. I know what HTFU is, my first marathon I developed calf cramps at 19k and had to walk and stretch with severe pain that had me fall several times and still finished with 3:23:40.
Thank you all for your great insights. I really appreciate them. I will bump my weekly volume to 90-110k if I can and then follow the other advice here. Thanks a lot.