On November 5, I took part in my final official start in 2016 by running a marathon in Muchkap. Preparation for it turned out to be not the most ideal, although you cannot call it bad either. The result showed 2.37.50. Took 3rd place in the absolute. I am satisfied with the result and the occupied place, because in such weather conditions and on such a difficult track, it was difficult for me to show the best time. Although still small forced mistakes in running tactics could affect the result for the worse. But first things first.
Organization
Why Muchkap? Why go to the marathon in November not in Sochi, where it is warm and sea, but in an urban-type settlement in the Tambov region, where this time of year can be frosty and icy wind and even snow? I will answer - for emotions. Muchkap is charging. After the trip, there is so much energy that you are ready to move mountains.
All this is due to the attitude of the organizers to the participants. You come to Muchkap and understand that you are welcome here. We are glad to every guest of the city, every athlete.
Here are the advantages in the organization, I can highlight.
1. There is no entry fee. Now there are practically no races where the entry fee is not entered. And usually at those starts where there is no contribution and the organization is appropriate - just a group of "friends" gathered and ran. There are, of course, races where there is a very decent level of performance even without a fee, but there are very few of them in our country. And Muchkap is definitely in the first place among them.
2. Possibility of free accommodation. The organizers provide the opportunity to live completely free of charge in the gym of the local sports and recreation center and school. Sleep on mats. The gym is warm and cozy. Around your like-minded people. "Running movement" in all its glory. There is usually not much time before the start to chat. And here you can discuss everything that is possible.
If someone does not want to sleep on mats in the gym, they can spend the night in a hotel 30 km from Muchkap (not free).
3. Entertainment program for participants the day before the start. Namely:
- City Tour. And believe me, there is something to see in Muchkap. Despite its scale, it is surprising.
- An annual tradition when the day before the start of the marathon runners plant trees on a special marathon alley.
- A concert organized by local bands. Very soulful, great, without pathos.
4. Rewarding. Considering that there is no entry fee, the prize money for the winners is very good. Even at those starts where you have to pay an entry fee, there are rarely such prizes. And more often than not, organizers provide certificates to stores instead of money.
5. Buffet for all participants after the awards ceremony for marathon runners. The organizers set tables with various delicacies for the participants completely free of charge. There is enough food for everyone to just peel off.
6. Buckwheat porridge and tea after the finish for all runners. Of course, everything is also free.
7. Support for fans at a distance. The organizers specially take groups of fans to the track to support the runners. And the support is really great and sincere. You run past, and as if you received an additional charge of energy. The same support at the reversal of the marathon in the village of Shapkino.
8. Electronic calculation of results. All participants are given chips. You finish and right there on the scoreboard you can see your result, taken place. And plus, usually on races where there is such a system for fixing the results, the final protocols are laid out the maximum for the next day. Without such fixation, protocols sometimes have to wait almost a week.
9. Medals to the finishers. The medal is really great. And although medals are given out in almost all races, the medal of the Muchkap Marathon with a wolf, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful and original that I have seen.
These are the main advantages of the organization. But there are also disadvantages. Since I myself have some experience in organizing competitions, on this basis I would like to note a couple of disadvantages. I hope that the organizers will read my report and will be able to make it even better, without a doubt, the best marathon for me personally.
1. Marking the marathon track. It essentially does not exist. There are track markings for 10 km and half marathon. There is no separate one for the marathon. The fact is that marathon runners run 2 km 195 meters around the city before entering the main track. And it turns out that when I see, say, a 6 km sign, then in order to understand my pace, I need to add 195 meters to 6 km 2 km. Although I have a higher technical education, I solved higher mathematics at the institute with a bang. But during the marathon, my brain refused to do such calculations. That is, having a distance of 8 km 195 meters and a time of, say, 30 minutes, you need to calculate the average pace for each kilometer.
Moreover, I thought that after the half marathon runners' turn, the marathon markings would remain. But no, the plates continued to show the distance from the start of the dozen, that is, 2195 meters less.
It seems to me that for the marathon it is necessary to put up separate signs and, if possible, write on the asphalt separately, for example, in red, the mileage every 5 km and the cutoff at half the marathon. And the numbers on the plates were too small. Make them in A5 format. Then one hundred percent do not miss such a sign. When I organized a half marathon in my city, I did just that. I wrote it on the pavement and duplicated it with a sign.
