Wien marathon
Schnitzel and Sacher
24.4.2022



Long break

I used to run 2 to 4 maratons every year. None in 2021. What happened?

In 2020, I managed to do Hong Kong China Coast just before the Covid epidemy started. I had also registered in two other marathons in China during the Spring 2020 but both were cancelled. Even if the epidemy started and faded away very fast, the excessive prevention measures remained and has kept increasing ever since. Zero tolerance. After returning to Finland, I did my second marathon in 2020 in my home town, Joensuu.

In 2021, I did not run any for three reasons. First, our second child was born in February 2021 and kept the life too busy. Second, Covid was also still around in Finland and in Europe so any reasonable travel plans was put on ice. Towards the end of the year, my best hope was Joensuu marathon which was again post-poned to Autumn. I had even free participation due to the bridge episode that happened in 2020.

The third reason was fatique fracture that I had developed during the Spring and diagnosed just before the annual Jukola event (also post-poned to August). It had started to cumulate during the Spring orienteering events I suppose and later snapped on one rainy day in football. My massager diagnosed it as Morton neuralgia but recommended to take X-rays just in case to eliminate possible fracture. After some hesitation I eventually did, and yes, fracture it was.

That autumn I was limping few weeks and using exercise bike a lot. No much running. I even found out that I could actually work efficiently (reading work) on the bike so it did not feel that bad after all. But it did prevent the planned Joensuu marathon, and nothing suitable turned up later in the year.

I then made early registration for Wien marathon as there was likely conference trip nearby (Brno, Czech) just after the marathon. It never realized but the marathon plan stayed in my calendar but with high uncertainty. Physically I could already play floorball and football, but the foot was not fully recovered and still consumed exercise bicycle a lot. Actual runs were rare and long runs almost non-existing. I counted only one during the entire winter.

To make things more uncertain, Covid omicron variant started to spread in schools and kindergardens. We had avoided successfully so far but not anymore. I got just reasonably mild symptoms with three days rest with lots of sleep (including afternoon naps). Fever for two days fever (37.6 C max). I could continue exercising quite fast with only 3 days off. First slow short jogging but at the 6th day could already take winter orienteering without noticeable effect from Covid. I returned back to my normal pretty soon: football, floorball, skiing and the gym bike. Still not much running but 7 more weeks to go.

Then the feet problems re-surfaced with various sympoms. Another flue with two days really strong headache from sinus problems (could be some post-covid symptoms). And the last, clear non-acrobatic fall down on my back in football which caused full back cramp for one day, and mild hip problems for several weeks. At this stage, not going to the marathon became my default plan. I did not want to break my feet again, and all these other problems. I had not even trained properly.



Figures: Pictures on my travelling: From Helsinki airport straight to the marathon expo. A bit walking from the metro via tricky route but the benefit of big maraton is easy to navgiate by following others.


Travelling to Wien

About 1,5 weeks before the marathon I started seriously to re-consider to go. It would anyway feel pity later if I did not go. The feet was so so but there was no obvious huge problems. Could I run anyway? I had paid the registeration and it had been quite long since my previous marathon.

Then one week before the D-day I decided: GO! I quickly booked a flight and made travel plans for a really short one-night stopover. Arrive in saturday, run and depart next day. But at least I would run. I would enjoy. And hopefully also finish without any big issues. I might be guite tired afterwards and "under construction" state when returning home. But I would do it.

I started to become so excited about the trip that I wrote this story up to this point five days before the race. Yippee!



figures: As shown by the pictures from Marathon expo, FP2 was still obligatory in many places in Wien.


My weekly training kilometers (after Covid) were 50, 64, 35, 64, 55, 45, 19+42. The maximum week was: 
Mo  28.3.  Gymbike + 1km    0:50     8 km  
Tu  29.3.  Skiing           1:17    12 km  
We  30.3.  Football         1:30    12 km
Th  31.3.  Gym
Fr   1.4.  Floorball        0:55    10 km
Sa   2.4.  Skiing           1:06    12 km  
Su   3.4.  Gymbike+rowing   1:00    10 km  (0:50 + 0:10)
No much actual running and kilometers were merely "calculated" based on my feeling of their overall effect. Typical football playing cumulates to 7-9 km running (I do run a lot in the games) but it is much more intense so I count it worth to correspond to 12 km of running. Overall, the weekly amount was still at reasonable level on avearge (52 km) but the long runs were missing.

The last week preparation was to take it easy, as usually, with slight carbo loading in Thursday and Friday. I flight from Helsinki and arrived to Wien at 10:00 saturday morning and headed straight to the marathon Expo. Then Wiener Schnitzel for lunch at a cosy restaurant nearby my hotel. The rest of the day included resting, short walk to nearby cafe, and the last but not least, watching some retro program from Yle Areena: Eurovision song contest qualifications from 1981. I felt I was doing many things I had missed recently: And the last, but not least, coming next day: What a feeling:



Figures: Relaxing before the race day.


The race!

The race was next morning 9:00 and the place reasonably easy to reach by tram + metro connection. Metro was loaded by fellow runners. I had about an hour to wait and catch the marathon festive feeling. Everything was well organized and relaxed. Jeremie and Anthony got my honorary mention for their most personal dress-up with their energy Gel replacements: take-away baguettes. I had chosen my Louhelan Woima football shirt and couple of boring energy gels in my pocket.



Figures: Feelings from the marathon start.


Marathon

The first few kilometers were crowded. I did not mind as I planned to start slowly anyway. The rush helped in this goal and my pace kept rather steady (according to my standards). The strategy worked. My main concern was wether my feet would become any concern. It did not. First time any signs showed up was after 28 km but it never developed to anything more than that.

The route was, how should I put it, typical "Wien city" scenery. Let the following Youtube demonstration of the route describe it. In the very beginning the route crossed Donau river. After that city streets, sometimes following smaller river sides, parks, nothing spectacular. The Lusthaus at Prater park (33 km) was the nicest attraction I noticed even though the long park route there and back felt endless. There were occasional music bands along the route and I enjoyed them all.

Usually there are always some funny text plates by the supporters along the route to greet the runners. This time the winner in this category was on the back of a fellow runner: "Run like Yoda, breathe like Darth Vader".

The minor feet symptoms made me slow down a bit between 28-33 km. I finished the rather eventless race at 3:44:18. The two halves were almost equal (1:51:54 and 1:52:24), and my average pace was 5:19 min/km. The last two kilometers I managed to push a bit more (4:51 min/km). At the end my legs felt beaten; much more tired than in most my previous marathons. But I had finished the marathon.



Figures: Pictures from the race as taken by my iPhone.


Summary:

In past, I usually recovered fast from the marathons but this time it was different. It was those front thighs that do carry the major work in running but they are also well trained. This time they were sore and took almost a week to recover. In this regard, I felt like having downgraded back to a beginner level. I suppose this was the price to pay for lacking proper training, especially those long runs.

Besides the unusually longer recovery, there was nothing much to report. The feet problem did not become better or worse but remained as a constant struggle. Statistical summary of the race is below. It was my 50th marathon.

Oh, one more thing: I missed the Sacher cake...

Time: 3:44:18
Rank: 1542 / 3779
Weather: 14-16 C (cloudy)
All results: Here
Finisher video: Happy finisher video

Splits:


Figures: Feelings after the finish line.