Two marathons in one day!

Friday (10:00pm), 21st June, 2013 - 18.1km cycle to Lucan
Saturday (Midnight), 22nd June, 2013 - 44.3km Le Cheile Midnight Marathon (5:24/km)
Saturday (1:00pm), 22nd June, 2013 - 42.5km Le Cheile Royal Canal Marathon (6:26/km)
This was an unexpectedly very busy weekend for me. I had planned to do the Le Cheile track marathon in Leixlip and had my eye on doing the canal marathon the following day but that was very much dependant on how I felt after the first. This only paints half the picture however. For the full story, the tale begins on Friday afternoon...

I ran into car trouble after going to the shops to buy a few supplies for the marathon(s). When I returned to my car it simply wouldn't budge - not even a peep out of it. I subsequently learned that it was the electronic steering wheel lock that was jarred. I spent the next two hours trying to work out how to get it fixed and eventually when I knew what was required I was told it was too late on a Friday afternoon and that I'd have to wait til Monday to have it towed to the garage! Cost of tow = €50. Cost of repair = either €120 (80% chance) or €1,000 (20% chance). Not a good start to the weekend!

Friday night
I returned home by foot and decided I would need a few hours sleep in advance of running through the night. I ended up sleeping for about two hours and then it was time to pack my stuff and hit off on the bike to Leixlip. It was now 10pm when I left Santry and even though there was a bit of rain en route things were going well. Then I was passing Lucan when I got a puncture on my rear wheel - just great! A quick Google Maps search and I was informed it'd take over an hour to walk the remaining 6km to the Le Cheile track. As I was walking I texted Anto and Eamonn who were both doing the event also. Luckily Anto was still with his phone and offered to call out and collect me. I was so lucky because if I had to walk the rest of the way I'd have missed the start of the marathon as well as having the extra mileage in my legs when starting out. Thankfully Anto had me at the track with half an hour to spare to race start. After what was a stressful day all I had to do now was run a marathon around a 400m lap through the night...and this was supposed to be the easy bit??!

Waiting for the off...

Marathon One
With ten minutes to go before midnight the organisers made a few short announcements and then introduced all the runners to their lap counters - poor unfortunate souls who volunteered to stay up through the night just to count how many laps we were doing! Each counter had 5 runners to tally for and my assigned lap counter was David. A quick hello and then we were lined up at the start.

We should be in Coppers by now!

About 6 minutes after midnight we were set off. Not knowing how I'd be feeling in the afternoon I decided to run the first few laps with Eamonn. Using my new 310XT I set the AutoLap function to 'By Position - Start' which meant every-time I passed the start line it automatically lapped. This was my first time using this function and it proved to be very useful. There was to be 95 laps in total as we were starting in Lane 6.5! Every one of those 95 laps would entail the following conversation being repeated as I passed the start/finish line:
        Me: David?
        David: Got ya John.
And that was it! I'm pretty sure there weren't many times when our brief lines overlapped as in fairness to him he was on the ball every-time. 

The early laps saw a lot of people pass us out as the excited energy was used up. I had no target in mind apart from leaving myself in a position to be ready to go again 11 hours later. After about 10 laps (4km) I found myself pushing on a little bit. I was careful to keep the HR in a very relaxed 'recovery' zone but thankfully the pace was increasing at the same time. By now I was lapping around sub 5:20/km and this lasted for 50 more laps. I briefly flirted with the idea of aiming for a 3:45 finish time but soon dismissed this thought and refocused on the main goal of finishing strong.

That's what 95 laps of a track does to your Garmin profile!

Halfway came and went without any issues. The constant passing and being passed was helping to keep me distracted from the monotony of doing laps. Also, every so often short conversations struck up between runners but as the race wore on this too faded away. The early front running was being driven by Rory Mooney who seemed to be cruising around the place. Unfortunately for Rory though he succumbed to an injury/illness around halfway. He wasn't the only one to do so and there were some notable DNF's during the night, most of whom had raced in Portumna the previous week. The high effort & mileage combined with the grass track and doing laps meant that there was a a particularly high rate of attrition during this marathon.