2. It would be nice to make food items wider by a couple of tables. There are still a lot of marathon runners, and this added its own difficulties.
Personally, my problem is as follows. An hour (and in fact, even an hour and a half) before the main race, the so-called "slugs" left the track. That is, marathoners who run a marathon in the region of 5 hours or slower. As a result, it turned out that when I ran up to the food point, the slow-moving marathon runner stood in front of the table and drank water and ate. I have nothing against. But I run at my own pace and I have no desire to spend time for a full stop while driving. But I have a dilemma. Or stop, ask him to move away, take glasses, walk around the person and run on. Or, on the go, grab cups of water or cola from under it and run on, most likely hitting or crashing into a standing person. Twice at two food stations I had a similar situation and twice I had to crash into a person. It slowed down the pace. Eliminating this is not difficult - just add a table. Or ask volunteers to serve the cups on outstretched arms a little to the side of the table. So that fast and slow runners do not interfere with each other. And taking cups off the table at high speed is also difficult. Spills a lot. And when out of hand, then the pace does not go astray and spills less.
These are two main disadvantages that I personally thought should be mentioned so that the organizers could make the race even better. I want to note that I myself organize competitions, copying a lot of what was done in Muchkap. If anyone is interested, you can read about the organization of the half marathon in Kamyshin, which I was involved in this year. You may notice a lot of similarities with Muchkap. Here is the link: http://scfoton.ru/arbuznyj-polumarafon-2016-otchet-s-tochki-zreniya-organizatora
There was also a small snag with the start, which was delayed by 30 minutes due to the fact that not all participants had time to register. Although I have already warmed up, I will not say that this delay was critical. Since we just sat and basked in the local recreation center. And then, 10 minutes before the start, they ran again and warmed up. I am sure the organizers will definitely take this moment into account next year. Therefore, I see no reason to talk about him separately.
Weather conditions and equipment
The weather was not ideal. -1, icy wind of about 5-6 meters per second, cloudy. Although the sun came out a couple of times.
The wind was lateral for most of the distance. A couple of kilometers on the opposite side, and the same amount on the way.
There was no snow on the track, so running was not slippery.
In this regard, I decided to equip myself as follows:
Shorts, compression leggings, not for compression, but just to keep it warmer, a T-shirt, a thin long-sleeved jacket and another T-shirt.
I decided to run in marathons.
I ended up freezing. Frozen well. Although I ran the first 30 kilometers with an average pace of around 3.40, the feeling of cold did not leave for a minute. And when the crosswind intensified, it even shivered. On the other hand, any extra clothes would hinder movement.
True, the legs felt quite comfortable, as they were constantly working. But the torso and arms were frozen. Maybe it made sense to wear two long sleeves instead of one. In any case, it is extremely difficult to guess the ideal option in such weather.
Meals before and during the race.
At lunch the day before, I ate some boiled potatoes that I brought from home. In the evening, pasta with sugar. In the morning in the evening I steamed buckwheat in a thermos. And he ate it in the morning. I've been doing this for a long time. And I always get a positive result in terms of the stomach. And buckwheat gives energy well.
I put on shorts with pockets for the race. I put 4 gels in my pockets. 2 regular and 2 caffeinated.
I ate the first gel at 15 kilometers. The second for about 25 km, and the third for 35. The fourth gel was not useful. In general, this amount of food was sufficient for me.
He ate gels in front of food points, where he washed them down with water and cola. I also drank cola 3 times, when I washed it down with gels.
Tactics
Since I was completely confused with the markings, I can only roughly say at what pace I overcame certain sections.
I accurately recorded that I ran 2 km 195 meters, that is, the so-called accelerating circles in 6 minutes 47 seconds. It's too fast. But I was forced to do this, since half of these circles had a strong icy headwind. And I tried to hold on to a group of leaders of 5 people in order to somehow protect myself from the wind. In the end, I still had to let them go. Because they have raised an excessively high pace. But we managed to warm up a little behind them.
I ran out on the main track in sixth, about 10 seconds behind the leading runners. Gradually they began to stretch. The two began to move away rapidly. And the rest, although they moved away, but slowly. I overtook the 5th runner by about 10 kilometers.
