Weblog Alex Reuneker

As I discussed earlier, I was in doubt whether I should start at a 4:05 pace, and probably race alone, or join a group of another athletics club taking a 4:00 pace. As 4:00 was my plan A, and there was a lot of wind (I felt it immediately cycling to the course), I opted for the latter.

The course and wind

The course was a loop of 5 kilometres which you had to complete 8 times. The loop had a small detour, in order to arrive at the finish at 42.195K instead of 40K. This way, during the pandemic, only a small piece of cycling paths had to be guarded and inspected by volunteers. They did a great job handing out water, keeping the course clean et cetera, so thanks for that!

The course (small loop to the right is the 'extra' 2K)

The course itself had a small hilly bit, which, in all countries besides the Netherlands, would probably just count as flat. As I mentioned earlier, each loop had approximately 2K of strong head wind, which was a pity, but given that the weather forecasts predicted snow up until two days prior, I'm not complaining too much. The only downside to the course was a very, very slippery part, which was covered in some kind of mash of wet, flattened leaves. I nearly fell two times, and I wasn't the only one. People asked me whether it wasn't tough mentally to do 5K loops, but for me it wasn't. The nice thing of such a course is that you know exactly how far you are, and after a round or two, you know which parts are the gnarly bits and at which parts you can increase your pace a bit.

Team work

We did the first K at 3:59, then 4:01 (head wind), and then some K's in the low 3:50's. We kept each other at watch for the pace, and after a few kilometres, it evened out at a pace consistently around 3:56-3:58. Fast (for me), but it felt great and changing lead every 2 kilometres worked very well.

Team work (this was the full group, I think)

In the first half, when the group was around 8 men strong, this meant head wind only once in 16K, but soon runners started to drop and I think we entered the second half with a group of around 6 people, and after 32, we were left with four. This meant more head wind, but still, it beats running alone! The group work was – in my view – perfect, and it felt good to return favours constantly. At the end, two runners indicated they couldn't bear anymore head wind, to the other one and I took the lead some more. All in all, it was a nice piece of team work.

Final thoughts

I'm am really very glad that I chose to join the 4:00 group at the start. I shaved more than 12 minutes of off my PB (from 2:58:43 to 2:46:37)! We also had some nice small chats, shared some water bottles (which you should'nt, of course, in times of corona), and when some runner messed up the provisions table, making it impossible to grab my last Torq-gel, another runner in the group offered me a piece of banana. That's what I love about running: I guess everyone dreams of racing and winning like Kipchoge, but in the end, were all in it together to beat our own previous PB's and that motivates people to share, care and race hard. Great!

For this marathon, I have doubted what shoes to use. I'm very used to low-/zero-drop shoes without much protection/cushioning, but recently, I bought my first pair of carbon-plated shoes at Runners World Rotterdam Centrum: the Hoka One One Carbon X2's.

First uses

I used them a couple of times before the marathon, and I wasn't really impressed. I did not really feel that snappy, springly carbon plate effect other talk about. I still don't, but in someway, it seems that paces faster than 4:00 p/km seem to go easier. They 'roll' more automatically – that is, until now, I have no better words for it. Another thing to keep in mind is that they do not really feel right in corners. I'm no expert, but it feels like slipping off of the edge of the plate or shoe when cornering hard. I've heard team mates talk about this too, albeit that the famous Nike Carbon shoes are supposedly much worse in this respect.

The Hoka One One Carbon X2's

I chose these, because they have the lowest drop (5mm) as far as carbon-plated shoes go, and luckily they have wider toeboxes than other Hoka's. Still narrow, but less so. I did get some chafing on the front of my ankle the week before during test runs in these shoes, so I used some tape before the marathon to try and prevent that from creeping up again. It didn't work perfectly, but it was sufficient.

