Berlin Marathon Day

It is Marathon day and I am up at 5am, excited about the day. checked the weather and it is going to be perfect :) about 12 to 14 degrees celsius. Last evening was great, had a sports massage and a 10 minute sauna, showered and ate a lot of pasta. Went to bed around 11pm. To summarize everthing is going according to plan, I bought myself a new pair of shoes Brooks Trancer 7. I feel very good in the shoes and it matches my outfit :) I am sure my wife will be very proud of me.

Three goals for the day:
1. Beat my personal best of 4:08
2. Less than 4:00
3. Less than 3:49 :), my colleague Jan Forsbom has challenged me that he did the Berlin Marathon in that time and I should be able to beat it as I am a younger man than he! well, it is a stretch but I am going to give it my best shot.

Training Log Updated

I lost most of my training data just before the Reykjavik Marathon. But I have updated my training log with whatever I could salvage. I have to admit that it looks rather bleek with me just having run 152 kms so far, but I know that I had about 350 km or something like that before I ran the Reykjavik Marathon so I am feeling ok. I missed running a long run this weekend because I went to the sports massage and I was hurting after that... just wanted to heal before I took a long run.

I have been focusing on building up speed by doing more tempo and speed workouts. I have to admit I am not feeling very confident with my performance so far... lets see what the next couple of weeks transpires into.

Picture from Reykjavik Marathon

This is a picture that was taken by ASI, I ran the last 50 meters carrying my daughter... I was amazed to notice that my wife, mom, dad, father-in-law and friend in the background. Thank you Alex (my colleague) for pointing out the picture. Though I have to admit it was quite expensive (Euro 25) to get one picture.

4:16:18 Reykjavik Marathon 2007

It was a perfect day... bright and sunny, but cool with no wind. I was probably in the best of spirits and energy. Ari Danielsson a colleague of mine started the race with me and we stayed together for about 25 km, then I broke away feeling that I was slowing down. During the 25km, I had not put vaseline or bandaid over my chest to prevent my nipples from brasing, it started to bleed so I was a little distracted but I just accepted the fact that it was going to be the case and I cannot do anything about it. I found some vaseline at the 15th km and I found another colleague, Harald Haraldsson, who was watching the marathon and he had a bicycle and requested him to find some bandaid or tape... I got the tape around the 17th km... Thank you Halli, but the tape did not hold and I was bleeding badly, I just kept a positive mind that I can do nothing about it and I should just keep on.

I was feeling extremely strong and I was hardly tired, it was perfect until the 30th km... then my thigh muscle was tightening, by then Ari had caught up with me and he was feeling great. I was very proud that he was feeling strong and running well as he had a bad experience in NY Marathon last year. I stopped to stretch and Ari carried on... he finished in 4:01.

From 31st km to the end of the marathon it was horrible pain, every muscle in my leg was cramping.... especially my big muscles in my thigh and the muscles behind my knee and the calf muscle. I had to stop and stretch, walk and at times crawl the last 12km. It was very hard and I felt disappointed as I was going to break the 4 hour barrier this time. The first 30 km I ran at an average pace of 5 min and 19 seconds, if I had kept up the pace I would have finished the marathon in 3:44:19 even if I slowed down by another 25 seconds I would have finished the marathon in 3:59:08... but I finished the marathon in 4:16:18!

I think mentally I was quite strong to have finished the marathon because there were several instances when my body was screeming to stop but I kept on because I had a very positive outlook the entire way. I was running for a cause, to help build schools and bring learning and knowledge to girls who are shut out from everything positive and decent about the world.

I am looking forward to Berlin Marathon, and I am determined to beat the 4 hour barrier. I wanted to thank all those who contributed money towards Central Asia Institute and my running from the bottom of my heart. You made a difference and I hope we can make this world a better place to live in by our simple acts of kindness.

So thank you and your inspiration made me finish the marathon!

Marathon day

Getting ready to run the Reykjavik Marathon... it is very exciting although I have already run 3 marathons.



Food:

I had pasta and noodles last night and museli & granola with AB Lite milk.



Money raised so far:

235.500 ISK ~ US$3485.79



Statistics
I lost my statistics but I know I had run about 350 km

Reykjavik Marathon & Central Asia Institute

I decided to run the Reykjavik Marathon and the Berlin Marathon. The reason I decided to run the Reykjavik Marathon is to maximize the charity donation that I can contribute. My bank is donating US $ 45.75 per km to a charity of choice of the runner.

As I had mentioned in my previous posting, I am devoting all my fund raising activity to contribute towards the exceptional work that Greg Mortensen is doing in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is my Hero and I hope whoever is reading this post can contribute something to his effort to educate girls and women in place where there is very little value placed on women and girls!

Flora London Marathon Result: 4 hrs 8 min & 10 sec!

Finished the Flora London Marathon in 4 hours 8 minutes and 10 seconds (official result here), it was a 4 minutes and 20 seconds improvement from my personal best. It was a great experience and I would recommend running one of the major marathon to anyone. It was incredible to watch a sea of people in front of me the entire time I was running.

I did not manage to acheive my goal of under 4 hours, I guess I was holding back during the run as it was one of the hottest days in London and people were collapsing all aroud me while I was running. However, I don't want to use that as an excuse for my performance! I have learnt a bit more about my capacity to compete and I will acheive this goal in my next marathon.

I was thinking about running the Glitnir Reykjavik Marathon but my buddy Villi is trying to convince me that I should run the Berlin marathon in the end of September. I have not decided yet... as always the blog will be update with what I am planning to do!