Then I ran, one might say, alone. The fourth runner ran away from me for about a minute and a half, and the sixth ran away by about the same. At the U-turn, where in theory it should be 22.2 km, it remained approximately the same - the gap from the fourth place and the advantage over the sixth was about one minute.
As far as I remember, on the turn on the clock, I saw the time 1 hour 21 minutes or a little less. That is, the average rate was around 3.40. True, then I could not calculate it.
I especially "liked" this moment. I run, I see a sign for 18 km. I look at the time, and there is 1 hour 13 minutes and how many seconds. And I understand that I don't run out for a kilometer even from 4 minutes. I could not have thought that this plate did not take into account the acceleration circles of 2 km 195 meters. And when I ran to the turn, from which there were exactly 20 km to the finish line, I realized that the sign was not 18 km, but in fact 20.2 km. It became easier, but I still didn't count the average pace.
By the 30th kilometer, I also ran about a minute from the 4th place. At around 30 kilometers, that is, in fact, 32.2 time was 1.56 kopecks. The average rate even grew to about 3.36-3.37. Maybe I didn't exactly look at it, I don't know, but everything seems to indicate that it was so.
When there were about 6-7 kilometers to the finish line, I suddenly saw that the one who was fourth became the third. And the one who ran in third place began to slow down strongly and moved, respectively, to 4th place. My pace was higher, and by the 5th kilometer I caught up with him and overtook him. At the same time, the third one was also clearly cut down, because I caught up with him about 4 kilometers, and from a hill. Then I continued to run in third place. But my legs, 3 kilometers before the finish, were shackled so that I could move them with great difficulty. My head was spinning, wild fatigue, but the gap from the fourth place, though very slowly, was growing. Already because of the turns, I did not see him. Therefore, it remained only to simply endure. There was no opportunity, no strength, or even sense to increase the pace. So I finished on crutches, with an advantage of 22 seconds from the fourth marathon runner.
As a result, in fact, I ran the entire marathon solely on my own feelings. This was my first such experience. I even run control workouts on time. At least occasionally I look at landmarks. And here, up to 32 kilometers, I did not know at all at what pace I was running. I understood that I was running normally, but this parameter "normally" could be in the range from 3.35 to 3.55. Therefore, we can say that I did not know at all what result I was going for. When I realized at 32 kilometers what the pace was, I no longer had the strength to keep it. Therefore, I just ran as my legs allow.
It turns out that I lost a lot of time on the final 10 km. If I had kept the average pace, I would have run out of 2.35. But it is not for nothing that they say that the marathon starts after 35 kilometers. This time there was no strength to keep pace. But on the other hand, the rivals were cut down even more than me. Therefore, we managed to catch up with them and overtake them to the very finish.
Decently beat off his legs. The asphalt is in very poor condition in some places. Therefore, the foot of the right foot then ached for a long time after the marathon. But after a day, there is not even residual pain.
After the marathon
Of course, I was happy with the result and the occupied place. Because up to the 37th kilometer, I never thought that I would get the fourth and fifth.
I am pleased with the result precisely because, although it is worse than my personal by 40 seconds, it is shown in much worse conditions than those 2.37.12, which I showed in the spring in Volgograd. This means that in ideal conditions I am ready to run faster.
The state after the marathon was almost like after the first marathon: my legs hurt, it was impossible to sit down, and it was also difficult to walk. I took off my sneakers through pain. Rubbed nothing. The foot just hurt.
Immediately after the marathon I drank tea, my friend treated me to some isotonic. I have no idea what exactly was there. But I was thirsty and I drank. Then he bought a bottle of cola and drank it alternating with tea. Even at the marathon at food points, when I grabbed a glass of cola, there was a desire at the finish line to buy a whole bottle of cola and get drunk. So I did. She raised blood sugar and cheered up a little.
Conclusion
I liked the marathon. The organization is excellent as always. The tactics are quite normal. Although if I saw the time at each segment, maybe I would run a little differently. The rewarding is great.
The weather is not the worst, but it is far from ideal. Dressed rather weakly.
I will definitely come to Muchkap next year and I advise everyone to do the same. I am sure you will not regret it.
