Joel Maley: 7th CISM Military World Games

The Canadian Track & Field/Marathon Team

So just like the Olympic cycle, every four years presents the opportunity for military athletes to compete in the Military World Games. This would be the 7^th edition of the Military World Games and the first time I would have the opportunity to participate. There were aproximately 7,500 athletes and 25,000 volunteers. I had been selected earlier in the year to race on the Canadian Marathon Team.

The Canadian Marathon Team: Me, Michael, Mark, Scott, Mike (Team Manager), Kristine, Jessica, CJ.

Claudia and I returned from Hawaii on Wednesday evening and on Friday morning I was back on a plane heading for Wuhan, China. I arrived in Wuhan late Saturday evening. The rest of the Canadian Military Team had arrived earlier in the week.

Gear all set for race day!

It was a great week of recovery leading into the marathon which was scheduled for the following Sunday morning. My legs were certainly sore and fatigued from the Ironman, but some light running during the week, a few extra sessions in the Rapid Reboots, and a couple massages seemed to do the trick. Sunday morning I was up around 0445hrs as I wanted to ensure my breakfast was down-range 3+ hrs before the race. The mess hall wasn’t open until 0530hrs so I had three croissants with jam, two bananas, a cup of coffee, and a bottle of F2C Hydra-Durance. We departed the Military Athlete Village (MAV) at 0600hrs for the the marathon venue, which was a short thirty minute drive away. The marathon course was one loop around East Lake, apparently the largest in-land lake in China.

The marathon start!

It was an overcast morning with some very light rain and a temperature in the low teens…read almost perfect racing conditions. The Canadian team consisted of three ladies: CJ, Jessica, and Kristine and four men: Mark, Michael, Scott, and myself. At 0800hrs we were off with about 150 athletes participating in the marathon. I had planned to run the opening half in 1:20 with Michael and then was planning to push the second half of the marathon based on how I was feeling. We started off a little faster and were holding an average pace of approx. 3:39/km for about the opening 10km. The pace felt quite comfortable and I did not feel as if I was laboring at all. I decided to increase the pace slightly and slowly started to reel in the pack in front of me which included three of the Polish Women and one of the Chinese Women. I ran with them till about kilometer 20 and then slowly started to pull around. I went through the opening half of the marathon in about 1:17.

I continued to slowly reel in some of the athletes in front of me and continued to increase my pace. At around kilometer 35 I caught up to Mark and we ran together for a couple kilometers before I slowly pulled away. The last 5kms were a bit of a mental struggle but I held my pace finishing in 2:31:39 setting a new PB by almost 8min. This was the first time I had negative split a marathon with an opening half of about 1:17 and a closing half of 1:14 and change. I was not the only one with a PB on the day as Mark and Scott both set personal bests as well.

The finish!

Congratulating Mark after both setting PBs!

Racing at the Military World Games was a very cool experience. China put on a first class show and made sure it was like the Olympics.

So why the PB? I think it was a combination of four factors. 1. Consistent Training since June. 2. Proper Nutrition (~100 Calories of F2C Glyco-Durance at 5, 15, 25, 35 km + ~30 Calories (one scoop) of F2C Hydra-Durance at kilometer 10, 20, 30, 40), 3. Good recovery post Kona (excellent food, massage, light training, Rapid Reboot, no mental stress), 4. A strong field that made pacing easier. And maybe a 5th reason...Nike Vaporfly Next%!

One thing that I continue to learn about myself is I race best when I have no pressure. Who’d have expected that I’d drop a 2:31 only two weeks after an Ironman! Sometimes the human body simply amazes me.