It was ‘just’ the 30km mark at the 2018 White Nights Saint Petersburg Marathon and I felt like I had hit that famous ‘marathon wall’. Too early, I thought. Yep, it was humid and hot but this is why I was training in Cyprus, too. From my two previous marathon experiences, in Moscow in September 2014 and here at Saint Petersburg in June 2015, I knew what to expect when you run out of your fuel, which is glycogen. But this time it happened unexpectedly early. My pace was already slowing down, but the worst thing was that I lost belief in myself that I could somehow make it. When the sun came out of the clouds – it did it several times – I was immediately slowing down, even if I didn’t want to see my pace dropping behind my plan.
Previously, at the 30km mark, I’ve felt OK. There was even an illusion that I could do it in a comparatively good time. This is what Haruki Murakami, famous Japanese author and a devoted marathon runner (more than 30 by now plus one 100km ultramarathon) has once said: ‘I feel great at 30km and I am hopeful. Then I am dying at 35km’. So, from my own experience, if you die at 35km you have a hope that it will be over pretty soon, just 7km to go which is less than your usual training. But when you’re starting to die at 30K you understand that something is going wrong.
Yes, my first marathon in Moscow in 2014 was pain. I had an aching muscle in my left leg and the final 34-42km interval was probably the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. The following year in Saint Petersburg I ran it much better. So this time, the third time, after five months of constant training I was really hopeful: it is not the first time so you know what it might feel like. You’ve covered hundreds of kilometers in Moscow, Cyprus and on the banks of Volga executing your run plan. You’ve run this race here before, you know what to expect here. You ran it positively, too. So, let’s do it and enjoy! Just do it, man!
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