The magical Marathon

The marathon - most fabled of all running events.

As most of you will know, the marathon, a long distance running event of 42.195 kilometers, was instituted to commemorate the fabled and heroic run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon (hence the name) to Athens.

The story goes that brave Pheidippides ran the entire distance without stopping, exclaiming 'We have won!' when he finally reached his destination, and then promptly collapsed and died.

Thinking about it now, a couple of things could've contributed to his fate. He may have been over- or undertrained. If it was a case of overtraining, he obviously didn't taper enough before the big run. Did he do any quality sessions, tempo runs or hill training as part of his build-up? One also can't help wondering whether he did enough carbo-loading in the days leading up to the run. What was his hydration programme like - did he perhaps suffer from dehydration in the heat? Or did he make the mistake many runners make, of actually overhydrating during the run - something that some experts say may be even more dangerous to your health. Not having the luxury of the latest Polar heart-rate monitor, another problem may have been that he pushed too close to maximum heart rate for too long. Or who knows, running alone without any company, without even a trusty ipod to keep him entertained, he may have simply died of boredom - a marathon is a long way to be stuck with only your own thoughts...

One thing is for sure - it being the first marathon and all, he obviously did not have what us runners like to refer to as our "running memory". Take for instance the recent Mountain to Surf marathon that Wouna and I did with our good old running buddy Willie. Over the past decade or so, Willie has run loads of marathons, and many ultras including quite a few Comrades marathons. So, despite not getting around to much training, and having a bout of the flu also keeping him off the road, Willie finished the marathon, fairly comfortably. He did it on a total training distance of less than the length of a marathon. And he didn't even collapse or die!

Anyway, the point I actually want to get to is that the marathon really is a magical thing - no matter how many you've done, each marathon conquered remains a special occasion. Well worthy of a good bottle of bubbly. Or two...

During our running days in South Africa, we somehow never got around to doing as many marathons as we would've liked. There was always some excuse of being too busy, or not being ready, or some old lame excuse. Now that we've moved to New Zealand, we realise how many amazing SA marathons, big and small, we missed. Hopefully we can plan our future SA visits to coincide with some of the iconic events we still want to do.

On the flipside, as newbies on the New Zealand running scene, we are positively giddy with excitement about all the running events in general, and marathons in particular, that we want to do on the twin isles. Both on- and off-road. Looking at our little personal wish-list of events to still do this year, you'd swear we want to do all the Kiwi marathons in one year. We've done the Mountain to Surf, and we're already entered for two epic off-road marathons - the Dual, less than two weeks away, and then the T42 a couple of weeks later.

And in between there's still the iconic Rotorua marathon (a must-do event, and one of the biggest marathons in New Zealand) and not much further in the future there's the Wellington marathon, another very nice looking event. And then there's the Christchurch marathon (which may unfortunately be cancelled this year due to the recent earthquake disaster), the hugely popular Auckland marathon, the Dunedin Marathon, the West Coaster, the Wairarapa Country marathon and even the Great Barrier Island marathon!

Wonder what poor old Pheidippides would've thought about all that!?

Talking about our Greek friend, I should mention that the story of him running himself to death over the course of just over 42km is just one version of the story. And its not the one that paints him in the most impressive light.

According to another legend from the Greek historian Herodotus, Pheidippides' heroic run was actually from Athens to Sparta during the Greco-Persian wars, to ask for help, and then back again - a distance of more than 240 kilometers each way.

And according to this legend he didn't even collapse and die after this super-ultra marathon. Now THAT's impressive.

But personally I'm glad the 42km Marathon-to-Athens legend is the one that stuck in the popular conscience. Because otherwise we may never have had the privilege of experiencing the grueling joy of conquering our own magical marathons.

A miss is as good as a mile!

In my humble opinion, this also applies to running events. If you have to miss a run due to some or other ailment, the opportunity would have passed and you would never ever forget that moment when you had to make the regrettable decision.

Having recently read about friend Ken's decision not to run a marathon due to being struck down by the flu, I couldn't help thinking about the times I had to quit/bail races due to some or other ailment. It is the worst thing possible and I can only sympathize with Ken for not even being able to start. The worst part is that you never forget those events - they end up forever haunting you as "unfinished business".

Years ago I was running my second Tough One 32km race in Johannesburg when, at the 27km mark, I suddenly felt like I was going to die there and then - my body felt like lead and I couldn't move an inch further. I had to lie down just to keep from passing out, while Gerry finished the run, fetched the car and picked me up next to the road where I was lying. I had to bail. On hindsight, I could have just rested a while until things got better (which it did, eventually) and walked the 5kms to the finish. But at the time, feeling like death and thinking there was a cut-off that we were going to miss (not thinking straight or asking anybody), I decided to just give up. Besides, while I was laying next to the road, I was terrified by not having the slightest idea what was happening to me, so I didn't dare carry on.

This was also a time when I firmly believed that the Coke supplied at races was making me nauseas and was therefore only drinking water at the refreshment stops.

As it turned out, after having blood tests done, I was diagnosed as Type 2 diabetic, so not taking the Coke to get my sugar levels up was an absolute disaster. It came as a complete surprise to me (and my doctor!) since no one in my family was diabetic and I wasn't obese, as is normally the case. The doctor even told me beforehand that he would test my insulin and sugar levels, but it was unlikely to be the culprit because I was too skinny. The tests unfortunately confirmed the dreaded dysfunctional pancreas and sugar fluctuation problem. From the doctor, I went to a dietician who explained the whole glucose-process and gave me very helpful tips on still being active (in fact, she reiterated the importance of exercise!), eating correctly and maintaining a good 'normal' life.

But to this day I can't forget that race, everything what went through my head, bailing, giving up … the emotional trauma of not being able to complete a race.

Not being able to start, as was the case with Ken, is another story, but the emotional baggage afterwards is more or less the same. For me at least. At another occasion, I had some serious ITB problems, and we had to abandon our plans to run the 50km Om-die-Dam Ultra, scaling down to the 21km little brother of the same event. A penalty fee applied, which wasn't the worst, but the T-shirt also looked different, somehow inferior. And then there was the medal, quietly reiterating that you did 'just 21kms', and not the 'real thing'. Everything adds up to remind you that you hadn't accomplished what you set you mind to. The disappointment somehow never subsides.

And then I also still have unfinished business with the 100km Amatola trail run … As Arnie the Terminator said, "I'll be back!".

I'm sure everyone has one or two or maybe more of these "unfinished business" events. They haunt you. Forever. Perhaps in the case of running, the saying should be "A miss is much worse than a mile"!