Fraser Darcy

Well here we are again, Round 3 of the Adelaide Marathon. With a bigger occasion than the normal weekly blog there’s bound to be a few new people to the website. First off, where the fuck have you been for the other two and a half years I’ve been keeping this blog and secondly, actually, there is no secondly, this is the fight club of the blog world, there are no other rules.

Essentially though I am *as of writing this on Saturday afternoon* racing the Adelaide Marathon for the 3rd time tomorrow. Round 1 was in 2022 where I finished 2nd by a handful of seconds in a time of 2:32. Round 2 was in 2023 where I came 1st by less than a minute. Round 3 is in 2024 (duhhh).

I have been training pretty well and have raced regularly over the last two months. A quick recap of my last 8 weeks shows the following stats:

• Averaged 154km’s per week including a four week stretch above 170km’s.
• Averaged a race a weekend. BTU 25km, Pichi Richi 21km, Mt.Misery 24km, State XC 10km, Hills to Henley 30km, Ekiden Relay 8km leg, Sunshine Coast 21km, Fitzy’s 5km.
• Completed a Tuesday session of intervals every race averaging pretty well around 2:55-3:00/km on anything from ‘k’ reps to mile repeats.
• Hit the Sauna at least 20 times and maintained mobility/stretching routines.

Fair to say, from the above condensed list I’ve built a strong base of aerobic week (from the high weekly mileage), with a good dose of long tempo’s/race efforts and a sprinkling of faster work. The sauna is the cherry on top and given the weather forecast this weekend of an unusual 15 degree minimum on race morning, it might play to my advantage more than usual.

That’s all well and good though to have confidence in my training. That’s just one part of running a marathon though. The other parts, the mental and the tactical parts are also worth discussing.

Mental Part: Feel pretty relaxed. Feel good knowing the RAO crew will be supporting me this year now that I’ve cemented myself in the group. Have enjoyed the support of the group in other races over the last few months. Feel relaxed knowing I’ve done two Adelaide marathons before. I know roughly what to expect from the event and the day. There are two changes this year (the start/finish location and the direction of travel around the course) that keep things interesting. I also feel confident in my training. There’s not much I would’ve changed over the past two months. Maybe some longer Friday training sessions in the lead up to a couple of races where I ended up not needing to taper that much into it. I always try and approach a taper week knowing that if I execute it correctly I should be just excited to run on race day and not too nervous. Sitting on the couch on a Saturday afternoon I can say that I’ve ticked that box which is good too. So there’s a lot of positives mentally. I’m excited to see how my improved fitness over shorter distances translates to the marathon.

Tactical Part: This is the interesting part. From my research and deduction of the start list I could have a race on my hands at sub 2:25 pace. My PB is 2:24:00, set last year, and I feel like I’m fit enough to run a couple of minutes quicker given my general improvement over the last twelve months. I don’t think the other competitors I’m racing are capable of 2:21 or 2:22 pace but they could be fit enough for 2:24-2:25 pace. A minute or two is not much difference and given my two previous Adelaide results, I know what that looks like at the finish line (not much) and what it looks like at 30km (both times 1st and 2nd have been together just after 30km).

Last year I ran solo from the start on 2:25 pace the whole way before Robbie caught up to me around 30km’s. I ended up quickening up by around 5-10 seconds a km over the last 7-8km’s to finish in 2:24. I could play that exact same strategy tomorrow and run 2:25 pace with a few people and then kick home for the finish and try and win in a slightly quicker time, but not by that much. The negatives of that plan is I’ve done that strategy before. I know what it might get me, the win in 2:24 or thereabouts. Yes it’s great to repeat things but I know I’m capable of that, I want to find out what else I’m capable of.

So the other strategy is I again go solo but this time at 2:20-2:22 pace (3:20-3:22/km) from the gun and see if I can hold on for a new PB or even quicken up at the end like I did last year. Again, I did this strategy last year just at a different pace so I know I can repeat it from a mental point of view. Physically I don’t know. If it doesn’t come off I risk blowing up and getting passed by people who run 2:25 and win while I limp home a bit slower. That would be demoralising and embarrassing. But it would also prove to me that I’m not a 2:22 runner yet and need to work more on my training or race execution, which, if it’s just race execution I will have another chance to do in Sydney in three weeks time when I run that marathon.

The choice between these two strategies is based on assumptions that people will want to run 2:24-2:25 pace. They may want to run 2:20 pace. There may be someone who runs 2:18 on the day and I run 2:23 and come third. Who knows? I’ll know more after the first couple of km’s tomorrow but for now I’m focused on running the first few km’s myself at 3:20-3:25/km pace and then enjoying the event from there.

