Amsterdam Marathon

B Qualifier for Phil Wicks

Phil writes:

On Sunday I ran in the Amsterdam Marathon looking to banish the memories of my DNF in the London Marathon last April and my next attempt at running a qualifying time for the London Olympics next year.

I was tentatively aiming for the British 'A' standard qualifying time of sub 2:12 but conscious that it was a really hard target to aim for, especially in my 'debut' Marathon.

I arrived in Amsterdam on Friday and the weather for race day was looking good - dry, sunny, little wind and around 8-10degrees at race start. I spoke to the race organisers about pacemakers and they had groups set up to run at 62:30 / 65:00 and 66:50 through halfway. Ideally I was planning to go though halfway in 65:30 so my coach and I had a decision to make about what to do. After much discussions we decided to go with the 3rd group in the knowledge that some of the runners in this group were looking for a time slightly quicker at around 66:30 through halfway, which might form a breakaway group around 15km.
Going through halfway around 66:30 would mean that I would need to run negative splits, i.e. a faster 2nd half than the first, but in many of my long training sessions around Richmond Park I had been training in this way, so I felt confident that it was possible if things went perfectly to plan.

As an elite runner I was able to put my own drinks out every 5km along the route so the evening before the race I set about mixing my energy drinks and taping gels to the side of the bottles. I planned to take some of the energy drink every 5km and use the gels every 10km, but taped gels to all of the bottles except the first one to ensure that I had plenty in case I missed one somewhere.
Race day came and an early 5:45am alarm call to have some breakfast and get on the coach to the Olympic Stadium where the race was starting and finishing. An amazing and inspiring setting for the start and finish of the race - we ran around 200metres on the track at both the start and end of the race which was a nice touch.

The gun went off at 9:30am and I immediately set off behind the pacemaker in our group which consisted of around 10 athletes. As we approached 5km I grabbed my bottle ok and we were perfectly on time, at 10km I grabbed a bottle but realised it wasn't mine. (The organisers had supplied bottles and 'decorations' to attach to them the night before, but unfortunately this meant that many of them looked quite similar - lesson learnt!) I had missed my first gel but it wasn't a major issue as I decided I would just switch to gels at 15/25/35km rather than 10/20/30kms.

As I approached 15km one of the runners in front of me grabbed their bottle and I saw my bottle get knocked to the floor. Not wanting to stop to pick it up I continued on without it and grabbed a cup of the sponsor's energy drink instead. At 20km I approached the table and couldn't see my bottle on the table so again had to grab a cup of the sponsor's energy drink instead - still no energy gel!
Our group reached the halfway point around 66m 30s - perfectly on time, and I was feeling relaxed and comfortable.
At around 24km I saw my coach and managed to grab a gel from him - my first in the race! Then, sods law just under a km later up the road and I managed to pick up my bottle ok with one of the gels. I threw the gel away but at least I had my own prepared energy drink to wash down the gel I had just taken!

The pacemaker left the group at around 25km, and at 30km I was on for a finishing time around 2:13, but shortly afterwards I lost contact with some of the group who started to push on ahead of me. In hindsight I need to stick with this group to run a 2:13 finish but gaps open in a split second and I hesitated on the decision too long.
I was now on my own for the last 10km and to make matters worse my left calf started to cramp up - most likely as a result of missing my earlier planned hydration and energy gels.

The last 10km (and 5km in particular) was tough as I part hobbled my way towards the finish - I was effectively now on one leg for the last 5km of the race!

As I entered the stadium firstly there was a massive sense of relief that I was going to finish the race and the atmosphere was amazing. I would have been really happy to run under 2:15 but ended up just outside with 2:15:38 for 21st place.
So I have an Olympic 'B' standard (sub 2:16) but it is unlikely to be good enough to gain selection for the Olympics as things currently stand.

A total rest from running for this week for me and then thoughts will start to turn to the next Marathon. Plenty to improve on from this race which is a huge positive, so hopefully a good chance to run closer to that elusive sub 2:12 early next year.
Thanks for all the good wishes and support.

My race splits below...

5 Kilometer

16:02 (16:02)

10 Kilometer

31:32 (15:30)

15 Kilometer

47:20 (15:48)

20 Kilometer

1:03:09 (15:49)

Half marathon

1:06:34

25 Kilometer

1:18:51 (15:42)

30 Kilometer

1:34:39 (15:48)

35 Kilometer

1:50:45 (16:06)

40 Kilometer

2:07:41 (16:56)

Men. 1 W Chebet (Kenya) 2:05:53; 21 P Wicks 2:15:38.

	5 Kilometer	16:02 (16:02)
	10 Kilometer	31:32 (15:30)
	15 Kilometer	47:20 (15:48)
	20 Kilometer	1:03:09 (15:49)
	Half marathon	1:06:34
	25 Kilometer	1:18:51 (15:42)
	30 Kilometer	1:34:39 (15:48)
	35 Kilometer	1:50:45 (16:06)
	40 Kilometer	2:07:41 (16:56)

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.