My Fourth Marathon. ERGO White Nights, Saint Petersburg 2016

I ran my fourth marathon in Saint Petersburg, Russia on July, 3rd. I had planned this Marathon as my major race in 2016. There were ten people who were going to visit that beautiful city and cheer me on. Moreover, my 14-year-old nephew was going to run their 10 km race. So there were two runners and eight spectators in our group. Unfortunately my nephew was contracted with the pneumonia the day before departing for the race. However, his father decided to run in his place in the 10 km race.

Our home town is almost 1400 km from that northern Russian city where that Marathon took place. The train ride to get there was 25 hours, but that gave us the time we needed to create the spectator signs which read "Let's go, Saratov! 34 marathons more and you are at home" and "You were training too hard to walk, RUN!"

We arrived in Piter (Russians call St. Petersburg so. It sounds like “Pee-tehr”) on Friday.

St. Petersburg is known as a city with extremely treacherous weather. I hoped it would be pretty cool on the Sunday of the marathon. Two days before the event, it was rainy. Unfortunately, there were no clouds in the sky on Sunday morning and the temperature started rising.

It is interesting that all the buildings in the historic centre of the city are not higher than 23 meters. This is the height of the Hermitage (Winter Palace). Any house in Piter was not allowed be taller than the tsar’s. Moreover, there are few trees but a lot of asphalt and granite, which means that at noon there are almost no shadows along the marathon course in Piter. Running in hot conditions in this city could turn into running in hell.

It was my second Russian major. The first one was the Moscow Marathon in 2015. The St. Petersburg race was not as huge as in Moscow. But, in contrast, there were many more foreign runners in Piter. Some of them arrived there right from the airport. They wore sportswear with bibs and sport shoes and they had huge suitcases.

There were no clusters of people near the starting line. There were only two start zones: one for 42 km, and for 10 km. I warmed up a little and entered the crowd. In few minutes, we heard a shot and began slowly moving towards the start arc.

Four months before the race, my goal time was 3:30. The closer it became to the race day, the slower my goal became.

It was about 30 degrees Celsius when I crossed the start line, and I changed my goal time to “just to finish”.

Firstly, I decided to keep pace with a 3:45 pacemaker. However, I ran in the pack, and it took some time to pass all those people. I didn't catch the pacer until the 7th or 8th km mark, where the 10k and marathon courses split. By that time, I had a good pace and passed the pacer.

For the next several kilometers I chatted a man who had a GPS device, and I found out we were running at a 4:50 min/km pace. It was a short distance to where there were trees. When we turned off of that street, it was last time I saw the trees or any shade. Then we entered into hell.

There are not many hills in Piter. Total elevation during the course was, I think, not more than 100 meters. The city is located on the banks of the Neva River. There are a lot of channels, embankments and bridges in Piter. Running along the embankments is quite boring. I was surprised that there were not many supporters. Of course, in some places people were standing along the streets, cheering us on and high-fiving us but not nearly as many as there were in Moscow in 2015.

By the end of the first half I was already rather exhausted. I came across more and more runners who walked. Some people were sitting right on the roads in the road signs' shadows. The heat was taking its toll. I saw some emergency vehicles during the race. The second half route mostly went along the embankments. My pace slowed drastically.

The most memorable moment was a watering machine placed at the 37th km. Two guys watered all the runners with a huge hose. It was a great idea! During the last ten kilometers all my thoughts were not to walk – only run at any pace.

When I saw a crowd far from me I recognized that that was the finish. I knew that my cheering group was waiting for me near there. I was passed by two female runners. One of them was a young girl, and the second one was a senior lady. I had passed them an hour before, but now they had a bit more power. Good luck, gals!

500 meters before the finish line, my nephew’s father joined me, and he ran as my pacesetter. We crossed the line. I received my medal, and headed to the exit. First what I did was to take off my shoes, the best feeling over the past 4 hours.

My time was 3:46:23. It was worse than I did in Moscow a year before. I took 436th place out of 2,335. In general, I was satisfied.

My daughter made me a bracelet. It is my fourth one.