Before the Hamburg Marathon I posted a quote on Instagram from a Canadian Olympian. It said “Running is a question mark that’s there everyday. It asks you, “Are you going to be a wimp?” or “Are you going to be strong today?” But perhaps this wasn’t quite the right quote for the occasion because when it comes to marathon running, there’s simply no room for wimping out.
Whether you fight your way to a PB or you end up eking out the miles the Struggle Bus, you have to be strong to cross those final chip mats. There’s no such thing as an easy 26.2, every single marathon finish line is hard earned and there can be as much strength in failure as there is in success. If you don’t achieve your goals, it’s not because today you were a wimp today. And that was certainly the case in Hamburg.
I had high hopes for a personal best, running for the first time in my Nike Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoes, and I had to run as hard as I’ve ever run on a marathon course to earn my 30th marathon medal but it wasn’t to be my day for breaking records. By the time I flopped over the finish line after three hours and eighteen minutes, I’d been in a physical and mental battle that was up there with the toughest days I’ve had on the 26.2 slog. And as with every marathon I’ve ever run, this race taught me some really valuable lessons.
As I stood on the start line for the Hamburg Marathon with more than 15,000 runners clapping their raised hands together in that slow-but-quickening Icelandic thunder clap made famous during the European Championships in 2016, I couldn’t have felt more positive. I’d trained hard and had a decent build up to the race and I believed I was in with a shout of running somewhere near my 2:57 PB.
The race plan was simple, if a little risky. I’d run 6:40 min/miles from start to finish. I say risky because I’d usually run the first 6 miles slower than race pace, the middle 14 faster than race pace and the final 6.2 with whatever’s left. This time, however, I was fairly certain that 6:30 min/miles would push me too far over my threshold and so I decided to change the tactics in the hope that I could run all 26 miles just below that crucial threshold line. This would be the first time I’d attempted to run even mile splits from start to finish and I knew from the outset that it was ballsy, an all or nothing approach, the body would either oblige or by halfway I’d have blown the engine.
I knew from the outset that it was ballsy, an all or nothing approach, the body would either oblige or by halfway I’d have blown the engine.
I’d need everything to go right for me on the day for this to succeed and having watched the London Meltdown Marathon a week before, I prayed that the forecast promise of 16 degrees and cloudy would come true. However, by Sunday morning the weather gods had bumped Hamburg’s central heating up to 18 degrees and even before we set off I could already feel the sun burning into the back of my neck. It was nowhere near as hot as London had been but eventually this would be enough to push me over the edge.
The first signs that the heat would make it a struggle came early. By mile three I was already drenched in sweat and my heart rate had rocketed to 170BPM where it would stay for most of the race. I was also suffering some early doubts.
Before I ran my 2:57:56 personal best in London in 2014 I ran a 1:22 half marathon about six weeks prior. This isn’t just a good indicator that you’re in the right physical condition to crack the sub-3, it also serves a building block for your self belief. Having a time like that under your belt, gives you a confidence that I think I lacked this time round. Without it, I found myself questioning my ability to get the job done from very early on in the race.
But I did my best to ignore the nagging, got my head down and tried to hang on in there. The miles ticked by at somewhere around the 6:40 pace and as I approached the halfway mark, I actually felt ready to take on the meat and drink of the race. If I could hold firm for the six miles from 14 to 20, I’d be in with a shout. I kept telling myself to get to 20 still with a shout but just as I steeled myself to hack into this section of the race, the wheels came off. My already-high heart rate started to climb and with it came that sick feeling you get when your engine is revving like mad.
There was only one thing I could really do and that was to back off. I stopped at a water station for a minute in a bid to hit reset, get the BPM down and regroup. And for a brief period it worked, when I got moving again I was able to hit the 7:00 minute mile pace without feeling like my heart was coming out of my mouth and for a moment I thought I might get away with it. But before long the sickening sensation returned.
A mile later the sub-3 balloon carrier breezed past and I knew it was game over. Time for Plan B, a shot at a Good For Age for the London Marathon with a 3:05 finish time. Fifteen minutes later when I dropped to a walk again at another water station I knew that was gone too. For the final ten miles or so I went into survival mode, with one aim, just get to the end as quickly as I could without pulling a wobbly and having a terrible time. I finally struggled over the finish line in 3:18.
Hamburg Marathon sub-3 attempt: What went wrong?
While the heat definitely played a part, I have to be honest and accept that I probably needed 3-4 weeks more training time. I trained hard, dropped a decent amount of weight and got my body fat down to 7 per cent, roughly the same condition I was in for my London PB in 2014. But I think I was probably missing one more long run and a couple of all-out half marathon races to benchmark myself against, not to mention more time in the gym on my weighted squats.
I know some people will point at my lower mileage-more strength training approach to going sub-3 and say that’s where I came up short but I don’t believe doing more mile in the weeks leading up to the race would have made the difference. I simply need a few more weeks to carry on with what I was doing. My weighted squats were around 15kg lower than I’d been doing for London in my PB year, simply because I lost a couple of weeks with illness.
Hamburg has more incline than you think. It’s not a hilly course at all but hidden on the route is double the elevation gain you’ll find at London which means you’re often working that little bit harder to maintain pace without realising it. And that can be a stealthy tax on your performance.
I went into the race with doubt. As I’ve said a couple of times I wasn’t 100 per cent confident I could handle the pace I needed to put in to hit my time and that doubt surfaced early in the race and I believe cost me mental energy out there. I found it quite hard to relax into my race and let the miles tick by, instead I was on the watch and almost waiting for the engine to drop out.
Find a win in every race
I believe it’s important to find the positives in every race, whether you hit a PB or you end up high fiving children for your very survival. And the Hamburg Marathon wasn’t all bad for me. I knew I was running a fine line and for 15 miles I was remarkably consistent with my pace. With a little more training I know I can now apply that discipline and it’ll pay off.
Looking at my Strava splits I also ran a 41 minute 10km, my second fastest on record with the app. It’s also just 3 minutes off my Year of the PBs 10km target time of 38 minutes. In theory, that should bring my 10km PB nicely into sight for my next race at the Vitality London 10k at the end of May and that’s a big confidence boost.
The final positive here is that in October in Munich I ran 3:56. In Brighton in April I ran 3:34 and then in Hamburg I clocked 3:18. Lopping 36 minutes off your marathon time in 6 months is pretty solid, it’s the first time I’ve run sub 3:20 since Boston in 2015 and it’s a great sign that I’m progressing back to where I know I can be.
On top of that I’m in the best shape I’ve been in since the Marathon des Sables and this is going to set me up for a great year of running ahead.
Thinking of running the Hamburg Marathon?
If you’re considering running the Hamburg Marathon and you have questions about the race, the expo and even where to stay, feel free to hit me up on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.
