Marathon of Marathons 2010 - PEI Media

Notes from the road
In the footsteps of Pheidippides | Athens, 31 October 2010 38
leg to complete the challenge? Can envision archaeologists digging up
1000’s of blue bottle tops in millennia to come and trying to figure out
what went on here.
6km - Passed by power walker as if standing still - a tad disconcerting.
Mental note: Walk the next marathon.
8km - Amazed by the uplifting roadside support - if these people are
screaming “BRAVO!” for every one of the 12,500 runners, they will end the
day more exhausted than us runners. On the other hand, perhaps it is just
for me because I look like I need it.
10km - Pass through a town having a disco party - a far better way to
spend a Sunday morning than my choice. Can imagine that only rarely
does something exciting happen in this place and, this year, we appear to
be it!
11km - Awesome - our first real hill!
12km - Run past 2 men running shoulder
to shoulder dressed in full Greek military
regalia (helmut, shield, spear, thongs, etc).
NUTS! Wonder why it took me 12 km to pass
them?
15km - Another person with full Greek
warrior clothing and accoutrements breezes
past me - WHO is nuts now?
16km - Enjoying liberating feel of the first
(and hopefully not the last) steep descent.
Develop irrational jealousy of a Japanese
man effortlessly running around his group like
an angel wearing helium heeled shoes while
simultaneously taking photos with an SLR
attached to a 20cm telephoto lens. Clearly
well ahead of me in the queue when God was
handing out physiological attributes.
17km - Fantastic, the hill climbing starts in earnest - this is the part I was
really looking forward to! My mind keeps mulling over the erudite website
description of this section of the course: “Starting from the Rafina Junction
[around the 17th km], the course goes uphill again, while the most difficult
part is until the 20th km. As the runners pass along the district of Pikermi,
they run through some, more or less, uphill parts of the course up to the
25th km. The passage through the city of Pallini (27th - 28th km) is also
rising. The last and most difficult part of the course starts from Gerakas and
goes up to Agia Paraskevi (30th - 31st km).” Borrowing the words of the
eloquent 43rd President of the United States: “Bring it on!”
21.15km - Under the Alpha Bank half marathon archway in less than
two hours and on my way home. I AM INVINCIBLE! At a stretch, I can do
this in 3.30. If only BetFair was running a book on my time, I could make
fortune! Energy bars - who needs them?
22km - Took the mantra “drink as much as you can whenever you can”
too literally and bladder is screaming for relief. This event has turned the
road to Athens into the world’s longest urinal - I decide to join and give
thanks for the convenience of being a man.
Wonder whether any market exists for runners’
nappies?
23km - Spoke too soon - someone has
turned my hips into the anatomical equivalent
of a mortar and pestle. This was not in the
script.
25km - Left hip now excruciatingly painful
and can’t focus on anything else - dragging
my left leg behind me and starting to wonder
whether will need to use my arms to assist its
movement.
26km - Awesome, I now have something
else to focus on - my right knee appears to
have lost nearly all strength because of the gait
I have had to adopt to address my hip pain. At
this rate, I am going to end up crawling before
too long.
27km – Adopt a rolling series of
improvised “running” styles in effort to minimise the pain - resulting
uncoordinated speed walk offers little relief (apart from entertainment for
roadside observers). Settle on weak imitation of a “Cliff Young Shuffle” (for
non-Australians, refer to web). Article I read pre-race said stride length not
relevant to race time - this is fortunate because now pacing out massive
Alternative
Insight