Five things Rory Petzer learned while running his second ever marathon
'After my first marathon, I thought I had it all waxed and there was
nothing more to learn,’ says Rory Petzer.
Since the last time we ‘spoke’, I have now joined a running club, Riverside Harriers, and have started taking it all a little more seriously – even analysing my training runs to see if I’m improving, stagnating or (heaven forbid) deteriorating.
In saying all of that, if I was to be completely honest with you, after the Hillcrest Marathon I became a little complacent.
You know, I’ve run 42.2 km in a time of 4:26:50. I’m the man! I’ve got this!
Read: Five things Rory Petzer learned from running his first marathon
Still buoyed by the bravado of my Hillcrest achievement, I signed up for the Deloitte Marathon.
I hardly trained. I overslept, telling myself I’ve got this and nobody can tell me otherwise.
It turns out I was wrong.
So, here are the five things I learned during my second ever marathon:
Kill the pain with painkillers
With about 12km to go, the pain in my feet, calves, and hamstrings was unbearable. It got to the point where with 6km to go, I regretted ever running and hated myself for even buying running shoes. While this was going on in my head, I noticed hundreds of empty tablet sheets lying all over the road. It turns out this is what runners do. They pack things like Myprodol in their pockets and pop a few when the going gets tough. Also, I saw at least 50 runners using some sort of spray on the legs. Next time, I will pack the Myprodols and I will investigate this spray. I need it.
Faster start means slower finish
Rory, please never ever again run the first 25km at 5:20 per kilometer. Aim for around 5:50 per kilometer. This will ensure you maintain a good pace and don’t find yourself struggling to remain upright during the last 7km of the race. Don’t be a hero.
When it gets tough, look down
As it becomes harder and harder towards the end, stop looking for the boards with the distances on them! The more tired you become, the further apart these boards will be. The further apart these boards are, the more tired you become. The more tired you become, the further apart these boards will be. I could go on. Moral of the story: Look down and vasbyt.
A little Vaseline and some plasters go a long way
In fact, they go at least 42.2km. After suffering a case of the bleeding nipples during a training run, I plastered the nipples closed and rubbed Vaseline all over my triceps. No more rash. No more bloody nipples. Happy Rory.
Save something for the last 200m
There’s nothing worse than having to wobble across the finish line when everyone is watching. Thankfully, I managed to pull something out of the hat with 200m to go, prior to which I was running like a crab. I closed my eyes, shouted at myself for running so quickly in the beginning, and pretended like I could go another 42km when I crossed that line. As soon as I was away from the crowd, I fell clumsily onto a chair wondering when the next marathon was.