FROM MADRID TO HEAVEN: RnR Marathon 2012

Running your first marathon is a unique personal challenge. It combines unending concerns and an unusual enthusiasm, enhancing your illusions every day wondering whether you will be prepared to face such an outstanding project, or you will collapse on the run. But once you start with your training, and days pass through increasing both your mental and physical confidence, you become aware that things can be done if you really wish them, and having such thoughts must remain etched in your mind every single day.

A second marathon is a whole different ballgame. The entire mental process since your first training day is a complete new story. Your goals and illusions have evaporated after your first thrill and it is extremely difficult, especially when running hasn’t been part of your daily life until you decide to go for IT, to find new motivational resources to achieve a new target. But as I wrote on my first post, running has become an essential side of my daily life, not just for the physical aspect of it, but for the mental strength it provides you with. Facing long distance running requires discipline, strategic thinking, and a whole lot of psychological “work-out”. Needless to say that I am on my first steps to getting my head sorted and organised to understand myself, but I am fully convinced I’ll reach the day when handling my thoughts and feelings, with rationale and criteria, will not become such a tough duty.

On December 2011, I started my running sessions focusing on Maratona di Roma (March 2012), just three weeks after I ran New York. What a big mistake that was!! I did start very strongly, however in February 2012, along with some personal issues, I decided to stop my run during a couple of weeks. Don’t know why, but usually 1Q of every year becomes a real wall to overcome without reasons or justifications (…Psyque, that strange force, indeed…).

At the very beginning of March 2012, without any short-term goal in mind, I reset my training programme and started my running without facing any clear direction. However, as I promised myself some months earlier, I committed to run, at least, two marathons every year (one on each semester), so I needed to take a quick decision. In terms of locations and dates, it was clear: Madrid’s Marathon was my new target ahead (April 22^nd 2012).

March 2012 turned to be a weird month in many ways. No big deal, but small concerns were permanently in mind and it became a hell of a nightmare. Anyway, as I said earlier on, my training programme was reset. I switched from a weekly 5-day training programme (MO-TU-TH-FR-SU) to a 4-day training programme per week (MO-WE-FR-SU). I also reduced the amount of kms from 75k/week down to 65k/week, and made other meaningless changes to my Sunday long distance runs and gym sessions. It became really tough to recover from my “vacational” 2-3 week period, and the sessions turned to be painful and tiring. But, I managed to complete my scheduled programme with the splendid support-in-the-distance provided by my dear running colleague, and friend (of course) Amanda Barreiro (@Amanda_Marathon), who also completed London’s Marathon for the second consecutive year.

OK! Let’s move back to my target: Madrid. As I said, March-April had been busy months. As I wrote on prior posts, I went through tough personal moments during the last couple of years. Many of these issues appeared due to my constant dissatisfaction with everything around me: friends, work, internal emotions, personal development, and particularly, Madrid. During the last two years I loathed this city dramatically (not being exaggerated). Don’t know why, but my levels of stress towards this town, reached a point of intolerance that happened to be worrying.

But April 22^nd appeared on the calendar. I got up at 06:30am and headed towards the marathon’s start line. I wasn’t very confident about my performance, expecting a running time between 03h45m-04h00m, always within the time limits established in my debut marathon (03h50m46s). I met three running friends who ran with me during the first 15kms. 

My pace was right (05m15s/km) and I was extremely confident. My colleagues were keeping pace and the atmosphere was excellent. We kicked-off from Plaza Colón and went up to Plaza Castilla, passing by the Bernabeu Stadium. During the first 12kms the course happened to be a bit boring for me, mainly because I had run that same track many times on my training sessions and, honestly, the attractiveness of that first quarter of the race was conspicuous by its absence. Anyway, from 15k onwards I pulled hard and left behind my running colleagues. We were just about to reach Fuencarral Street, Gran Via and Preciados Street and the atmosphere on the streets remembered me about NY. There were thousands of people cheering and supporting runners, and I started to grow in confidence and strength.

We passed Puerta del Sol (Madrid’s city centre) and it was amazing. Ahead we faced Calle Mayor and turned to one of the most beautiful places of the race passing by the Almudena Cathedral, and the Royal Palace. The similarities to NY, again, appeared in my thoughts. I started feeling very closely linked to Madrid, thinking “this is my town” and that I had not appreciated the full beauty of its environment. There was some kind of energy in every street that helped me fly from one street to another. And, again, I was amazed.

Reaching Casa de Campo, around 27km, I started thinking about the famous “wall”   that threatens every marathon runner. It normally appears between kms 30-35 and I had to be prepared for the worst. In New York it did smashed me very hard, so I reduced pace to control my rhythm in order to prevent for a fatal ending (yes, it sounds a bit dramatic, but If you, reader, haven’t ran a marathon, then you haven’t experienced the feeling of being completely unable to move your legs, to move forward, because your muscles have, simply, said: “Luis, we’re done!”). That moment is tough, very tough, and you grab to any thought that will provide you with some kind of extra source of energy to reach and cross the finish line. Again, my last 7kms at NY became a real hell of a nightmare, and I had to avoid this in Madrid.

During the race I provided myself with some power gels consumed at 10k, 20k & 30k, plus a great discovery that gave me lots of energy during the whole race: gummy bears. Oh yes, their effects were absolutely amazing!! As these little “teddy” bears are difficult to chew while running, I decided to put a bunch of them in my mouth and keep swallowing during the race. Indeed, the permanent flow of sugar provided by these plus the power gel intake maintained high my levels of glycogen.

Once we had gone through Casa de Campo, 32k approx, and after overtaking the 03h45m guide-runner, I felt so strong that I started pulling hard again. My pace went down to 04m30s/km and started believing that the famous wall was left behind. I felt strong, very confident about my possibilities, and I kept pulling and running faster. The crowd was amazingly supportive and approaching Glorieta de Atocha there were thousands and thousands of people cheering and giving us lots of energy. The last 2k were ahead and the last hill was about to come. I proceeded to face Alfonso XIII Street and pulled hard for those 250m uphill. They were a leg-cracker. Dammit!!

But…as this story has been written to have a happy ending, I crossed the finish line in a very decent time, establishing my personal record in 03h30m12s. I burst in happiness after raising my arms with rage and emotion. It was incredible!!

 I fully enjoyed running a marathon in my home-town. I discovered a new Madrid, completely turning around my perception of this great city. Thanks Madrid for your energetic support during the whole race. No one can achieve a positive result without the help of the crowd, the attractiveness of a city, and one’s will to outperform. It’s the connection between these that make a great team, never forgetting that an individual can luckily perform well, but within a team someone’s results will be outstanding…as these guys of “Walk off the earth” show us on this video. Enjoy it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

Take care, fellas

L.-