They call it running naked. Running without your Garmin, the source of constant pace, distance and heart-rate feedback, you can feel exposed – and liberated. I had a good reminder to do it more often at the Lucerne marathon on Sunday. I had been agonising all week about my pace – training had not gone to plan – until it occurred to me the day before to not look at my watch. That way, I wouldn’t spend every mile mentally beating myself up for being slower than last year.
So I lined up with no plan other than to run steadily and distract myself with the scenery. Luckily there is plenty of it in Lucerne, a pristine city surrounded by gorgeous Alps; the course has the looks of a mountain marathon but, thanks to the lakeside route, none (or not much) of the gradient. With spectators shouting “Hopp! Hopp!” (Go! Go!) and clanking Ski Sunday cowbells, the early miles ticked past without me even thinking about them, and as the rain eased off and the sun broke through over Mount Pilatus, I felt fantastic.
This lasted until about 12 miles, when I came to and realised I was surrounded by the most-hated group in marathon running: people who are just doing the half. As they peeled off towards the finish line, the strength drained from my legs. Had I gone too quickly? It was hard not to look at my watch, but, realising I didn’t really want to know exactly how much trouble I was in, I resisted.
Ignorance is bliss. I’m not sure it’s possible to actually enjoy the second half of a marathon, but I looked at the mountains, found a rhythm again, and managed to rock the pain in my legs to sleep. As I turned for the finish, I saw 3.09 on the race clock; less than 10 minutes slower than last year, and better than I had thought possible. I need to run like this more often.
How was your weekend run? As usual, whether it went to plan or not, let us know below the line and have a chat about your progress and problems with your fellow runners.
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