Five things Rory Petzer learned from running his first marathon
'There is a whole lot more to a marathon than just the running. It can be a confusing time,' says Rory Petzer.
I don’t belong to a running club, and my training has pretty much just been a case of me running anything from 12km to 22km on any given day, making it all up as I go along.
So, I decided to give the Hillcrest Marathon a bash. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen, right?
Read: A Comrades dream come true for Hamilton
Well, I finished in what I’m told is ‘a really good time’ of 04:26:50; it turns out it is also a Comrades Marathon qualifying time.
Let’s forget about all that for a moment, and focus on what I learned after running for just over four hours with some seasoned athletes.
Be careful when overtaking
During the first half of the marathon, don’t overtake anyone who looks like they know what they’re doing – especially on a downhill when you think you’re Bruce Fordyce. The guy you’re overtaking knows what he’s doing. He’ll come flying past you in 5km time when you’re sucking on an energy gel, convinced you’re about to pass out.
Don’t count the kilometres
They have boards up every single kilometre, but try not to look at them. They will drive you insane! Especially when you think you’ve run 'eleventy' kilometres since the last one and you see you’ve only run one.
PB means ‘personal best’
You will overhear runners discussing this at length (no pun) along the route. Don’t laugh at me for not knowing that. You don’t learn the jargon running alone! And since you’re asking, 04:26:50 is officially my PB!
The finish is further away than you think
When you see that you have 4km to go, don’t start trying to run faster. You will only regret this when you see that seven kilometres later, you have 3km to go. The closer to the finish you get, the longer the kilometres become. I’m sure they do this on purpose.
The correct way to tell people your finishing time
Finally, when you reach the end and people start asking you, ‘What did you run?’, saying ‘the marathon’ is not the correct answer. What this question means is ‘What was your time?’ It took me about five minutes of clumsy and embarrassing back and forth with someone until I eventually understood that he wanted to know my time. What did I run? I ran 04:26:50. And now I want to run 04:26:40. That will be my new PB.