by Rob Julian
You have got 5k to go and the easy chatter and camaraderie of the people around when you first started has long since gone. You are now running tired, alone and on empty and wondering how you can possibly last it to the finish.
Your lungs are aching, and your legs feel that there are weights tied to them. Glycogen is all used up and your body is now burning fat that floods the muscles with camp inducing lactic acid. To make matters worse, you are into a head wind and there is still a #@%*-ing hill to get up.Try these tricks.
Into a Head Wind
- If it is a real Wellington gale, duck your head down, clench your fists, and punch your way into it. You legs will keep up with your arms.
- Twist your torso to the side, lower your leading shoulder, and slice your way into the wind.
Running up a hill
If you are from Wellington, as with coping with the wind, you will be used to hills. It is always noticeable on an away event how, when it comes to a hill, people in the Clinic colours change down a gear and start passing everyone else.
But try these-
- Keep your eyes on the ground immediately in front of you and imagine that it is actually sloping downward. Sounds ludicrous, but it is surprisingly easy to do. And it works.
- Imagine there is a great big hand in the middle of your back pushing you along. This technique can also be used on the flat.
Pass other People
I recall Past President Roger Hooper saying that a good indication of how sensibly you have run an event is when you pass more people during the last 5k than pass you. And certainly you get a huge psychological lift when you finally pass someone you have been tracking for the past few kilometres. (Likewise it is depressing when they pass you). I am always bemused at how, when a hundred metres behind some one, you can instantly tell whether you are catching up to them. One way of occupying your mind is to mark off a lamp post, or car they pass and count the number of paces it takes you to reach the same spot. Then do it again and see how many fewer paces it takes you. This can keep your mind occupied for a good 2 kilometres.
I recall how, during a Rotorua Marathon, it took me 5 k to catch up to fellow pack runner Molly Hunua, just past the airport, and as soon as I got to her, she stopped running an started walking. I was so put out that I told her I had spent the last half hour catching up to her and she was not going to start walking now!!! She did start running again and we finished the marathon together.
Don’t Walk
There is ever present that insidious little voice inside your head suggesting it would be ‘really nice to just walk for a while’. And once you do, there seems to be a little switch in your mind that clicks off. The one that keeps you running. If you walk for a bit and then start running again, within a very short time you will be walking again. There are always cycles of exhaustion at the end of a marathon. If you keep running, you get through the down period and start feeling better again. OK – well, slightly better. So by all means, slow down a bit, but whatever you do – keep running.
Refuse to see how far you have yet to run
Keep your eyes fixed on the ground in front and determine not to look up until you have run 100 or 200 paces. This keeps your mind occupied and off the pain. But don’t try running across an intersection this way.
And finally, when the pain sits like a nemesis across your shoulders and everything aches, switch off your mind to everything but one thought - all you have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and if you keep doing that. Eventually you are going to wake up and realise -
YOU’VE FINISHED!!!!!!
Yaayy!!!!!
