I first considered it in 2006 - it was to be held the day after my 50th birthday. I ran in Cardiff instead as I didn't think I could stand the red light jokes about celebrating my 50th birthday alone in Amsterdam.
In 2008 I started my most ambitious ever marathon training when I began my daily early morning training. Things developed until I set my target of a 2.40 PB at the age of 52 in Amsterdam. I ran 2.47 in August in the Isle of Man without easing down and then increased the intensity of my training further including a 30 miler in 3.16 followed by a 78 minute half marathon session 3 days later. A few days after that and my dream was gone as my hamstring went. I went to the Amsterdam race, where my son Ben ran the half, but it was not a successful weekend.
Last year I planned to go back but after problems with my knee that only just held out when I ran sub 2.46 in London developed and the day before the 2009 Parish Walk I decided to write off the rest of my 2009 season, have a break and build slowly for some decent marathons in 2010.
I stuck to my word and it was the end of November before I ran a long one but from then on I put in some really good sessions. In January I booked my flights for Amsterdam and when things didn't go to plan in the weeks leading up to London (although sub 2.50 seems ok now) I continued training with my plan to run at least one more sub 2.45 marathon.
6 weeks to go and I had my best week of training for 2 years. I had finished a sub one hour 10 mile session before 7 am on the Wednesday and on Friday, quite without a plan, I smashed my best ever time around one of my short courses. On Saturday I did 2.07 for 20 miles around the NSC using the 2010 race markings (although my Garmin required me to run for another minute) on the day I went on holiday. My hamstring was a bit stiff when travelling and it gave out when I tried to train on holiday - within 2 days of the point two years ago.
I thought I only had one chance to salvage the 2010 Amsterdam Marathon and I took a week and half off - I had not previously rested since the day after London.
4 weeks to go and I started jogging again and built up during the week but I went out at 6 am on the day of the End to End Walk and my hamstring went again - just as I was passing the walkers' coach at the TT Grandstand. I told quite a few people that day that I was pulling out. Athletically there was very little to be gained from going to Europe to run a marathon in more than 3 hours.
6 times between February and August I have run the marathon distance on my own in times between 2.52 and 2.57 and they were at 7 am on Saturday mornings without even telling anyone that I was going to do it (other than to say I was doing a long one) and I had always run throughout the week often with a hard session on Thursday.
But quite a few people persuaded me to go for the weekend and decide later if I should run. Even if I ran, without exception, people told me to take it easy and enjoy the race.
The following day I got a stinker of a cold so I couldn't have trained anyway.
With 13 days to go I had one last try to start running again but I struggled with my breathing after my cold.
Last Saturday I went out to do a long slow run but abandoned it when my speed dropped alarmingly from slow to extremely slow!
A day off and I felt a bit better on Monday and decided that I may as well jog around today. Needless to say within a few days the idea of jogging became how fast I could go making allowances for the fact that I had only been over 5 miles once in the past 6 weeks.
I felt fine at the start today and as comfortable as any marathon I have ever run for 10 miles. But my lack of training soon told and within a couple of miles I was thinking of pulling out - but how would I get back? I managed to keep going until about 15 miles but that is awfully early to be walking in a marathon.
I really thought I would take 4 or 5 hours to finish but after walking and jogging a little I managed to jog continuously from about 19.5 miles to 25 miles and although I walked a bit again after that I managed to salvage a personal worst of 3.26.
My previous personal worst was 3.22 in London (2006) and I have bounced back since then.
It was at about 23 miles when I knew that I was going to reach the finish that I resolved I would be back next year and I've already been looking at travel.
The main benefit of regular training is not the improvement in performance it is the predictability. With good training I can predict how long I will take for a long run to very fine margins. Without that fitness it is hard to predict. If I had known it was going to take 3.26 I probably wouldn't have started today but when all the thousands of runners were passing me I thought "well they have prepared better than me". Few of us, when we have a good race, realise that half of the reason is that others have had setbacks. None of the people who set good times today would be thinking about people like me who got it wrong.
Before I clog off from the Netherlands, here are my splits:
Results Amsterdam Marathon 2010
Bib number 8278
Name Murray Lambden
City Douglas, Isle of Man
5 km 20:31 (20:31)
10 km 40:53 (20:22)
15 km 1:01:30 (20:37)
20 km 1:22:19 (20:49)
21,1 km 1:27:07
25 km 1:46:10 (23:51)
30 km 2:15:24 (29:14)
35 km 2:44:31 (29:07)
40 km 3:12:11 (27:40)
Net time 3:26:03
Gros time 3:26:20
Speed 12,287 Km/Hour
Distance Marathon
Place 107 / M50
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