One pair of Hoka's amidst all the Nike's

At the marathon

I do not regret wearing them for the marathon, not at all, but for me, these are just too much shoe. Don't get me wrong, they are very light, but they look and feel bulky somehow. This is probably just me getting used to these shoes, as they contrast a lot with the Altra's I usually wear. I wore the Hoka's during a couple of training sessions, and a tune-up race, and I think that enabled me to take an informed decision before the marathon.

Reviews

If you'd like to know more, check out the reviews at The 5K Runner, Runningshoesguru, Roadtrailrun, and Coachmag.

On Sunday April 11th, 2021, I ran a marathon, which was organised locally as an alternative for the (again) postponed Rotterdam Marathon. I didn't really decide to register until a week before, but I'm really glad I finally did, because I finished in 2:46:37!

Official time by MyLaps: 2:46:37!

Coming from a PB of 2:58 in 2018, that's much more than I dared hoping for. Those are not just words, which I will explain below.

The taper was less than perfect, of course, because of the late decision and the large number of unofficial races I ran prior. However, there were some races I ran as test for my envisioned marathon pace, which probably helped a lot – not in the least mentally. So, although I tapered for only one week instead of the usual two to three weeks, I did improve my carb loading by calculating my needs, cooking and preparing everyhting four days prior to the marathon, and rigourously carb loading and sticking to the plan for the next three days. (I'll post the calculations sometime later. For registration, I used MyFitnessPal.) I feel it really worked, because I did not experience any depletion during the marathon, which was a first.

Start at 10:30 AM.

The weather conditions were okay-ish, because forecasts included snow, but they were clearly wrong. There was heavy wind, though, and given that the course was in a quite windy park, it made the course quite tough. However, as I was deciding on whether or not to compete, I heard a group of runners from another track club would start at 4:00 p/km pace, which would set a finish time of 2:48. That was my plan A. Plan B was to start at 4:05, and plan C was to start at 4:10. As I noticed the wind cycling to the course, I decided to go with the group, to keep each other out of the wind. Running slightly too fast would be preferrable to running somewhat slower, but alone. I did not regret this. I felt good and we started fast, around 3:53 p/km. We quickly got to a very constant pace just below 4:00 p/km (3:57, 3:58), and it felt right. Around half of the group fell behind during the second half, but in the end, we were a group of four and keeping each other out of the head winds for stretches of 2K, and later 1K, worked very well, and everyone did their best to help each other. What a great feeling to work together! Add to that the fact that my coach, Carla Ophorst, and team members from RA were there to support and provide advice, and you have all the ingredients for a great race!

The race was very windy, but apart from that, the weather was okay.

Of course, running a marathon never really feels easy, but it were only the last two K's that really felt hard, perhaps because the group sped up a bit so close to the finish. I could exactly tell where it began to hurt: my upper legs started to feel really tired and to strain. What I learn from that, is that I can probably benefit from more squats and quad muscle exercises. That's great, because it is totally trainable. Back to the race: I increased my own pace to around 3:45 p/km, but the other guys went off a bit faster. In the end, I finished in 2:46:37, and they finished 7 seconds faster, so no real lag there.

We worked together as group, keeping a very steady pace and keeping each other out of the wind.

I secretly hoped to finish around 2:50, which was already a stretch, so you can imagine how incredibly happy I was when I finished in 2:46. You can also imagine a new goal immediatly popped up... I'm going to aim to run a sub-2:45 in Rotterdam in the fall, if it's not postponed again. Yes, <2:45 is being ambitious, but given my current time, I think it is a realistic goal.

Finish!

My coach and members of the team were there to provide support, which I greatly appreciate and which really helps mentally.

Great support for all RA runners!

For now, I'm sticking to a recovery plan of four weeks, and I did not run for two days after the marathon. On Wednesday I did a short run, which felt okay. No pains except muscle aches in the upper legs, and some chafing from the Hoka's. If that's all, you won't hear me complain!

The medal (although I'm not really a medal enthusiast, I do value this one very much)