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Anonymous

Thu Jan 01 1970

3 min read

Málaga marathon, a surprising completion.

Source: With acceptance from Runner World Norway, we share Angelika Sverdrup's story. 

6 weeks ago I won two start numbers for the Málaga Marathon, through Instagram. I could choose the distance; whole- or half marathon. In 2019 I ran 2 half marathons (you can read about it here: Ecotrail og Oslo, half marathon ) and some shorter races . The training has consisted of one day a week with focused running up to around 10 km and then mountain walks at weekends when it has been possible to do some indoor running, when has behaved like this. Otherwise, I have trained spinning one day a week, strength training one day a week and a little rowing and to. In other words, quite modest in terms of specific running training. The legs have behaved well when I've been training this way.

But then I found out that I wanted another marathon on the list. There is something alluring about that distance. Last marathon was the Transgrancanaria in 2018. I still decided to choose the marathon distance; new city and new medal to the collection! Now it was just a matter of finding a person willing to run, who would join me and run a marathon like that just before Christmas when everyone else has more than enough to prepare for Christmas. The choice fell on my running twin Monika Kransvik. She was the one who got me through Transgrancanaria. She had about as little running-specific training as I did last few months, so this was a good fit. I was clear that this was ONLY for the experience, no one time pressure, a lot of walking, goals to complete, end up far behind on the list and get a new medal. She liked the idea and met up! Both were excited about how we were going to do it. "Everyone" manages to get through a marathon in 6 hours, which was the maximum time. When we met, Monika launched new thoughts, at least for me; she would carry on around 4 hours. Ok, but not worse than 4.06 hours! What?? 4.06 was her worst marathon time and she didn't want it new worst time, I who had envisioned a really long trip of around 5 hours +- I had big plans to have another really bad time.

When I won participation, I started training for the marathon by entering longer runs, two 30 km, one half marathon, and a couple of sessions around 15 km. It felt fine, until the last session a week before. Then had the calves had enough. That's why I didn't run anything in the last week. I do not recommend this to anyone. Know that it is not smart to suddenly increase amount so drastically but i wanted to try and it felt fine until it didn't. (close the eyes and hope it goes well in principle).

We weren't the only runners on the flight to Málaga. We ended up in a cluster with, among others  Heidi Pharo, who was going to try the marathon distance for the first time and completed brilliantly. She was best of the year in Norway with this race! Impressive! Spouse photographer Sylvain was to document and provide psychological support. Another motivating and inspiring person was Knut, moderator in Løpeprat on Facebook. Flights go quickly when you can sit and rant continuously about running. A lot of useful information was exchanged. From the airport we went straight to the Expo to retrieve start number. It was a messy affair and was a bit outside the centre. Here it was big improvement potential!

Monika and I stayed at the official race hotel in Màlaga; Ilunión, together with the elite. Night to Saturday we got the joy of experiencing the fire alarm. We were awakened by intensely flashing flash lights and a howling alarm. We ended up ended up at the reception, where no staff wanted to inform about anything. We also had a look at the Kenyans, the elite runners. It was a false alarm. The next morning we dropped the breakfast run, which turned out to be smart. Rather, we made our own sightrunning in the city. The weather was fine, the temperature pleasant, but a bit windy. Fortunately, it lied on the actual race day.

Since I had no target for a specific time, I didn't feel any nerves ahead of the race. We jogged away to the start, about 1.3 km and found our starting booth. Here there were no strict controls like in Valencia. It was basically just showing up and placing yourself where you wanted.

I trained at 5.27 pace for the last 6 weeks, that is, a marathon time of about 4 hours, if I had run the whole the distance. It was this speed that we started from. The start was decent, the trail was nice, a bit spread out musical elements along the route and cheering crowds in some places, approximately at the same level as at the Oslo Marathon. There is one relatively small race, approx. 7,000 participants, with the majority in the half marathon. The participants came from 77 different countries nationalist! This year Málaga received bronze status for its race.

The marathon distance was one lap, so we got to see a lot of the city. The first half marathon went relatively well. Monica kept track of the pace and I followed blindly. Felt a couple of times that it was getting heavy, then it turned out that we ran a little too fast and we had to adjust the time again. Strange how only a few seconds change in speed produced such a thing rash with me. After crossing the finish line for the half marathon, "the hard core" continued in the second half. I spotted Sylvain, who was taking pictures and got a real boost. Knut, who was injured and could not run stood on the trail and cheered, thanks for the extra refill! Our brain is triggered by encouragement and is triggered by extra energy, therefore cheers from the audience are often a help.

The stretch from about 23 to 30 km was quite desolate and boring. I ran and thought if I would meet the wall and how it would feel. I also wondered if I would get cramps, which I have in most races. I began to find it heavy. Still no going to the drink stations!?! I ended up further and further behind Monica. She tripped light as a feather in front of me, constantly checking to see if I was hanging on. She tried the mantra: “Take it easy toe, light on toe” and “smile, it helps”….. Not going to mention everything I thought right here. The condition was probably quite psychologically. I hadn't run longer than 30km in training, and that session consisted of a LOT of walking at the end, so it was I was determined that I wouldn't be able to do any more without starting to walk occasionally. At the same time, I didn't want to spoil for Monika. When we passed 32 km she said in an encouraging voice; "Now we only have 59 minutes left" (if we should make it within 4 hours). Death and torment! How was I going to manage to run another 59 minutes?? Tried desperately tricking the brain into thinking it would feel like 20 minutes, max. In the end I just had to repress the whole message, it was too much to take in! Besides, I was getting really hungry! Drank sports drinks and consumed gels, it worked for the stomach.

Suddenly the four-hour speed limiter appeared behind us. I hung onto her and wanted to try to keep up as long as it was possible. It gave new energy to run with cruise control. Felt like I was running in a pack of wolves. Tried to getting into a bubble/trance where the running could stop by itself. Not as easy, as there were always people around who broke the rhythm, but I hung on. We entered the core of the city center, nice places, it turned out later in the day when we went there again. Just during the race I hardly got anything, just tried to keep focus on the legs in front me. And then came the finish line, delicious!! We finished in 3.58.23, Hallelujah! Under 4 hours!!! With so little running training! The cramp lurked in the background towards the end, but never quite took hold, probably because we kept it calm speed.

The day before we talked about what we wanted from the race. I wanted to experience something new: being able to maintain a steady pace throughout the entire distance and perhaps experience a negative split (that you run the last half faster than the first half), but that was quite unrealistic, I thought. But in a miraculous way both wishes were fulfilled! Very motivating and very enjoyable, but then with a longer training phase ahead. The legs felt good afterwards and I've had much less paralysis than after other races. Conclusion: It pays to hold back at the start and to follow the plan. You have a lot more going on than you think. The Malaga marathon was a great experience, so on the eve of the year, can be recommended!

If you want to read more from Angelika - visit her blog at https://www.runnersworld.no/blogs/angelika/index.htm