Hi all,
I haven't really gone into any detail yet about what events I'll do this year in order to break 3 hours. So I'll cut to the chase now and list them out here in this entry.
But firstly, a little background (yeah I can hear the groaning now). One of my other goals for this year, peripheral to running, is to travel more widely around Europe. However, travelling can be disruptive to marathon training, especially if a trip is scheduled during a high-intensity period. It happens, and it's unavoidable. Just this week, my company planned a belated Christmas party weekend in Granada, Spain, on the 15th January. So I guess I'll be taking my running gear over with me. From a training perspective, these things have to be managed as best they can.
After some convincing I believe that to get the best of both worlds, why not run a marathon in a city that you want to travel to? So at the end of 2009, I got a year calendar and plotted all the marathon events for 2010. Most of the marathons are clumped in the March-May months and the September-November months, with a small handful of events in summer and winter. Lots of big marathons tended to be on the same day! But in the end, I picked five events, which I've called my final five. They are:
- Rotterdam: 11th April
- Copenhagen: 23rd May
- Helsinki: 14th August
- Berlin: 26th September
- Athens: 31st October
As indicated in bold, Berlin is the event that I am targeting to break 3 hours. You may be wondering whether Athens would be a better choice to target a sub 3-hour marathon as it's the last race in my calendar. Having only run Berlin before and it's reputation as the fastest course in the world, I'd be more comfortable with choosing Berlin. The course profile for Athens indicates some big hills. If I don't break 3 hours in Berlin, at least there's Athens as a backup, but I'm hoping it won't come to that.
The other 4 marathons are going to be for fun/training purposes. I chose Rotterdam as it's one of the top 10 marathons in the world according to Runners World Magazine. I've always wanted to visit Finland and Denmark. And now I have a chance to travel around these Scandinavian countries and run a marathon in each. Finally I chose Greece as it's the home of the marathon. Athens 2010 will mark 2500 years since the Greek hero Pheidippides ran from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the Greeks' victory over the Persians. So far I've registered for all marathons except Helsinki and Athens. I'm a bit concerned about Athens though; I am absolutely certain that this round-number anniversary will lead to a rush of registration entries, and a quick cut-off date.
To be at their very best, elite marathoners limit themselves to only 1-2 races a year. For the last two years Haile Gebrselassie has concentrated on Dubai and Berlin, and he'll make another world record attempt at Berlin this year. With 5 races on my plate, I'll only peak for Berlin, whilst using the other 4 events for fun/training/an excuse to visit a city. Instead of saying I travelled around Athens, I could say that I ran the Athens Marathon and travelled around Athens. Of course I could just travel to Athens without needing to run the marathon, and that's fine. There will be cities that I would like to visit without needing to run a marathon in that city.
By running a marathon and treating it as a training run, I think the benefits are several. You do the most important run in your marathon training - the long slow run. And 42 km is more than enough mileage required for a typical long slow run. You also get to run around a new city and take in the sights. And you can soak up the marathon experience in a foreign country. I think doing a long run in a marathon setting in another country is more preferable to doing long runs on your own in training in our own neighbourhood. But you might have a different opinion on what makes a long run enjoyable.
But surely, you could still travel and do a couple of shorter, faster runs during your holiday. Yes, that's true. However, which would you rather do? A marathon event with thousands of other runners and screaming crowds, or just a couple of shorter faster runs by yourself. Marathon legend, Emil Zatopek, said it best: "If you want to win something, run the 100 metres. If you want to experience something, run the marathon."
One thing I'm concerned about is that by singling out Berlin as the race to break 3 hours, I only have one shot to do this. I guess the one shot approach is what makes it more exciting - the thrill of success on the first go, or the sudden crash of failure at having missed out. There is always next year though. But I hope it doesn't happen, after all I have under 9 months to plan and get ready for Berlin.
I'm quite excited about how my running in 2010 will pan out. I've never taken on anything like this before when it comes to running multiple marathons. But I guess if I put my mind to it, and keep my eyes on the original goal of breaking 3 hours, and believe, then who knows what I can achieve.
Wish me luck,
Aaron
P.S. You can follow me on Twitter, where I'll report on my training as well as the more mundane things in my life. I will include the #breaking3hours hashtag to any tweets related to my goal.
