Dubai Marathon 2017!

My 10th marathon.

My 9th marathon just 5 days earlier (this was on a Friday, the other on the Sunday prior).

Eek!

Needless to say, didn't know what to expect or feel, it came up so quickly. Felt I was more anxious about the recovery in between than the actual race itself!

As previously mentioned, legs seemingly felt okay except for that R vastus lateralis (VL). I taped it up before the run and put on compression shorts, which I've never actually run in. Thankfully, it psychologically worked, lol.

Fun thing is my good buddies that ran the Mumbai marathon with me were there and their excitement was contagious and I just tried to be calm and relaxed and take the run in a steady and as comfortable way as I could:

Then of course my fab running group, always super supportive: 

This run was different as pretty much right when I started running, my legs didn't feel as fresh as daises as it normally does when you start a run all nice and tapered. I did feel that VL from the beginning and just... kept busy chatting and talking to Team SA (South Africa)... we stuck together for the first 13-14km, and this was a great distraction. I kept my mind off the VL and... it did kind of work itself out and got in a nice groove where I didn't feel that in particular, just overall post-marathon slight tiredness in both legs. Team SA was great in holding me back, but then I felt like I got in a groove and forged ahead a bit. Then I held on to a steady pace for probably 20km or so, peaked at my watch and it was within fairly consistent and felt like I could maintain that pace. It wasn't a hard race pace, it was a sustainable pace. I remember passing a few of my fellow DCS runners and as it seems every year, it's that last 10ish km, phew. It just got soo hot out and... my legs REALLY started to feel heavy. Like REALLY REALLY heavy. Fortunately, it wasn't anything niggly, just HEAVY and... tired. So tired.

So that lst 10km was T-O-U-G-H. I was using all my positive mantra's, repeating to myself positive words, and using landmarks and things to keep me going. Like at 33km I knew that Nada and Branje, Rada's parents, were going to be there. Then at 36km it was the DCS table. Gosh, I looked like arse when I saw them, but it was good mojo. Then it was just a countdown. I literally felt I was hardly putting one foot in front of the other and felt like I was working soo hard, but yet going sooo slow. I did peak at my watch, and it was nearing and nearing 6 min/km. At that point, I felt I had given myself a good enough 'lead' to definitely be under 4 hours, although had been hoping for under 3:50, but then you get to a point in the run when you just want it to be over with and didn't care how I finished, as long as I finished. Must.Keep.Going. Those last few km just dragggggged on, again, one foot in front of the other, SUCH such heavy legs! Phew, can't even explain. FINALLY, it seems to take ages, I crossed the finish like at 3:49:49 - I DID IT!!!! I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy to be D-O-N-E!!!!!!

Everyone else seemed to have suffered from the heat and had slower times than usual, so I didn't feel that bad, and it is only now, a few days later that I am thinking what a pretty darn great accomplishment it was to do 2 marathons literally within a minute of each other, 3:48 at Mumbai and 3:49 at Dubai, within 5 days of each other. Where there is a will, there is a way!!!

Am definitely taking some time off now, a week to be exact, he he, of maybe some gentle swim or yoga, now have a bit of cold (no wonder, really put my body under a test!), and just am savoring the glory of doing what I did, and ... then back to grind again!!

Won't put up my horrid looking pics, just some decent looking ones, he he:

As my dad would say, "Success is the promise you keep to yourself:"

                                                

4-day Marathon Recovery

I do believe I will look back at this time and think, "what was I thinking?" and... "how did I do that?"

Well, Dubai happens to be a land o Type A personalities where everyone is always pushing the limits and just always up to that next challenge.

Being that this year is to be my "ultra" year, it seemed time to step up to these challenges myself and practice running on tird legs. The sad (good?) thing is, what I did is considered 'normal' among my running friends. So either I have crazy friends, or.... well, actually, I do think it is crazy that what I did is considered normal.

What am I talking about?

Here it is:

Sunday: Mumbai Marathon
Mon-Thursday - Recovery
Friday: Dubai Marathon

Yup, 2 marathons within 5 days. Eek! Will describe Dubai marathon in a bit, but this post will be all about that brief recovery period.

