The Gold Coast Marathon 2010

I was originally signed up for the full Gold Coast marathon 2010, however a fall during a run two weeks ago has left me injured, with a painful hamstring insertion, and so I switched to the half marathon as a training run (easy) in preparation for the main event, the 96k Kokoda Challenge July 17th. My Kokoda team has done all the necessary training for a marathon.

Saturday morning a small group of us went out to watch the 10k event, for the first time being run on the Saturday. One of our friends was the hot favourite to take out the 10k. Michael Shelley is a local boy, very humble, sincere and fast. We often see him running in the Nerang forest Sunday mornings. He was originally attempting to qualify for the 10k event at the 2010 Commonwealth games, but when he came third in the qualifying race, decided to run a marathon, his debut, in Rotterdam, finishing in 2 hours 12 minutes and making the Commonwealth games team. Our little group were standing at the 9k mark. Mike was clearly in the lead, focused and flying. These guys run faster for every kilometer than I can run flat out for one. He broke the Gold Coast Marathon 2010 10k course record and set his own PB for a road 10k (in distinction to a track 10k).

Michael Shelley, winner Gold Coast Marathon 2010, 10k.

I ran the Gold Coast Marathon 2010 event half marathon on Sunday very conservatively. It was not about speed, but about staying running and not aggravating my injury. I didn’t stop at all, not even for water, choosing instead to keep going and keep the momentum up. My shortest training run is 16k’s, and our Sunday runs have been over 30k’s so I was not concerned about the distance. It was great to see friends doing really well in the leading group as they turned around for home.

Back to the Gold Coast marathon 2010 event precinct I had a ticket into the corporate box which allowed me to be right on the finish line, in the sun, with plenty of food and drinks on tap. Hobb nobbing it with the running elite. All the runners I have met are really great people, no airs and graces, down to earth, friendly. I am not sure why this is a consistent pattern. Maybe because it is an individual sport, lonely in many ways. That it is not highly paid, with rare exception. That no matter how fit you are, you know that the other guy, not as fit as you, is hurting just the same, only at a slower speed (therefore hurting for longer..ouch!).

I have written many times over the years about running as a metaphor for life. If you had of suggested to me when I was in my twenties that for most of my thirties and all of my forties I would be a committed distance runner, I would have laughed. Me? An athlete? Never would have dreamed it. Never would I have dreamed that the Gold Coast marathon occupied a big place on my calendar.

Running is good for my soul. It gives me a structure and a discipline. It keeps me in shape, choosing a healthy lifestyle, and great eating and sleeping habits. It is my de-compression time. My anger release time. Trail running is my contemplation time, allowing me to leave behind the worries of daily life. And then there is the meeting of the self that is hurting, wanting to quit, scanning for any excuse to stop. What do we do at this point? What choice do we make? Do we go with the soft side and quit? Or do we grit our teeth and persevere? When I am in an event, no matter what, I grit my teeth. I have run shocking marathons where for 30 or more kilometers I have longed to stop, feeling nauseous, weak, in pain, downright miserable. I am not sure where this dogged determination comes from. Where I am not good at gritting my teeth is on the track running speed sessions. They hurt. I avoid them, seizing any excuse or no excuse at all. I say to myself I do not want to push myself in my running because my work is where I push, and my running is my outlet. Mostly this is true. I want to keep running for years and stay in love with my running more than I want to be a faster runner. Clear distinction and decision. (I am learning to not push in my work...so maybe this will change and it will be time for me to push through in running?)

My training buddies did really well in their Gold Coast marathon 2010. Brad, so spent at the end of the marathon he couldn’t turn his head or smile (I know that feeling), finished in 2 hours 47. Craig, debut marathon, 2 hours 53. Excellent result. Another Brad, the “I am never going to run a marathon” Brad, 3 hours 4 minutes. I will have to ask him if he has already planning to break three hours next year, or if the race has turned him off marathons for life. Fiona, my Kokoda team member, 3 hours 27. She is very consistent, running her 9th Gold Coast marathon 2010. Alicia, another training buddy, gutted it out after being sick last week. I was very thrilled that she did, as finishing was a real victory for her, given how terrible she felt.

There are always stories of heroics in a marathon that stand out. I was witness to one in my comfortable spot at the finish line. A tall and fit looking guy, unknown to me, was 25 meters from the finish line and was completely spent. His muscles had given out, he could hardly stand upright, and kept falling, then rising to wobble a few steps before falling again. The clock said 2 hours 59 minutes and some seconds. The crowd went ballistic, urging with all of their might and collective energies, for him to get the last few meters before the clock ticked over to three hours. He stood, took a few steps, and fell again. Everyone was willing him on. Finally, he got on his hands and knees and crawled across the line, and made it, with about 30 seconds to spare. Not so much courage, as single minded focus and determination to complete the task. He was probably unaware of the crowd, with only one intention, to somehow find the strength and will to cross the line and get under three hours in the Gold Coast marathon 2010.

What is it that motivates that kind of action? To run such a hard run that you have nothing left? And why is it that according to the Huffington Post, in these times of economic difficulty, marathon running is gaining numbers? (Running 26.2 miles has become more popular than ever. Last year, Running USA reported 467,000 people finished a marathon in the U.S., marking a 10% increase over the year before when 425,000 people crossed the finish line. In 2006, "only" 410,000 finished. On a related note, Runner’s World magazine also increased its newsstand sales by 3.6% in the second half of 2009, while online-derived subscriptions sales grew 59%.) What are the benefits of running when the world seems so uncertain?

What calls us to get off the couch and go do something heroic? I think we are all called, but only few of us answer the call. Whether it is running, or working as a volunteer, or actually doing the work you have always wanted but been too afraid to. The call asks us to leave the safety and security of the current way of being. It guarantee’s that we must break through “comfort” and get deeply in the zone of the uncomfortable. It is the bungy jump.

It is taking the deepest breath and launching...out...there..into..the unknown....

In these times of uncertainty, taking a step into the great unknown by running a marathon for the first time is a way we can reconcile the inner and outer upheavals. “I can do this...no matter how uncomfortable it is.” And if I can do this...then I might be able to face whatever the Universe unfurls at me.

For the guy that crawled across the finish line of the Gold Coast marathon 2010 in just under three hours, you spoke, in your actions, more eloquently to the watching crowd than any recent leader or celebrities we have seen on TV for a long time. Bravo. The pain is now long gone, but your efforts will be remembered forever.

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