Vienna City Marathon 1997


where do i start - it sure was a weekend, after last sunday's long run of 60k my knee was bummed. all last week, whenever i walked down stairs, the kneecap appeared to jump out and sent the surrounding muscles into spasms - do i need to say that this was an unpleasant experience? - and all this during my last week of training for comrades, the final race of my preparation was supposed to be yesterday's (VCM) vienna city marathon, a race i had been wanting to do for a long time. this was ment to be the final celebration ending my training and the official start of tapering. because of the knee injury though i went into this weekend with great apprehensions and fears, i was bummed about the training that had gone wrong at the last moment and my own stupidity to not have caught this knee problem earlier... i just hoped that i would have enough time to recover for the comrades as i was not looking forward to running 90K with a kneecap which keeps popping in and out :-( i ended up not running for 4 days before sunday, the longest stretch i had gone cold turkey since last november and i was close to nut-case status from the fear, the pain, the lack of endorphines and i was pissed about myself about it all. if i had not yet payed for everything surrounding vienna i would have bagged it right there and not done the marathon at all - but as everything had been arranged i decided to at least go there, feel the atmosphere and in some small way learn more about my knee.

the entire university graz marathon team boarded the bus to vienna, we picked up the number at the expo, i took off for a noodle dinner with my brother gerhard and stefan, back to the hotel and an early night sleep where i was very nervous and would hardly close an eye. next morning at the start we were able to enter the front-most corral with our seeded numbers, several of my team members were shooting for a sub 2:40-3:00, somehow i slipped in with them, maybe the organizers missed the point that my marathon PB was almost twice that :-). it was a gorgeous day, bright and sunny, yet cool around 12C. i found myself a nice warm spot in the sun within the "elites only" area :-) and watched the kenyans and aetheopeans warm up right next to me - this was poetry in motion, they barely touched the ground and just effortless floated back and forth. a few minutes from the start i went over to the starting line and found a quiet corner in the back of the corral, still only about 10 lines back from the elites and another 8000 or so people behind me. my plan was to test my knee and i would at the slightest sign of discomfort drop out. when the starting gun went off i let a couple thousand people pass by before i jumping in too. a lot of shuffling for the first k, lots of runners, lots of spectators, several bands, perfect weather - this was really nice :-) i was full of energy after i had skipped the last four days and my legs just wanted to run sooo bad. to my surprise the knee felt fine now, and i found a nice comfortable rythm. i missed the first 6k markers with all the people around me. then, 6K in 31:30 that was 5 minutes ahead of even my most optimistic schedule - i could not have gone that fast. i tried to force myself to keep my hr below 150 but as soon as i stopped concentrating on it i was back up to 158 - i stopped fighting and just let my body decide on the pace it wanted to do - as my main concern about the knee faded it got replaced by a worry about using up precious mental energy that i will need badly in 3 weeks at the comrades. so, i decided to just run as far and as fast as i liked to and when i got the feeling of having to force myself along i would drop out.as the knee problem faded it took an immense load off my shoulder and the following 10k felt incredibly easy, i fed off the people's cheers, i looked at the sights of the city, i feasted on the good mood of all the runners around me and chatted with folks from all over. halfway in 1:52, 7 minutes faster than at my marathon PR despite 2 potty breaks and 4 water stops - cool. at 22 i felt that my body was slowing down, so i did not give a hoot and just went along slower now, stopped briefly at one band which played some nice samba rhythms, i drank at all the water stops, GU every hour, karl king's electrolyte tablets too and just kept in the pleasant range of my abilities. i saw a runner whom i had met at a recent marathon and i stayed with him for 3 k for a chat - somehow we did sub 5min/k pace during that. at the ferris wheel i waved min on and i went back to my comfy floating, at 33k i was low on energy and i contemplated dropping out to save my focus, i walked for a couple of minutes but then i again felt like running and went on. the crowds got stronger the closer we got to the finish, i played with them, encouraged some runners around me who were hurting, gave my last GU to a dude who looked like he needed one, high 5'ed the kids along the way and was bouncing and skipping towards the finish - finished in 3:55:00 a PR by 4 minutes - cool. also my knee is back in working condition as if nothing had ever happened, i can only guess that it was some weird misalignement of muscles or tendons that has now again gone away as quickly as it had appeared.

so here is my recipe for the most pleasant marathon you have ever done. lots of lsd up to 60K in training for an ultra, then be forced to lay-off a few days with a suspected injury before the marathon, find out that the injury is not a problem and just go and run at the speed you enjoy, soak up the atmosphere, and without time pressure or pressure to finish - just do what feels good :-)

26.5.97

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