WHAT WENT WRONG?

Since his collapse, David Wyeth has been on a voyage of discovery to learn the reasons behind it, and the lessons it can teach us all UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAPPENED

‘After the race I spoke with Dr Courtney Kipps, the assistant medical director for the London Marathon. He told me there’s no magic equation to ensure optimal performance, and that what worked for one performance isn’t guaranteed to work for another. This is because of the variable state your body is in – sleeplessness, stress, infection and inflammation can all place unpredictable demands on your energy reserves. According to Kipps, the manner in

which I stumbled, then dropped to the floor on The Mall, had the hallmarks of a process known in sports medicine as the ‘Foster Collapse Position’. A study in the journal Sports Medicine explains it like this: ‘Extreme fatigue could overwhelm the athlete’s regulatory and motor control mechanisms and attenuates the capacity to maintain coordinated movement. Continuing to attempt to reach the finish line in this impaired state is also perhaps indicative of high psychological pathologies such as diminished sensitivity to feedback or extreme motivational drives.’

Matthew’s intervention saved me from assuming the ‘Full Foster’ stage – crawling to the finish on knees and elbows.’

THE NUTRITION FACTOR

‘As I tried to link my collapse to one event, one elusive piece of toast that would have got me across the line, Dr Kipps cautioned against oversimplifying and focusing solely on one aspect of my fuel strategy. I’ve therefore looked at a range of factors. Did I get the quantity and balance wrong during carb- loading before the race? The evening before race day, I stopped eating at 7pm, so as not to compromise sleep, but would my race have been saved by my topping up the tank on arrival at my overnight stay? During the race I consumed six gels – I plan to review this frequency and timing of gel intake. In the weeks leading up to the target race, I’ll do more practice using gels at planned race frequency to train the gut to be able to handle the volume.’

THE MENTAL ANGLE

‘From a detailed discussion of my preparation, Dr Kipps singled out my psychological state of mind. My first marathon in Manchester, in April 2016, had taught me that you need to be able to

handle tough spells to run to your potential. In the lead-up to London, I explored the mental preparation required for optimum race performance. My friend and clubmate, performance psychologist Stuart Holliday, recommended reading The Chimp Paradox by his professional supervisor, Steve Peters. As a result, I wrote a mental plan as part of a wider race strategy.

I now understand that this process to mentally drive for a specific outcome at all costs may have contributed to the critical state I found myself in. I believe I executed this mental race plan rather too well, and in doing so set a course to exceed my physical boundaries.

I wore a heart-rate monitor during the race and when we looked at how this data compared to previous performances, it showed that despite believing I was running comfortably, I might have been overcooking it in the first two thirds of the race compared to Manchester – a retrospective indicator that not all was well.

As the Sports Medicine research puts it: ‘One potential reason for collapses is that athletes ignore body-related symptoms and concentrate on thoughts not related to the exercise bout in order to reduce the sensations of fatigue and, in this manner, become aware of impending catastrophic system failure too late to respond to it.’

Dr Kipps considered my fixation with a time goal as a key factor. I had resolved to target a sub-2:40 finish nine months before the race, and by doing so had created a hard, locked-in objective.

Once that 2:40 time had slipped away (between miles 23 and 24) I was busy making the calculations for securing a sub-2:45 finish, the

London Marathon ‘championship’ start requirement. That was the goal that I was striving for as I entered Birdcage Walk.’

THE LESSONS

‘If the question of how to guarantee a strong finish could be definitively answered, it would remove some of the wonder of marathon racing. I’ve learned there isn’t a magic recipe. Like many runners, I’m determined to hit my racing goals. However, in future I will not be so governed by chasing locked-in time targets. I'll adapt to what my body and training data is telling me. I must keep the resilience to work through the pain, but also listen to my body to know when not finishing a race is safer. Though I don’t wish to further test my body's limits, the experience left me in wonderment at how amazing the body is, how it knows to respond to physical duress and can override the conscious mind to do what is required to protect itself.

On April 22 this year, I plan to make it down The Mall, arms aloft, and mighty proud to be standing unaided.’