Dublin Marathon 2011 Race Report

I can finally call myself a marathoneer - yippeee.

I did the race last Monday, it is now Saturday and I'm still elated.    I have heard perople describe the after marathon period as an anti-climax, a period of 'where do i go now'.   I dont have that issue - all i want is to get cracking on another one.

The Race

The crowds were gathering before 9.  M dropped me in as far as Lombard Street and I walked up towards the baggage area.  My tummy butterflies were fairly jumping at the sight of numerous other (fitter looking) runners walking towards Merrion Square.

The Start Line before the Off - how will I feel if i get back here again?

I bumped into one of the lads from work & after dropping off our bags we met with the others from work (about 6 of us were doing the race, I hadnt trained with them though as I didnt want to run as fast as them in case of injury).

We had a laugh as we lubed up and answered various calls of nature and then headed for our respective starting areas.

I located myself between the 4.5hr and 5 hr. baloons as this was my hoped for time.   There was a bit of hanging around as the elites and faster runners headed off but I pretty much just enjoyed the atmosphere.   I didnt know what to expect but I was enjoying the experience greatly.....

Waiting for the start (forward view)

(backward view with Holles Street Hospital in the background, the spectre of 5 hours already looms....)

I had my mp3 player set (2 playlists, marathon music and marathon podcasts), my garmin was waiting to be started and i had shed my black bin-liner (needed in this part of the world to keep the cold out while waiting for the start).

Finally we got the start at 10a.m.    It took 11 mins or so to pass over the line, hit the watch & garmin to measure my time and take my first steps on the road to somewhere I had never thought i would visit.

The first km passed quickly but took 11mins, slow even for me (although far from the slowest mile of the day).

Running through town and up O'Connell Street was a real thrill;

Making our way to the start, and running through town up O'Connell Street (spot the handshaky photo)

Travelling up towards Phoenix Park we hit mile 4.    I had run one of my training runs from here to about 2 miles from the end and i did a quick mental scan of my body.    I had decided that this was the 'start' of my race and the first few miles were just the journey to here.    So I wanted to re-assure myself that I was okay, and remind myself that in my own mind i was starting from here....

The park was an enjoyable 4 miles, leaving it i took a phonecall from my sister who was surprised to get me (I had M's phone as its smaller and easier to carry). This was the first of a few calls which were very encouraging. 

The army running in combat boots & pack - way to go making me feel inadequate guys (especially as they passed me again about mile 23 & i didnt see them again)

I felt the call of nature and stopped at the porta-loos in Chapelizod, time per km going up due to the queues.

I continued slowly thru the miles keeping to an average 6min30sec per km up to 21km, almost half-way.  However the next 10km i felt more tired and the time went up to about 7mins per km.  My overall lack of anykind of speedwork was making its presence felt, also the reduced mileage i did to make sure i could get to the start line.

My nutrtion plan for the marathon was a gel at about every 45mins, plenty of water, and a packet of Jelly Tots and a packet of salted peanuts (for cramping purposes).   However, I stopped in a corner shop in Terenure at about 27km to buy something a little more solid; i settled on a bananna; of which half was eneough to satisfy me (I'm not even sure if i could have forced the rest down).

I kept up a fairly steady progress to 18.5 miles, however it was definitely getting harder.   I had taken on the plan to walk thru the water stations, refilling my own bottle at the same time.

Now there was a lot of people walking & the temptation to imitate them became too much, my walking periods became longer and my running slower.

I spoke to my brother in law (an experience marathoneer) who assured me i'd hit 4hr30, i didnt feel as confident and sadly i was proved correct.

The rain came down between miles 22ish th the end.    It wasnt just rain tho', it was a fully fledged downpour.  We got soaked and cold.   I was really appreciating the people who still stood out and cheered (the support all the way through was just fantastic). The volunteers also must have had an atrocious time of it, at least we were moving and getting some heat into us.

