Hamburg Marathon - Laura Mihé Simon
Race Date: April 24th Results: 2022
Hamburg marathon was really important to me as I had done a few marathon prep before… and not many have ended with a marathon. The main one was the prep for Gold Coast marathon the year before. We were ready to race Gold Coast Marathon with Blake Parker, James Eather and John Doyle. We were all fit and ready to go, Blake had even already driven to Gold Coast when they announced three days before the race that it was cancelled after a mini Covid outbreak (single digit cases). I made a little montage of pictures that would have likely be taken during Gold Coast marathon 2021:
It was a blow for all of us, but James and I decided to stay optimistic and to continue with a very short marathon bloc for Sunshine Coast marathon… which was also postponed a few weeks later.
Fast forward a few months, international borders opened and I could not wait to book tickets for France to visit my family. My dad was turning 60 years old at the start of May and I could not miss that! I also knew that partying in France in May wasn’t ideal for another Gold Coast marathon training block, that’s when the idea of a European marathon came to my mind.
Hamburg here I come!
Fast forward a few months, international borders opened and I could not wait to book tickets for France to visit my family. My dad was turning 60 years old at the start of May and I could not miss that! I also knew that partying in France in May wasn’t ideal for another Gold Coast marathon training block, that’s when the idea of a European marathon came to my mind.
Hamburg here I come!
Training Block
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After a strain in my groin that made me have a few weeks break end of 2021 (and practice aquajogging with Hannah Anderson), I was able to come back quite quickly to fitness and run a mini summer season with a 5000m PB at the end January. Coach Ben Toomey prepared a three months marathon block plan starting end of January. I was a bit worried about doing this block by myself when we had such a great group the previous year. But once again, being part of such a great running club and running group, I don’t think I have done any major session by myself.
Steph Auston and Matt Pilley were preparing one of their crazy long trail races and volunteered to help me many times… and were doing extra. A few sessions that gave me confidence: 10 x (1km @MP – 1km slower) in Sydney, Adamstown to Belmont and back, and probably the best one was 3x8km in Carrington four weeks before the race where I felt amazing. I had also one or two failed sessions, but Ben would say you need at least one of these in any marathon block. Another great time in this training block was Port Macquarie half marathon with James, Jarrad and Stephan. We were all at a very similar fitness level at that time which made the race very fun as we ran as a group for close to 10km. |
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Flying to Europe (and the stress before the race)
I flew to France a week before the race.
To put it in context this was nearly a year ago and Covid restrictions were still on. If I was to catch Covid, I would not be able to race. I have never been so scared of catching something ever before. I wore one of these great masks for the 24h flight, when at the airport I was trying to find the less busy area possible.
Once I got to France, I was asking my friends and family to leave all windows open at all time and to keep distance with me… I went a bit coocoo. I took three RAT test in the week leading to the race.
When you land in Europe in April after a warn and humid Australian summer, running feels amazing. Weather is cold and crisp. Every single easy jogging and taper sessions I have done in France was a 12/10, I was ready to go.
To put it in context this was nearly a year ago and Covid restrictions were still on. If I was to catch Covid, I would not be able to race. I have never been so scared of catching something ever before. I wore one of these great masks for the 24h flight, when at the airport I was trying to find the less busy area possible.
Once I got to France, I was asking my friends and family to leave all windows open at all time and to keep distance with me… I went a bit coocoo. I took three RAT test in the week leading to the race.
When you land in Europe in April after a warn and humid Australian summer, running feels amazing. Weather is cold and crisp. Every single easy jogging and taper sessions I have done in France was a 12/10, I was ready to go.
Direction Hamburg
Thursday night is when I started to panic. From then to Saturday afternoon, I lost my mind. I panicked and for whatever reason was convinced I would not make it to the start. I flew to Hamburg. The stress and the strong carb loading made me feel stomach sick on Friday night and I had a second three hours sleep night (which included a 2am call to coach Ben and his wife Bridey… be reassured it was 10am in Australia).
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I started to feel better mentally on Saturday afternoon when we went to the running exhibition. I then had a run with my friend which felt fine. I was not sick anymore, and we were 15 hours before the race I was going to make it to the start, and from then I felt so relieved.
We had dinner (Indian for the rice!) and (non-alcoholic) beers in the sun (picture!) and I had a better night of sleep (maybe 5 or 6 hours).
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The Race
Morning of the race, it’s happening! I was so happy and not really stressed anymore. Just happy to be there. I watched the usual Julia Gillard misogyny speech, listened to Last of the Mohicans main song, I ate more rice, honey and banana with a side of Maurten drink and then walked to the start line with a big smile on my face.
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The last advice from Ben was “Don’t worry about splits or anything, just find a groove, stay relaxed and enjoy it”. And that’s what I did.
It was a windy day, but cold and very dry. I started and found my groove just slightly under 4min pace. I really was listening to my body and was not trying to stay with a group, which means I have run with a lot of people in this race. There was a lot of people on the side of the road, and I especially had two of my greatest friends supporting me and waiting for me at specific points to pass me gels (Maurten OBVIOUSLY). I felt fine but naturally started to slow down a little bit from 15km and I remember on the 18th km starting to feel my legs and having a doubt on my pace, I was worrying a little so I slowed down. Km20 to km25 is my slowest split (20’10).
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At that point I was running with another female and she had a friend pacing her, he asked my name and then he was asking for the public to support me. It was so loud! That was a really funny and enjoyable part of the race. The guy asked me how I felt and I told him how I was worried that I may have started too fast when he said a very logical thing “you are having a full discussion with me right now, you are fine”. Then something key happened, the female missed her bottle at km25, instead of just waiting for the next one, she stopped and went back and her friend went back with her. There was no way I was waiting for them. He succeeded to make me feel relaxed again and when we turned the next corner I told the person next to me “we are going home!”
I started to go a bit faster and I recognised the pace I had trained for in the last three months. I was passing a few people and at km 30 a guy came with me (guy in blue in the pictures), and we ran the last 12kms elbow to elbow.
I was feeling so good. I was waiting for the well known wall to hit me at some point but it never did. My strava tells me my fastest km split in the whole race was km37 with the fastest 5km split being from km37 to km42. |
I was splitting my watch every 5km and I could only see my pace from the latest 5km, so I was unsure what time I was going to run. But I just knew it was going to be good. At km40 one of my friends was in the public and she shouted so many things that I got emotive and had to control myself to not start crying (that would have been hard to keep running!)
At that point I had the thought “ok I would not mind getting to the finish line now”. When I knew the 42nd km mark was close I just focused on enjoying the moment and I am glad I did because who knows the next time I’ll be there again!
At that point I had the thought “ok I would not mind getting to the finish line now”. When I knew the 42nd km mark was close I just focused on enjoying the moment and I am glad I did because who knows the next time I’ll be there again!
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I had 2h44’59 on my watch – but I conscientiously clicked it after the finish line. It ended up being 2h44’55 real time and 2h45’08 official time.
Summary:
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I had a blast, would not change anything to the day or the race. I feel so lucky for all the support I got on the day and during the lead up.
More than a running club. |
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