Sub 3 hour Marathon, 10 years in the making
Written by Active Physiotherapist Ben Frizzell
You really need to love running or be doing it for a cause close to your heart to train for and to do a Marathon.
Ten years ago, I was 18 years old and I could barely run 5km. The thought of running 10kms seemed impossible and I believed that running was never something I would be good at. I reasoned that I was just genetically disadvantaged to run any sort of long distance. But in October 2021 I ran my first marathon in a time of 2:56.23. I proved to myself that almost anything is possible with dedication, commitment and persistence. Of course, there was much more to running a sub 3 hour Marathon than just will power and grit and in this blog I am going to explain how I did it.
The Marathon often gets glorified on social media. Yes, there are moments in the training journey that are filled with awe and greatness, but there are also many moments of pain, frustration and fatigue. You really need to love running or be doing it for a cause close to your heart to train for and to do a Marathon. For me, I love the feeling of being free in nature, of feeling capable and of the feeling of connectedness with mind, body and spirit. I see it as a form of meditation in that I am completely in the moment of feeling ecstasy or agony, accepting the body's response to the movement. It frees me from any other worry I might have. But if you hate running, or you’re doing a Marathon for the social media likes (or kudos for the Strava people) or to tick it off a bucket list, I offer you no applause. You really need to be ready for the tough journey that is ahead.
Being a Covid affected year, it was incredibly challenging trying to keep motivated to do a Marathon. Ten of my usual running events have been either cancelled or postponed indefinitely. If you are a runner, you know that these mini-events leading up to a main event help keep you motivated by connecting you with fellow runners and building confidence in your ability to complete a challenge. At the start of the year, I marked October 10 on the Calendar as the day I would run my first ever Marathon in Nike’s Melbourne Marathon with a goal time of sub 3 hours. I had been slowly building my endurance over the last four years and I felt ready to take on the challenge of a Marathon. I was confident that Covid 19 would be under control and that the event would go ahead. I had also planned many other smaller 10km, 15km and Half Marathon events in the lead up to help build my confidence. One after the other, each and every single event was cancelled. Each time an event gets cancelled you go through the emotions of excitement followed by disappointment. After this happens so many times, the feeling of looking forward to something starts to get numb. Finally, the announcement came that the Melbourne Marathon was getting postponed until December. I had already been training for four months and my body and mind were starting to get fatigued. I knew I only had a couple more months of training in me and that I couldn’t possibly train for another five months. At this point, my motivation levels were extremely low. I had been training hard for a long period and I didn’t want to start the whole training journey again the following year. I made the decision to keep training and do the event on my own whether we were in lockdown or not. And that’s what I did.
My training cycle leading into the Marathon went for six months. I started out with all of my running at low intensity (conversation pace). After a couple of months, I was doing 10% of my total running time at moderate or high intensity and after this I followed the 80:20 principle, doing 80% of my total running time at low intensity and 20% at moderate or high intensity. This type of training has been strongly researched and is utilised by the majority of endurance athletes to prevent burn out. My total running volume increased slowly by about 10% each week (another heavily followed training principle) until I was averaging about 80km per week and peaking at 100km per week. For Marathon running, this is quite a conservative volume particularly for someone wanting to run sub 3 hours. For me, I didn’t have any more time or energy to commit to more kilometres whilst I was working full time. I was also doing heavy strength work two days a week focusing on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, lunges, step ups and calf raises) to build capacity in my muscles. My weekly routine was generally to run six days per week with two speed sessions and one long run. I would do a strength session on a Friday followed soon after by long and strenuous intervals. Saturday was an easy 10-15km and Sunday was a long run up to 33km. My legs were often still fatigued from Friday’s workouts and so the long runs were accompanied by fatigue and muscle soreness. The idea being to replicate what I would have to deal with in the last 10km of the Marathon. The body is amazing at adapting to the loads you put it under. In the first few weeks of training, I remember looking at the workouts that my program had set out in the later stages of the program and thinking they would be impossible. When I finally got to these workouts, yes, they were incredibly hard, but somehow I managed to get through them. What I would once consider to be a long (and challenging) run, became an easy 15km. The feeling of constantly improving and doing things you thought would be physically impossible is very empowering. You start to wonder what else you’re capable of outside of running.
The thing about training for an October Marathon is that most of your training is in the middle of Winter. Majority of my training was done in rain, cold and darkness. You do get used to it but it requires a lot of resilience to force yourself to get outside for a planned run when you really don’t want to. Not all my training was tough though. I did get to enjoy Wagga’s many beautiful trails, hills and lookouts which were a great escape from the realities that Covid-19 had brought upon day to day life.
When I told people of my ambitious goal to run my first Marathon in under 3 hours, it was met with a mixture of skepticism and cynicism. These well meaning people were keeping my expectations in check not wanting me to be disappointed again when I had been disappointed so many times this year. I was told that “you are going to learn a lot from your first Marathon”, “a lot of people try getting a sub 3 hour Marathon their whole lives and still fail” and “you haven’t done enough volume to achieve that goal”. I thought to myself, ‘why would I make the same mistakes that thousands of Marathoners have already made? Can’t I just learn from them?’. I was told “don’t go out too hard at the start”. So I didn’t. I was told “you need to run two half marathons with the exact same times”. So I did. I was told “the last 10km is going to be really hard, be prepared for that”. So I was. I was told “make sure you have a gel every half an hour and keep drinking water”. So I did. I was told “make sure you wake up 3 hours before the event so that your breakfast can digest”. So I did. I was told “cut your toenails, tape your nipples and put some chafe cream on your thighs”. So I did. I executed the Marathon perfectly thanks to so many people who hadn’t before me.
The Marathon day itself will be one for me to remember forever. I decided to run 7.5 laps around Lake Albert (with a turn around at halfway to account for the camber). I was privileged to be able to have seven of Wagga’s top running athletes help pace and motivate me throughout the event. Having experienced runners around you helps you get into a rhythm. After a while everyone is matching each other's cadence and you relax into the beat of the many feet around you. The first 32km was relatively easy. I had tapered for two weeks and so my legs were feeling fresh. The pace was easier than any of my speed sessions and so my breathing was relaxed. But as everyone had warned me, inevitably the last 10km becomes hard...really hard. My breathing rate started to increase and my legs felt heavy with fatigue. In the last 4km, every step felt like someone was smashing a mallet into my calves. I had experienced fatigued legs, muscle pain, heavy breathing and mental fatigue all before, either separately or in various combinations, but this time it was happening all at once. Runners around me were asking me questions and all I could manage were hand gestures or one syllable responses. I was lucky enough to have supportive friends and colleagues cheering me on throughout the event especially at the end when I needed it. When I crossed the finish line, I collapsed to the ground and broke down in tears. The build up of emotions from all the hard work and sacrifice in a year filled with disappointments along with the pain of the event all spilled out. These were also happy tears from completing something I thought would be impossible.
Now that the event is over I reflect on whether committing to something as big as the Marathon is worth it. For me it was worth it, but I wouldn’t rush back to doing it again any time soon. In a way, my training was selfish. My amazing and supportive wife was left to do a much bigger chunk of the household work and my long runs meant spending much less time with her. I do love running, but I also love hanging out with my wife, my family and friends. I love mountain biking, swimming, hiking and trying new things. So one day I might have another crack at the Marathon, but for now I’m going to enjoy a bit more balance in my life.
Happy running!
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