Last Sunday, December 15th, together with my friend Manuel we traveled to Malaga to take part in its marathon, with around 6000 runners registered in the distance.
We picked Malaga following our series of marathons abroad (to combine tourism with long distance running) that has taken some of us to run together in Paris, Berlin, Roma, Athens, Rotterdam, New York, Sevilla (x3), Madrid, Millau, Dublin (x2), Lisboa, Vienna, Krakow, Porto, Bucharest and now Malaga (in bold those run with Manuel).
To prepare for this marathon I followed the same 16-week training plan I had used in the past. Just before those 16 weeks of the plan, thanks to a running challenge we followed in the company, I cumulated +200km in 4 weeks between mid May and June. Then at the end of August I started with the plan. In the end I arrived to Malaga with 554km in the legs in those 16 weeks, a bit less than I would have liked. I trained quite well in September, doing most of the series sessions and all long runs, but in early October I had a calf contracture that slowed me for a couple of weeks. At the end of October I resumed the plan but discarded the series sessions while maintaining the long runs… until two weeks before the race when I had another injury in the other calf. I stopped for a few days and resumed with some short runs before the race day. In those 16 weeks I averaged 37km per week, completed 8 long runs (including 4 above 20km; 22km, 30km, 30km and 26km – with positive feelings especially in this last one) and 11 sessions of series, though not enough of them to get a bit faster. Provided that I didn’t get injured again, I was confident in being able to complete the marathon in a time between 4h05′ and 4h15′ even if the final mark was uncertain.
The profile in Malaga is rather flat. The organization prepared a circuit mainly composed of long avenues, mostly by the seaside, which allowed to run at constant pace. The race started and finished in the Paseo del Parque, in front of the iconic Banco de España building, and I stayed for an extended weekend at an apartment at walking distance from the place.
The temperature was a bit cold in the morning (~6°C), the sky was clear and it would be a bit warmer towards the end of the race, though the temperature did not exceed 16°C. My strategy was to start at a pace just below 6min per km, and then, if I felt well, accelerate the pace at mid-race so that I could target a time below 4h15′. There were pacers for times aiming at every 15-minute mark and in the end, I didn’t quite followed that strategy but ran just after the 4-hour pacers at a short distance until the km 23.
The race started at 8:30am and Manu departed from a different box, hence we wished luck to each other and ran separately. We ran with the participants in the half marathon, that made the first half of the race a bit more crowded.
I ran at a comfortable pace until the first half, but I started to feel the same pain in the calf that made me stop a couple of weeks before since km ~16. At km 23 or so the pain became stronger and I softened the pace, fearing that I would have to do some walking later on. Luckily I saw a volunteer with Reflex spray at km 25 and got a good dose of it. A few minutes later the pain mostly disappeared and I could continue running even if at a slower pace. At km 32 I got the calf sprayed again with Reflex and even if I had some difficulties in the last ~6km I could manage the timing to be below the target of 4h15′.
The last 2 km of the race were superb. The race goes through the city centre including Plaza de la Constitucion and calle Marques de Larios with the crowd surrounding and cheering the runners. I kept my pace in the last few hundred metres as by then I had muscle pain in both lower legs so I could not give it a last sprint.
In the end, I clocked a net time of 4h11’39”, a time about what I expected given the weight with which I arrived to the race (93kg) and the injuries I went through during the training weeks, but slower than the last two marathons I ran in 2022 (Sevilla and Bucharest). This has been my 24th marathon completed, easy to say today but not so on April 30th 2000 when I started in the distance in Madrid.
With those 4h11’39”, I was again above the 4-hour mark and finished in the 4279th place out of 5733 finishers (25% percentile). That time makes it my 5th worst marathon, though with a positive feeling of having completed another marathon 2 years later and following a 2023 marked by injuries as well. I am now looking for the next one.
The organization of the race was great. The circuit showed a beautiful city. They included plenty of water supply (with bottles) posts, isotonic drinks and food (bananas and oranges), I just missed gels (though I carried myself enough of those). The finish line was great, the wardrobe service was close to the start and finish line (by the bullfighting arena). It was a great experience.
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