No heartbreak here, i was still loving the experience

Must have actually picked up the pace here, just passing UCD

My time per km had been slowing, but at about mile 22 i gave up on any pretence of running.   My hip froze up and i had to resign myself to walking.  I was now averaging between 8.5 & 9.5 mins per km.   I spoke to M and was unhappy to hear that she was waiting for me in Westland Row with the kids in the lashings of rain.

I kept walking on, i saw a small number of people being helped into ambulances, i imagine it was the cold and wet that finally got to them.

The last couple of km were a stroll, i was enjoying the whole experience so much i forgot that i was in a race.... I picked up the pace and did a vague impression of power walking in the last bit.   Met M & the kids with 1 mile to go and one of the boys & his friend joined me for the loop of TCD back to the finish line.

The race took me 5hr20mins, an absolute age compared to some, but i dont care in the slightest.  I got to the start without injury and got to the end eventually.

And so it finished, I even ran the last hundred yards over the line.    I felt good, i smiled literally all the way, it was an absolutely brilliant experience........I cant wait to do it again.

Dublin Marathon 2011 - Yippee

A short note to say I today ran my first ever marathon.....yipee.

A very rainy day in Dublin, and a very slow time of 5hr20mins - yikes (hip tightened up at mile 18 and by mile 22 i practically had to walk all the way).    But i dont care, i got to the start without injury, and got to the end eventually, and enjoyed every minute of it.....and now i have a pb to beat the next time.

Will write up a proper note over the next few days.

The countdown has begun....

Marathon Monday week.    What a time for ankles to start giving trouble.....  Feels a bit like plantar, its under my arches and i'm feeling a general fragileness around the ankles.    Just 2 more weeks, says he while praying to the running gods....

I went out for a very slow half marathon Monday night (almost 2.5 hours).   Feet hurting since then, but it may be also psychological as i also said it to folks in work about the run & the fact i'm doing it for diabetes research.   Nothing like a bit of fame to get the pressure on....

Anyway, i havent run since monday; I'll cycle to work tomorrow & take it from there.   I should be tapering but this might be more of a juddering stop.......

Can i say HELP......

Finally ready for the marathon?

Been a couple of weeks since i've written anything down about how training is going..... Basically life got in the way; but i've been keeping up the running and last Monday I signed up for the marathon!!!!

I hadn't done 20miles yet so handing over €93 was a bit of a leap, especially after a 23k nightmare the previous day....

Anyway a recap of the last 2 and a bit weeks;
25/9 i had a lovey 28km (c.18miles) run.   I headed out toSandymount/Booterstown direction.    The first 25k went well but the last 3km were tough enough.   I must say tho' i picked up 2 wonderful blisters, they started at 9kand kept getting worse in the wettish conditions of the day.
Due to the blisters during that week I did nothing until a 10k on friday night (24k cycling roundtrip to work thursday & friday).  I was going easier on myself because i figured the cycling counted for something, and also the thoughts of sticking a pin in the blisters didnt appeal at all, so i gave them a few days to go down.  (I do have photos of same but they are way too gross to put up, both because they're blisters, ad because they are feet).

2/10 - 23km, c.14miles.   My god what a horror.....   I didnt want to go out for a run at all, so i dilly-dallied until the afternoon, rather than going out early as i had originally planned.

I ran out to Yeat's Cottage in Howth, then back to Fairview to meet M & the kids at the gym.   Howth was looking lovely but altho i got a couple of pics i really wasnt in the mood.   It took a good 7k to warm up, i then felt comfortable for about 8-10k, then suffered for the rest of the run.   Something psychological seems to happen on these long runs, no matter what the distance its comfortable until the last few k, then the body seems to cave in.

Anyway the photos from Howth....

 Looking towards Irelands Eye from beside the King Sitric

 Same view from Yeats Cottage

And Irelands Eye from Yeats Cottage.

Signing Up for the Marathon

So I had a mare of a run, but at least i came thru it and my legs were not too bad.   The next day was the closing date for Dublin.   I had a bit of a wobble so I rang an multiple marathon and ultra-running friend Big E (who'd be running Dublin only he has had a stress factor the last few months).