Overtaking on the inside 

I was probably one of the few people who actually enjoyed the lap aspect of this run. Apart from a few times during the race when I paused for water at the aid station I kept a reasonably consistent effort going. Then with about 9 laps to go I knew I'd be grand to finish so I started doing a little arithmetic in my head and discovered that I would be close to the 4hr mark if I pushed it a little over the remainder. I upped the effort slowly over the next few kms and managed to finish pretty strongly on the last couple of laps. Unfortunately though by the time I finished my last lap the time read as 4:01:11 so just missed out. When I looked at the total distance though I found that the 95 laps actually measured 44.3km - 2.1km long! I didn't care one jot about what the actual distance was (GPS watches have a certain amount of inaccuracy in a straight line but when you introduce the curvature of each lap then the inaccuracy is going to be further increased) but I was happy to know that this was effectively a sub 4hr marathon done at an average HR of 137 bpm - Recovery zone! 

Very happy with this my only issue now was how to get home, or at least get a bit of kip somewhere. Luckily I managed to get a couple of hours on a couch and then a lift home to my place. By the time I got home it was almost 7am so after fixing the puncture on my bike I hit the hay but knowing that I'd have to be up again so soon I couldn't fall asleep. This all meant that I was up out of bed again by 10am - 6hrs after the marathon finish and with just two hours sleep on a couch - and managed to arrange a lift from a friend to Leixlip for round two at 1pm!

Marathon Two
My lift to Leixlip was running a bit late so we drove straight to the race start itself at Furey's of Moyvalley. Soon after the bus load of fellow marathoners arrived. There was 12 of us who ran through the night and three newbies. I was in good spirits as I was waiting and, apart from a little stiffness in the muscles, generally I was still quite fresh all things considered.

We ran a little to the left, turned and then a lot to the right!

We were walked a few hundred metres to the start before a brief overview of the course from Jarlath & Brendan. Essentially it was run 3.5 miles Westwards and then turn before running 22.7 miles Eastwards, all the while beside the Royal Canal! With probably the most low-key start I've ever witnessed we were set off! 

The first few kms to the turnaround point was easy enough going but the wind was primarily in our faces. The gang quickly strung out into a group of 6 of us with a few ahead and a few behind. By the turnaround point I was plodding away quite comfortably so I found myself gently drifting away from the group of six. 

Early days.

Even though I was feeling pretty good the outside of my right knee was beginning to hurt. I was wearing the new Innov8s for this run (wore Kayanos last night on the track marathon) because I was advised so much of it was to be on trail/mud/grass. However, I was finding that most of it was actually gravel so far and the grassy bits were easily firm enough for a pair of road shoes. As a result I had less cushioning for my feet than normal so I was feeling all the pressure points of pebbles and stones coming through the sole and also the sensitive blisters on my feet being impacted upon by the terrain. My knee was still the bigger issue though. I wondered if this was associated with the constant pushing off my right foot for the 4 hours of  anti-clockwise looping last night? The pain was probably only a 4/10 though so while it was annoying it wasn't enough to force me to stop.

Going solo.

I passed Furey's on the return leg where Brendan & Jarlath were waiting for us with bottles of water just as I was contemplating going to my backpack for a sip - perfect timing! Here we had to cross the old N4 road and down the far bank. The grassy section started in earnest here. This single-track also contained lots of protruding roots from the trees which were another obstacle to overcome. The going along here was quite a bit slower as a result. After 14 km I slowed to a walk for this first time so as to take on board some food from my backpack and some more water. It was here that the gang of 5 passed me. All still in good spirits they were sticking to a good consistent pace. Once I got back running I had them in view for another few kms but my next stop was before theirs so they then went out of sight.

I passed through Enfield after 17km where Brendan was present again with bottled water. Then halfway came at Cloncurry Bridge where I met Jarlath with water, jellies and bananas. Really great organisation from the lads! We changed onto the right bank at this crossing and 200m in the distance I saw the G5 who had slowed to a march as they were taking on food. I thought I might be able to catch them up but by the time I was 100m from them they picked it up to a jog and soon the gap started widening again. The second half of my run then became a trade-off between little walking breaks and running. I was now consciously using this as practice for Belfast. It really hit me for the first time around here that even though I was physically in a good state (The knee was still a 4/10 and hadn't gotten any worse) all desire to stop and walk was purely mental. I was allowing myself a walk of 500m or so every 3km. I felt that was a decent trade-off between remaining in good shape and getting to the finish line.

Not long after this I found myself on probably the toughest section of tow path - the grass hadn't been cut low in this location so more care had to be taken in case you stepped on anything in the undergrowth that might twist your ankle. Around here was when the rain first arrived. Torrential downpours which lasted about 15 minutes, there wasn't even a decent tree to take shelter under! By the time it passed my shirt was saturated so I changed it for my jacket as I was also beginning to get cold now. This exchange worked a treat and before long I was snug again.

Finishing times for Marathon #2.

