Terrible first marathon - seeking redemption
I run a 1:48 HM and had been training for a sub 4 marathon, 12 week block averaging 55km per week peaking at 70km. Longest three runs at 34, 32 and 30km. Did all my training with a goal marathon pace of 5:25 to be extra extra safe. Tapered fine, some hip issues but nothing major.
Where I think I failed: carb loading and sleep. I had an early flight to Gold Coast the day before the marathon and didn't get much sleep. Had an afternoon nap and thus couldn't sleep that night either. Final day of carb loading didn't go well; looking back think I may have gotten only 200g of carbs all day.
Woke up on race morning with some tummy trouble, but then I sat on the toilet for 30 minutes with no results so I'm unsure if it was just nerves. Thought I left early enough to get a warm up at the race start zone but the 5km journey took an hour due to packed trams. It was so packed that the moment you left the tram stop to walk to the start zone it was shoulder to shoulder and I couldn't get in a warm up.
Race started and right from the get go nothing felt right. My legs were heavy, as if I'd just done a 30km the day before. Stuck to a 5:40 pace and by the time the 21km mark came around my legs were screaming out in pain, I knew I couldn't maintain 5:40 for another 21kms and I didnt want to walk so I started slowing down. Didn't work. By the time I hit 33km I was plodding along at 6:30 and decided to walk/run the final 8kms. Final time 4:29 average pace of 6:23. I had 7 gels and 3 salt capsules.
I'm still trying to figure out what went wrong. Sometimes I go on my long runs on little sleep and it's fine. My phantom tummy trouble went on throughout the day, could it have affected my overall fatigue? Id spent 12 weeks and it blew up at the end.
Now I'm planning to run another marathon at my local route. But I'm unsure as to how much time I should wait until the attempt. I'll take a week off for my legs to heal then do a mini 3 week block and 1 week taper and try again. Is this unwise? I don't want to wait until next year 😭