**If you’re looking for a normal training week recap I skipped that this week to cut straight to the chase. Subscribe to this blog though if you’d like to be harassed by a weekly email from me discussing my training.**

Race Day/back into normal Past Tense Blog format: Normal routine, up 2hrs before the race, toast with honey, coffee, in the car and on my way by 5am. Picked Georgia up on the way as she was also racing the marathon. Got to the start area, drove past a road closed sign (the marathon doesn’t start for an hour at least and I wanted a good carpark) and then we made our way to the start. RAO tent was set-up and then I dropped my stuff over at the Elite area. All going well so far.

It’s nice to arrive early and have everything go smoothly because there’s always bound to be something that doesn’t go smoothly. This race it wasn’t my preparation I don’t think, I didn’t forget anything and I don’t think I made a mistake the day before, but the slight problem on race morning was the placement of two of my drink bottles at Drink Station 7 (halfway and the finish) that had Drink Station 5 marked on them. Hmmmm, how does that happen? I’m pretty sure I put my bottles marked 5 in the right 5 box yesterday…see there’s other people who have had the same thing done to their bottles… This meant that at Drink Station 5 potentially. I might have only had one bottle there instead of two that I had planned. I tried to see if it could be sorted but there was no solution available. Oh well, do the best I can I guess. I did end up sorting it out mid-race thanks to the help of Michaela and Brodie who transported my extra bottle back to it’s rightful place.

I went out for a small warm-up jog, just ten minutes worth, and felt pretty good. Yeah, the 16 degrees it felt like at the time wasn’t ideal but again, I just had to do the best I could. I decided to take my phone and headphones with me on this race as I had been getting a bit bored in the past few races without them so I got them sorted and then sorted myself on the start line.

It felt a bit weird starting in front of Adelaide Oval and not out near Bonython Park like the last two years but after ten seconds of running I stopped thinking about what it felt like and just concentrated on running. I had decided pre-race to go out at 2:22 pace and see what happens. I was a little surprised to be joined by three people in the first few km’s but after a few km’s there was a small group of myself, Kaleb (Victorian) and Ryan (SA) who were all eyeing off somewhere below or around 2:25. Kaleb has been running 250-270km’s a week for a few months in preparation for this marathon but without a debut marathon under his belt I was unsure (and eager to watch) how it would unfold. Ryan had run 2:28 at Barossa while being on pace for 2:25 there so he too was another one I was watching.

We all passed through the first few drink stations pretty smoothly, averaging 3:20-3:22/km with some just a bit quicker. I was pouring water on my head as much as I could to try and keep myself cool in the warmer than usual conditions. It didn’t feel overly hot but it definitely wasn’t that fresh cold air that is conducive for fast long distance running.

At about the 10km mark I got a small lead on Kaleb and Ryan without pushing the pace at all. It was only a five second gap but it was nice to have my own space for a few km’s. Kaleb re-joined a few km’s later but Ryan had started to drop back a bit further as we looped around the Uni loop. In these early km’s there wasn’t much to look at besides keeping an eye out for long time friends of the blog Michaela and Brodie who did a great job at popping up everywhere. Without them popping up I might’ve become bored in this first half because having based myself in Adelaide, and having done two of these marathons before, the novelty that I had experienced the first couple of times has worn off a bit.

As we looped around the Uni loop the next minor problem with the race presented itself. A drink station was still being set-up as we passed through on our first way around and they only had a few minutes to get our special drinks out on the tables. Again, there was nothing I could do about it now, I just had to hope they got it organised by the time we came back past. Very luckily, as we ran past back the other way I saw a lady putting my special drink on the table, grabbed it out of her hands, tried not to knock her over, and kept going. On a warm day missing these drinks at this stage would’ve been disastrous.

Kaleb and I were still rolling together through till about 20km’s where Kaleb started to slowly move away. I was still averaging 3:20’s/km so didn’t feel like I needed to pick-up the pace at this early stage to stick with him and was happy running on my own about twenty seconds behind. I’m guessing he also didn’t feel like he had picked up the pace much like the little lead I developed at around 10km’s. I passed through halfway around about 1:11, perfect pacing for 2:22.

From halfway onwards I saw Kaleb move further up the road which wasn’t ideal. I wasn’t running much slower I thought until I saw 3:30 pop up for one of my km splits. Shit, I’m slowing down here… Maybe it was because that kilometre in particular had a couple of turns and I didn’t have the same acceleration as I did when I was fresh or maybe my fitness was wavering. Either way, I was running slower and it wasn’t 30km’s yet.