He basically told me to go for it, take it slow & take the gels, that i have the distances under my belt.    Armed with this i went back to the computer and, taking the deepest of deep breaths, signed up.

So this week, with the take-it-easy approach, i did a 7k leg loosener Tuesday lunchtime (following part of the course), 10 late slow miles wednesday,  cycled to & from work thurs & Friday, and then (sadly after watching Ireland lose the RWC world cup quarter final to Wales) 6k leg loosener Saturday (I find the long runs better if i've been for a short run the day before).  

This was all building up to my 20miler this sunday.  

The Longest of Long Slow Runs

In keeping with my recent Positive Mental Attitude i was really looking forward to this run.    I planned to get the Dart/Luas into Heuston Station and join the route at the Phoenix Park.   

I ran thru a park packed with joggers and sunday morning strollers.   Its a bit far from my home but it reminded me that this is really a great park & i must bring the clann out again soon.

I could say i was comfortable for the first few k, but in reality i was comfy for the first 32k, and apart from the last couple of k (when i couldnt find a shop to replenish the water and so felt pretty de-hydrated).

I had a pretty great run, and only lost the course once.   I got to see parts of the city i'm not too familiar with and boosted the confidence that i might actually get thru this......

Anyway the route i took......

And the aftermath; I dont feel too bad as i write this, i met M & the kids at the gym and did a bit of sauna/plunge pool/swimming which seems to have loosened the legs a bit - even climbing the stairs isnt too bad (altho' i do have a bit of chaffing - more vaseline next time i think).

Oh, and finally, altho i didnt post the blisters, i will post the fact that i am now the pround owner of a black toenail - am i a distance runner yet?

An unexpected break

I haven't run since last Friday; 7 days without a run is the longest break in quite some time and certainly doesn't fit in with the plan-that-must-be-obeyed.....

The reason for this break? - a stinky head cold.    I cycled into work last Thursday & Friday (24k round trip) and Friday evening i ran 10k on a fierce-windy rain threatening evening.

I was meant to do 12k that night but  figured to cheat a little after the cycling to work.   This was to be followed by a 12 mile drop back run on Sunday (isn't it great that you get to the stage of looking forward to 'just' having to run 12 miles).

Anyway Sunday morning dawned and i just didn't feel like getting out, decided to defer to that night.   By the time evening came i was totally whacked out and decided laziness was the better part of valour and I'd be better off waiting till Monday night for my run.

Anyway Monday brought a disimprovment followed by out-of-work sick days on Tues & Wed.    I was ok to go back to work Thurs but still in no condition to go running.

And now (Friday evening)?  The current plan is to do a warm up 4 miles tomorrow and do 17 miles Sunday - bit of trepidation about this, but lets see how it goes....  Just need to get my head round to actually enjoying these runs again, and not feel like i'm on some sort of (dreadful pun warning) treadmill.

A late night 26km

Events conspired against running early yesterday (Saturday) or early today. 

Yesterday we had the normal Satuday taxi service - dropping kids here and there, and we also had a very important trip to Smyths Toy Store to get my daughter K a bike, in celebration of her being 1 year diagnosed with diabetes (might sound weird to celebrate same, but we are looking at it from the point of view of how sick she was and we didnt know why - 2 days of insulin and she was back to herself).

Anyway, this morning J decided he wanted to join the local rugby team (they dropped flyers into the school), so that cancelled running this morning (would have gone earlier but Ireland were playing USA in the World Cup, so couldnt miss that...)

Anyway short story long I got out tonight at 9:15p.m.    I needed to up the distance to 26k (16 miles).   It was a miserable wet night but enjoyable.  I did 2 loops of one of my usual routes - Raheny, down the Howth Road to Fairview, then along the Coast Road to Blackbanks and back up the Howth Road to Raheny.

The blow by blow is as follows;  first 3k were sore enough, as is becoming usual.   The ankles were twingy.   They warmed up and i felt pretty comfortable for quite a while.

