My story from the Prague Marathon 2022. Pain and happiness!
From the beginning I’ve said to myself that I need to achieve a marathon at around 3:15 hours. My previous record, 3:31, was obtained with less effort, so I knew it was room for some improvement. Therefore, the very expected Prague Marathon 2022 which should have actually be held two years earlier, was the perfect alibi for me to try and push my limits. The injury from my left metatarsal went away so now I only wanted to concentrate on a pace of under 4:40 / kilometer – in my head it was even down to under 4:30.
Now, I knew everything was achievable, but an asphalt marathon, in a competitive form, was something I did not undergone for some time. In Prague, even though early may, the weather was more summerly and the biggest problem of them all, as you’ll find out later on here, was the ascent. Some climb, that you could identify after the first half of the course. Painful. Steady, but so challenging after 21 kilometers and with the sun in my head, literally.
Thoughts during my failed attempt at Prague Marathon
The thought to stop crossed my mind and not only once. Still, I couldn’t imagine that I am in Prague, at a marathon awaited for more than two years and just quitting, because my expectations couldn’t match my reality. OK, sure, it is nice to run a full marathon at below 4:30 pace and I did so more than a half, but if it is not possible, than it is not and I should not give up! In fact, my final gun time, if I keep my composure should be far ahead my PB so this should be a good reason to continue and to squeeze the most of it.
I stopped at – almost – every refreshment point to drink water and Gatorade, I just wanted to not go through pain and suffering. For what, in the end? Just enjoy, lad! This is what my brain was processing at this point in time, even though everything became harder and harder and the kilometers with 5:00+ pace were gathering.
17.000 kilometers and a jacuzzi beer bath after
To run a marathon is not easy and a guy that has 20 tells you. It is nothing sexy about it and if anybody asks me why I do it, I will provide the most sincere answer there is and that I am 100% sure every runner has inside their brain: “For my ego, to prove to me and to the world that I can! To prove that I can achieve numbers, great numbers, for an average human being”. That’s it, running is in most cases a numbers game.
I run for numbers and this marathon didn’t make any exception. In fact, during it, after kilometer 25, I’ve achieved kilometer number 17.000 in my recorded running career and I was proud of myself. It boosted me a bit and once the finish approached I have regained some energy and pushed just a bit. With the idea that at the finish line my lovely girl will be waiting for me and with the knowledge in my mind that in some four hours I will repair my body in a beer jacuzzi bath, Bernard beer that is!
3:23:04 final time for Prague Marathon 2022
No, for real! After the Prague Marathon, I went straight to drink beer in a tub filled with hot water and plants that are used to brew this great and magical drink. All of them!!! For now, though, I am still running and suffering a bit, but, as Dean Karnazes would say, for every runner there is happiness in misery. I can 100% confirm! Again and again. Running a plain marathon is something brutal, you feel the need to push as hard as possible and in the end you get the results.
I’ve crossed the finish line in 3:23:04. Not a bad result at all, but far from what I was hopping. I don’t find excuses, I am just not ready to push harder at a marathon. I am positive that one day not only I will go below 3:15, but even below the 3 hour mark, but for that, a guy like me, with 0 athletic abilities, should work hard and be fully disciplined. I am not.
Enough! Well, maybe in Athens… From… Marathon! 😀
This was my seventh city marathon, after Bucharest – twice, Berlin, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu and the 20th in total. My best time, in a great city and the most important lesson, combined, that I took from here. The effort for the second half of this kind of race cannot be compared to the first. Therefore, for sure, in the next years I won’t be attending this kind of race again – except the Athens Authentic Marathon – because I need first to get proper results on shorter races so afterwards to be able to achieve more. All in all, the run in Prague was wonderful and the medal sits proudly next to the Berlin and Budapest medals. Of course, the Bucharest ones are there as well, but here I can go whenever I want.
Didn’t ran a marathon and want a tip? Don’t!!! 🙂 Joking, you should! But be careful. Is nothing easy in running a marathon. Especially a city marathon. If you finish one, you should be the proudest man / woman alive!