To be fair, I do admit that with each marathon I do, the recovery does seem to be better and better, not to say I have EVER even tempted to run a lot after marathons, nevertheless another marathon, but here were my keys to success:

• SLEEP! SLEEP! SLEEP!!! This is sooooooooooooooooooooooo important and the KEY to RECOVERY!!!! I got 7 ish hours that first night after the run and when returned to Dubai, but every night after that it was between 8-10 hours, no joke. It was awesome and .... can't say enough how important it is to help with neuromuscular fatigue AND muscle repair. 
• Compression gear - I pretty much wore my compression socks and shorts all week. My quads (my right especially) were the most sore, and the rest was, well, just thought it would be helpful.
• Food: I loaded up on kiwi and vitamin C to make sure I wouldn't get sick, so had my green juices in the mornings and yet again went to higher protein and carb food intake the first couple of days, then went to more carbs the next couple of days. I usually (try) and do a high good fat and protein diet and then carb load 2-3 days before, but this week was all off, but that's basically what I did. 
• I didn't do any exercises until Thursday when I did an easy 5km jog and then a 20 min loosening up swim. Have to admit that ALL systems were a go... except for that R quad, which made me nervous a bit, to be honest. Felt it during the Mumbai marathon, felt my R gait off a bit (??) and shortly thereafter, the vastus lateralis fired up and although ti kinda worked itself out during the run, it still remained sore. I did kinesotape it and wore those quad compression shorts all week. Besides that, the legs actually felt okay! 
• Had 1 x physio appt for soft tissue releases and 1 x chiro appt to keep the 'ol body aligned and in check!
• Tried this Oxygen chamber thing, as per recommended by my friend that does 7 marathons in 7 continents in 7 days and that runs through all 7 emirates in 7 days (yes, he's crazy). My legs went in the chamber thing and.... to be honest, the first time didn't feel much, it kind of pulled up on my pelvis and felt air on my legs and was thinking, "la de la, this is a waste of time and money" (sorry, no offense to him). The 2nd time I guess was tired because fell asleep a little and I guess my legs felt "lighter," (which he said they would (is that a bias?). My friend Liz also did it and she too was ?? about it. So who knows if it actually worked or didn't work, but hey ho, was kinda fun to try! 
• Mentally stayed focused. The week went by super quick and just tried to stay calm and not panic or get anxious about running another marathon in such a short time. Tried to stay positive and keep mentally fresh. 

Then... blink! The next thing I knew, it was back to the starting line.... 

48+ Hours in Mumbai - Mumbai Marathon

One of the things that is far to easy to do in Dubai is "pop" over to countries over the weekend. Although I have talked about it and always talk of the awesome possibility, I really haven't done it.

The time has come. 

And it was waaaaaaaaaaaay too easy and I feel silly actually for not doing it for the last 5+ years. 

Of course it's easy when countries are close, i.e. India. It still makes me chuckle with the thought of someone asking, "so, what did you do this weekend?" Response, "well, I went to India for the weekend." Although to many people, that would lead to a "wow!" response, because Dubai people are so worldly, the response is more like "ah, that's nice!" But to me it is still exciting.

Anyhoo, yes, I literally popped over to India for just over 48 hours. Not only that, but I did sightseeing AND ran a marathon during that time, ha! I know normally I blab and blab about all my trainings and the ins and outs of it, buuuuut, maybe it's because these marathons are coming and going so often it's not such a big thing to me anymore (gasp! You know when you're a runner when marathons become so blase to talk about, haha) to go through such details. And also, my training this year was more or less similar to the years before with the ONLY exception that I did probably a bit more yoga AND darn it, wasn't as nazi about my diet and hence am a few kg heavier than usual (boooooo!) and hence expectations for a speedy marathon were zilch and just wanted to be steady and... have fun! 

There were about 15 or so runners from my group that did the Mumbai marathon, but of them, there were 3-4 closer friends, and 6-7 somewhat close friends. I was with my friend Liz the whole time, and we both flew in Friday evening and flew out Sunday evening, so really, wasn't kidding when I said in and out! We were the only ladies of the group, and the boyz were teasing us not only how particular we were with our food and how we brought our own (seriously), but also our habits of being so careful with activity or non-activity and again, our food stuffs. Friday we just did a little walk around the hotel area, then Saturday was a pow wow day of doing a little 'loosening' up run, then went off to the Expo, then did some sightseeing, then did a late lunch/early dinner, then.... marathon prep! Sunday was.... Mumbai Marathon! Will write a little about that in a bit, but after we finished, it was this looong walk back to hotel, shower, pack, go to celebratory lunch, relax a bit, then.. off to the airport! 