I managed to hold on to averaging 3:20-3:22/km according to my watch through till about 30km’s. From there it started to show 3:23/km for the whole race and I was really starting to battle. This is the part of the marathon where if you’re having a good day, you can start to pick it up or at least feel good about holding your effort a few more km’s. I wasn’t feeling good at all and each time I saw Michaela and Brodie I think my facial expression showed I was hurting.

My pace continued to slow or stagnate around 3:30/km as I went around the uni loop for a second time. Here, I was able to catch a glimpse of how far Kaleb was in front, maybe close enough to catch if I had a second wind and how far Ryan was back, oh he’s not that far back and he looks strong. As there was no sign I was able to pick up my pace I bailed on the idea that I was going to win and that I was going to PB. The best case result I could drag out from myself with the last 10km’s was to make sure I stayed in second and not blow up too catastrophically. It was important that I still remained as positive as I could with my effort through to the end but really I knew it was not going to be the magical day I dreamt of. Oh well, just do the best I can I guess.

That meant running a few more 3:30/km’s. I enjoyed getting a couple of good cheers from the RAO people I run with with only about five km’s to go. After that though I was really counting down the km’s in a much different way to my last two Adelaide marathons. In 2022 I remember feeling like I was absolutely fanging it to hold on to first place in the last few km’s. In 2023 it was much the same but I was in first place and I was fanging it to get away from Robbie. This time, I felt like I was crawling my way around the slowest part of the course with multiple twists and turns and hills. It was made harder as well with only a narrow chute to go through at 41km’s when we had to head past the finish line. It’s never nice to have to bump people out of the way, much less so when you’re tired and 41km’s deep in a marathon. Oh well, that’s the position I (and they) found themselves in. I ran strongly through to the finish line and ended up staying in second place for a time of 2:25:31. Just over a minute and a half behind my PB and two minutes down on Kaleb who impressively backed up his training in his debut marathon. Ryan finished third in 2:28.

Reflection: So what did I learn from running the Adelaide Marathon third time around?

• I think I need to have a break from running this event at PB/race intensity. Even though it’s nice and easy to run a marathon in front of friends and family and the prize money is really good the novelty of the event has worn off.
• I was glad I went out at 2:22 pace. It would’ve been great to hold that effort but either I’m not fit enough, my training hasn’t been specific enough or the warmth got to me. I think a combination of all those things truthfully.
• I’m looking forward to Sydney and doing it all again in three weeks. At 30km’s I definitely wasn’t looking forward to Sydney but now knowing what a marathon feels like I am again, maybe foolishly, hopeful that I can at least replicate another sub 2:30 performance in Sydney. The conditions yesterday are probably going to be very similar in Sydney so maybe my body will be better adapted for it now and maybe without the course congestion to deal with in the end (and maybe more people to run with) I’ll be able to improve my time. Who knows?
• 2:25:31 and second place is still a pretty good time that I’m happy with. I’ve definitely lost confidence about trying to hit 2:20 at some point without more specific training but at least knowing that I am still in relatively good shape for the marathon is nice.
• I wouldn’t change much about my carb loading or taper heading into the event. It might’ve been nice not to race the Sunshine Coast half and instead just have made that a normal 2hr long run but I’m glad I experimented with that this year. I think I ran just the right amount in the taper week.

Where to now: Well that’s the big question. I have three weeks until I race Sydney marathon. The aim in this little period is to first recover well and hopefully complete some marathon specific work at least two-four times before I taper again. If I can get a session at 3:20/km done by the end of this first week, another one or two next week and then another small one in the week leading into Sydney then I’ll be happy. More importantly I am looking forward to a mental freshen up and will be visiting Quorn a bit in the next fortnight.

I think my absence from Quorn has allowed me to train regularly and with ease in Adelaide but it has also dampened my spirit a bit. Not that I’m a spiritual guy, it’s just in Adelaide there’s no real way to get out ‘escape’ the city which you can do in Quorn very easily. Maybe I’m overplaying that part of my thinking (I’ll guess I’ll report back on it after Sydney) but I reckon there’s something to be said for hitting the off switch and getting out of Adelaide every now and then. How I balance that going forward, if it does make a difference, is something I’ll have to work out in the next few weeks. The positive thing of staying in Adelaide for 8 weeks is that if I ever find myself in the position of moving overseas for a marathon/race I know I can stick it out in the same area for 8 weeks and still race pretty well without the need to return home in that period.

Apart from that, the other parts of my life are pretty self explanatory between now and Sydney. More RAO work, more TBL work and just generally trying to stay relaxed. Thanks to those who cheered me on yesterday and to those who have read the entirety of this blog!

Also, for those wondering, Georgia came 2nd in the marathon as well but this is fraserdarcy.com not georgiadarcy.com and she already gets enough attention on here.