Tired of this taper malarkey...

I’m so tired that I decided to let a 1980s Lethal Weapon montage introduce this post:

It’s taken a long time to get this post written. Moving house, sorting out house issues and the change in train time tables have all contributed to writing about the London Marathon 2018 far later than I would have liked to. The main reason for writing this post, despite it being delayed, is after five years of trying to run marathons successfully (or unsuccessfully- you can take your pick) is how tapering has fascinated me. It’s ultimately a time of reflection, to see what I have achieved or alternatively what I am about to prepare for.

It occurred to me that the taper is a rather strange time for a marathon runner. It takes place either side of the marathon race; prior to it you are resting so that you can be at your best for your race, and afterwards you are recovering so that you can race again. I know this sounds as obvious to any experienced runner, such as saying the sun will rise again. What I find most interesting with the observation is the paradox of the runner’s mind; that once the pain and fatigue have subsided, there is an intense need to be back out striving for something. The fatigue of training is now recalled with nostalgic, even rose-tinted glasses and all those niggles are remembered with fondness. Like remembering a fun drunken night out with good friends, whilst conveniently forgetting the awful hangover that occurred the next morning.

This potential rosy recollection of training for any type of race, got me thinking about how important it is about setting goals pre-race and post-race taper. In those moments when your body is recovering it can be very easy for your deepest running desires to be unleashed. Therefore allowing Freud’s Id to run amok (pun intended), and committing to unattainable goals. Indeed a lot of people noticing me limping in the weeks after London have asked me at work whether they think running marathons is a healthy pursuit. All I can do is refer them to this BBC article. My anecdotal experience is that marathon running is something that I enjoy, makes me feel positive and- as long as the proper preparation has been done- ultimately a healthy pursuit. 

My preparation for London 2018 has been one of the best training cycles I had completed, considering I had left London and left my old running club. I had only missed out on around two to three days at most of training, my races had  gone to plan -notably the Sandy 10 - and my sessions had nearly been spot on. Yet I’ve felt that this has been one of the hardest taper weeks I’ve experienced to date, not just because of the email I received below from the London Marathon 2018:

The weather forecast for Race Day on Sunday is currently predicted to be the hottest on record at around 23 degrees Celsius. The previous highest temperature on Race Day was 22.2 degrees Celsius in 1996 and 2007. The forecast may change and we will be in touch again on Saturday with an update.

More on that later, as I had other things to worry about

I managed to catch a cold just over a week before the marathon. This in turn led to a poor last long run, due to the cold, and further knocked my confidence for London 2018. There was one positive to all of this though. After recovering by around Wednesday to Thursday afternoon; I realised I had made a medical breakthrough. I had discovered the ‘illness’ of marathon man-flu. This is the most dangerous strain of the notorious man-flu, which is further exacerbated in the lead-up to a marathon; where mysterious aches and pains start to appear. I am still waiting to hear back from Public Health England about my amazing discovery, I’m sure they will be in touch soon....

I had allowed the taper craziness to get into my head, and felt like some sort of existential battle took place from Friday to the following Thursday. I did genuinely consider pulling out of London. That obsessive quest for getting better times, can easily turn on any runner and I really started to question what I was doing. I managed to dig myself out of that- potentially very deep- hole-by remembering that to run in London had always been a dream of mine. I recalled Charlie Spedding’s opportunity of a lifetime moment just before the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Marathon.

So ironically the email stating that it would be one of the hottest London Marathons on record, provided me with a certain calm rather than more anxiety.  In some ways it gave me more freedom to relax and take the pressure of myself.  Though the issue of whether the temperature at the marathon has been hotly debated (see what I did there?...) by a lot of commentators; about whether the heat was a contributing factor to people not getting their personal bests, or whether it was a question of adjusting their pace to the conditions. The best information I came across was the Fell Runner article here. It looks at how the heat will affect finishing times for people who have been doing their training in cool weather, but then have to race their marathon in conditions that are hotter than their training.

Personally I ended up adjusting my race pace, because I realised that trying to get a personal best in that heat was not going to happen. There were people who did improve their times, in what I found to be tough conditions; from what I observed it seemed that a lot of people seemed to struggle in that heat. Looking back at this training segment and the race itself, whilst trying to recover to start my summer running, I realise how much of a privilege it was to train and run for London 2018. In particular I was very happy with:

·       What proved to be a great run, in fact I would place this as my third best marathon (after my first Brighton Marathon and Abingdon marathon). I felt in control for most of the race, despite how hard I found the heat and managed to push throughout the race;

·       This leads me onto the execution of the run. Usually I find myself starting to feel the rate of perceived effort creeping up on me as I get to miles 10 to 13 on a marathon route. In this instance I got to mile five and was definitely noticing the effects of the heat upon my running. From the middle of the marathon to the end, it made a notable difference pouring water over my head and the back of my neck. I found that my approach to pacing and positivity improved after I had doused myself at each water station;

·       Like 2017 my watch stopped working, but I did not allow this to unnerve me. To put it into context my watch was telling me that I was running 9 min/ miles, when in fact I was running 6:54 min/ miles at mile 12 for instance. Instead I just told myself to run the best race I possibly could; and

·       Ultimately hanging on in there and running to feeling. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to going from the beginning of the marathon with the aim of getting under 3:05, to realising- as I was making my way round the course- that I could get under three hours and then achieving that.

In a lot of ways the time did not matter. After going through a particularly bad taper experience and then having taken some excellent advice from other runners about adjusting my pace to the heat, all I really wanted to do was execute a good race after all the training that I had done. Maybe that’s why I keep returning to running the marathon, year-in year-out, for that feeling of achievement. If you know you’ve done the best you can- and put in the hard work- then no can take that feeling away.