Between the two end of year marathons, the North Shore Marathon was probably the one that I wanted to make the biggest impact. Last year it was there that I was full of confidence and had been brought back down to Earth, then ran across a beach before running back up a hill and then being brought back down to Earth. And then got the stitch and struggled home to only better my first marathon by a measly two minutes. After that painful effort I'd vanquished my doubts at the Auckland Marathon and broke 3:30 so it was only the North Shore marathon that I hadn't done well in.
This year again I was full of confidence. I knew I was fitter than at the same time last year. I'd especially been training on hills, of which the North Shore course has plenty. The beaches no longer annoyed me either. The route is two loops of the peninsula of the Shore, from Milford to Devonport and had six beach sections and two ascents of Northhead. Every trip to the beach was sapping to run on the sand and followed by some sort of a rise to the ridge of the peninsula. I had done the half marathon back in 2017 (one loop of the course) and enjoyed it but the full really was my Waterloo.
As was the case last year though, weather looked like it would be a factor. Last year a downpour was predicted but came early and runners started beneath starry skies. This year was a repeat in a way. Heavy rain was forecast for the 5:30am start. Waking up at 3:30am at our motel room, I heard the thunder and pulsating heavy rain. I got up nonetheless and had breakfast. By then it had gotten lighter and after suiting up, I even went out for a jog. It felt like the air was wet but it wasn't raining. I drove to the start line without any rain and got to the starting area with a good park.
But that's where things left the script. I looked for the gear drop table without luck. People seemed like they were still assembling the event site. When I asked, a man grunted something and went the other way. I went over to where competitors were. A few dozen people were all there as the clock ticked closer to the start time. Then there was an announcement: The marathon had been cancelled. All marathon entries were changed to half marathon entries starting at 7:45am, i.e., 2 hours 15 away. Apparently there had been an e-mail and a facebook announcement. I hadn't noticed it. Many people hadn't. But the weather was now pretty decent so people just went down to the start line anyway. We collectively did our own countdown and started our own unofficial marathon.
We were clumped together for the first kilometres as we relied on each other for navigation. There weren't any super-fast people in the group so I was always near the front. There were opportunities to chat a bit. North Shore Marathon also starts in the dark and encourages the use of head lamps for safety. Only half the participants have them usually; I've always had a light source as I've come a cropper once due to poor illumination. So it was even more reason to stick together. For a long time I thought I was coming third but after the first descent of Northhead I realised other people had started earlier than us. (And also found out some people started later than us.) We started passing people from there. A faster fellow came up from behind me unexpectedly and we chatted a while. "Are you doing the half?" he asked. I was confused because I thought it was obvious that I was running the full, having started so early just as he would have. Then I realised his intention. He wanted to run the first loop for fun then rest and run a second loop as a race at 7:45am. I briefly considered it but the second half would be a poor effort because I would have gotten cold. Also Christy would be expecting me to finish around 9am which was impossible with a 7:45am half. And we had a motel still to check out of and a massage to get.
There was one particular aspect that I feared when starting this unofficial run. Water. Although the organisers had gotten markers out, because of the cancellation, there weren't the usual water tables on the course. I was glad to see one at 12km but had to wait until 26km to get my second. At both stops I guzzled a "gel" too so I was more "eating" than drinking.
Anyway, I closed out the first loop, pretty much on the same pace as the previous year. I felt good... as I had last year. At about the 25km mark I became the sole leader (!), when the guy in front darted into a bush to relieve himself. I went up Northhead with ease but when I came down I noticed, as I did last year, that I didn't have the same pace. Fortunately I didn't have last year's stitch and eventually the guy who darted into the bush slowly moved past me. He queried our pace and then went by. I tried to use him to sustain pace but I just slipped further and further behind. By the last few kilometres I was really wanting the race to end as I was very tired. I never stopped though and crawled through the finish line at 3:32:50. The time itself wasn't terrible although quite a lot higher than I had thought I would.
Now I have five weeks till Auckland Marathon. I feel that despite the result the easier course of Auckland will be a worthwhile chance to push myself. I'm going to spend a week more to recover from North Shore and then have a burst of training to get myself ready for Auckland.