During most runs i spend a lot of time negotiating with myself, tonight this took the form of telling myself not to turn for home at 10k, then at 13k, while running thru Raheny village on the first loop.  I then spent about ten minutes calculating how far i needed to run to be able to turn back & still have complete the 26k.   I find during runs that the simplest maths leaves me stumped - i figured wrong, and had i turned back in line with my calcs i'd have only done 24k.

The 2n time running the Coast Road was much windier (at least it seemed that way) but dry.  My ave time per km was moving from about 6min30sec to 7mins (it was 7mins30sec by the end of the run).   However i was still feeling okay, if tired.

My calf cramped up at about 19k and stayed cramped for a while.   I had been to a talk earlier in the week by an Irish Ultra Runner, John O'Regan, and he mentioned having a sachet of salt to take with water to fight cramp thru rebalancing your electrolytes.

I did this and it seemed to help, whether by placebo effect or not, who cares.....but as i sit here typing the calf is still pretty tender.

I reached the Bull Wall at 20.5km, which meant if i ran straight home i'd only do 24.5k, so negotiations started afresh; but there was only one real outcome likely - i didnt want to be out here running this far and this late to feel like a failure, so i passed the shortcut home and continued on the loop.

At this stage i was pretty much doing an old man shuffle but, no matter how slow, i wanted to keep as close to an impression of running as i could muster.  I did concede on one thing, i was going to stop at 26k and walk the last .3k home (i feel this helps loosen the legs a little as well as being able to finally STOP).

I did this and my time was pretty much bang on 3hours - very slow for 16 miles but i'm pretty proud of myself for getting thru it, especially late at night in such crappy weather.

The only downside is getting out of the bath at 12.45am, quite late with work in the morning.

And while am i still up blogging at 1:30am? Cause i'm on the 2am glucose check, and i know if i close my eyes now they'd need a nuclear explosion to get them open again.....

Happy running,

Waterford Half Marathon

On Saturday we drove down from Dublin to celebrate my brother in laws 40th birthday.

As we'd be down in Waterford my daughter spotted that the National Half Marathon Championships would be on the same day (good spot K).    I paid my €20 and figured i'd just use this 'Waterford Half' as a training run, adding on a bit at the end at the end to bring my long slow run for the week to 24km.

Well brain really wasnt in gear when I read the ad - did I mention the National Half Marathon Championships!!!! When I got to the car there was nary a 'fun-runner' in sight......these people literally disappeared from view in side profile.

Being one of the few possesors of extra, lets call it insulation....I knew at once i'd be watching this one from as close to the back as is possible.

We started off on the Cork Road and ran through the town to reach the Tramore Road.    The route was taking us almost to Tramore and then back to the track at the Waterforrd Regional Sports Centre.

The race started quickly and then picked up the pace....  My legs were stiff as pokers and every muscle cried out for relief.    I'm not sure what happened, was it the long drive, dehydration, lack of carbs?

Whatever it was I was stiff and sore and felt i couldn't keep going.   People were passing me with ease, and I was looking back at the end of the field wondering if I'd be finishing last.

M took the kids off to her mothers for lunch.    I thought she might watch the race from a couple of miles out the road and I was lucky she didn't - the first 3 miles were agony, and had she been there I'm pretty sure I would have just got in the car & called it a day.     As it was she needed to get K her lunch and couldnt wait, so I didnt have the chance to give up.

Just as well; after the first 3 miles the legs started warming up just as the rain began to fall.

Halfway to Tramore I could feel myself starting to enjoy the run.   I even started passing back some of the people who had passed me earlier in the race.

The rain really started to bucket (at which stage, feeling the chaffe, i vaselined up my chest, an oversight i'd pay for later...).

The rest of the run was uneventful enough, there was some great support in spite of the weather.

I was quite tired by the end, but forced myself to get through the extra runs around the track to bring the total up to 24k.    Time for the half was 2hr04m50s, with the 24 in approx 2hr27.

The legs were v. stiff the next day, but i spent an hour bodyboarding for the first time - and boy was it fun; i'm defo hooked.