Sooo.... off we go, the quick journey!

Dubai to Mumbai, Liz in her anti-allergy/not-wanting-to-get-sick gear (haha):

Arrival in Mumbai:

Hotel Trident at Nariman Point: Our food prep (yes, we brought all that food with us from Dubai! Liz's stuff was a lot more organized than mine, mine also included porridge and other random stuff), typical Mumbai smog, and facilities of the hotel:

Cool to have elites stay at the hotel and to meet with them (he is from South Africa, we didn't get a chance to ask the others, or were a bit shy. He got 12th overall, I think!):

Street scene (food) around our hotel:

Saturday morning pre-marathon warm-up:

Drive to Expo and Marathon Expo:

Sightseeing - Gateway of India, Taj Hotel, natural coconut hydration (good electrolytes!)

Late lunch/early dinner at the famous and well known Cafe Mondegar next to Leopold's, but unfortunate locations of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks: 

Mumbai MARATHON DAY (January 15th):

Post-run:

So there you have it! The weekend in a nutshell!!

Now, for me more than anything else, the actual marathon itself! As mentioned, going into it as I trained well, I am heavier than usual and felt fairly confident I could do sub 4 hours, but realistically was thinking I could do between 3:45-3:50. Well, I got a 3:48!!! Haha. The experience was great! So nice to do a different marathon and this was soo soo well organized. The 1st 3rd of the course was a bit humid, as I had been warned. I don't sweat that much, and felt like I was already sweating after the 1st km or two. Felt fairly comfortable and REALLY had to monitor my watch to slow down and not go out too fast. The 1st 3rd of the run was quite nice, it was misty, dark, okay a bit humid, but nice and scenic with a beautiful bridge to cross over, the Bandra - Worli Sealink bridge or Rajiv Gandhi bridge. It was quite surreal as it was quiet except for the pitter patter of runners, the cables of the bridge almost looked psychedelic, and with the mist and all, was very beautiful and I remember taking a deep breath and felt pure enjoyment and just loved the experienced.

But THEN, after this calming and beautiful bridge, we got out of it, and then poof! The 2nd 3rd of the run - POLLUTION! I don't think I've experienced brown air, but really, it was brown air and you could feet and taste the pollution. Ewe. I guess this was more the 'slummy' parts of Mumbai. Maybe a bit earlier, but this young chatty lad befriended me and he wanted to keep chatting while running, which I admit was a good distraction, although got a bit annoying because he was insisting I keep him motivated and keep chatting, hard to do when you have 42km to push through! Anyhoo, he pooped out and I just stayed focused and tried to be consistent. Again, the police were EVERYWHERE and were supportive along with the people and have to say, 2 thumbs up to the organization again, there really was water or some kind of goodies every km or so. Plus, my gawd, Mumbai is one of the most densest and busiest cities in India and to organize street closures and to make the marathon happen, I can only imagine what had to be done, but everything was closed off and catered towards us, which was great!

The 3rd leg of the marathon, well, in any race this is when the going gets tough. As we circled back into the "nice and clean" neighborhoods of Mumbai, the air got less polluted, but it got quite hot. Legs were feeling heavier and heavier, and with a nice big o bridge at 34km, phew! Quite tough to power through. I could feel myself slowing down, but just didn't have it in me to go harder or faster. Just kept myself to maintain, maintain, maintain and/or steady, steady, steady, and just was counting down the km in my head. I do admit I do like km for that reason as they come rather quickly. I have to admit it got a wee bit annoying at the end because we merged with the back of the pack marathon runners and these walkers did get in the way a bit and the water help just kept on going more and more in the roads, but alas.... made it to the finish!!! Hurrah! Didn't look at my watch the last 5-7km because I knew I was going slower and slower and didn't want to think negative at that, so just let it go and have to say did as I expected and was pleased at 3:48. Yay!!

Overall, I REALLY liked doing a 'different' marathon and it was sooo nice that it was so convenient to do it in India! Also, it was super cute as Team India, as I like to call them, were super kind and REALLY took care of the only (expat) ladies, Liz and I, and treated us like little sisters, really ensuring we were safe and taken care of. Super kind these boyz!

A super experience for Marathon #9!!!!