As I passed through Kilcock there was some kind of festival going on with lots of people milling around and several kids playing canoe polo on the canal. No time to stop and soak up the festival I just ploughed on through. I was surprised how far Enfield was from Kilcock but knew Maynooth was now halfway to the finish so I just focused on hitting the Harbour there and then all that was left was the run-in to the finish. I hadn't long passed the entrance to Carton House when I started to wonder if the course would end up measuring long. How far away was the finish line really? I was still in mid-thought when I looked up and noticed a towering modern bridge over the canal. My next reaction was to seek out Intel's building and lo and behold there it was. I knew I was very close to the finish now. I upped the pace for the last 800m but when I rounded the bend I couldn't see any finish line up ahead. Then I thought I'd have to go all the way to Louisa Bridge and then double-back around for the Le Cheile clubhouse, leaving me over a mile left. Briefly my heart sank before I got close enough to see that one of the fishermen was in fact Brendan sitting on the bank of the canal and a small 'Finish' sign in the bushes beside him. This was it! All over at last - in excess of 85km ran inside 18 hours, or 8hrs 42mins running time.

I had a brief chat with Brendan before stumbling the 200m to the clubhouse for a much cherished hot dog and refreshments and a chat with the G5 who had finished about 15 mins earlier. Happy with a good days running under my belt, I got a lift home and all set for an evening of lazing on the couch. Before all that though reality reared it's ugly head again when I discovered that my incapacitated car was now clamped to add to my misery! All that could wait 'til the morning however as this evening was to be a stress-free zone!

Sunday, 23rd June, 2013 - 8.9km Recovery run (5:36/km)
Thought I'd sleep like a log and I suppose I did for a while but by 7am I was awake and couldn't get back to sleep. Again I was feeling remarkably ok and managed to do a few chores around the apartment in the morning, before trying to get the clamping situation sorted out. I won't go into the detail here but if anybody would like to hear me rant about NCPS for a couple of hours giz a call!

I went out for a run in the evening though and the sore knee from yesterday was still prominent for this run. I thought my pace was a little quick but the garmin disagreed and suggested I was actually going around 5:30/km pace. It felt much quicker but I guess my mind was comparing it to the trail run rather than normal speed ranges. From halfway around my 8.9km loop the knee started to get worse and for the final two km it developed into a pronounced limp (6/10) so I was happy to eventually get home. I'll give it a short run-out today but if it is still as sore then a bit of run-free recovery may be required.

For now though, it's back to the real world and dealing with bloody car troubles!

Note: All photos by kind permission of Rory & Peter Mooney.

Week 25 Summary:

RTW: 5 from 7 days
DTW: 112.7km
DTY: 2003.7km

I.M.R.A. to the rescue

Monday, 17th June 2013 - Rest Day
Tuesday, 18th June, 2013 - 48.5km Cycle
Unsurprisingly I wasn't in the mood for much on Sunday or Monday but by the time Tuesday came round I fiigured a planned cycle with two mates was the perfect way back to exercise. The cycle was very relaxed for the last 20km so it was a nice reintroduction to the legs.

Wednesday, 19th June 2013 - 9.6km IMRA Sorrell Hill
A lovely evening up around the Blessington lakes was the setting for my 6th IMRA Leinster League race. I started quite a bit back as the plan was not to go out too fast but rather ease into it. The first 1.5km was along a fireroad with a decent incline and then it flattened out. I passed about 20-30 people along here so things were going well, however I was still probably only in 80th position or so.

Nearing the top

We soon departed the fireroad and cut through some trees on a steepish section where the surface was boggy but very dry. After about 500m we were atop Lugnagun and out onto open mountainside where we had a 500m section of a drop and then another 1,000m of flat before we began the climb to Sorrell Hill itself. By this time I had passed about another 10-15 people but once the climb got steep I was quick enough to ease back to a hike. Soon after we met the leaders on their descent so I knew we were close enough to the top.

By the turnaround point on top of Sorrell Hill itself I counted out that I was in approximately 60th position which I was very happy with (65th being my season's best). On the way down I found the new shoes really earned their crust and the grip on the boggy/grassy slopes was much better than I would have been used to with the old shoes. 
(Edit: Eventually when the results were uploaded I discovered that I actually finished in 54th position - Very happy with that!)

Having said that one or two people did go by me but I managed to maintain position by passing a few people myself. Things remained like this til we got back out onto the fireroad coming off Lugnagun. There was only about 1,500m remaining at this point. My legs were turning over as quickly as I could manage yet on the finishing 250m straight I was passed by a couple of other runners. Disappointing but I guess my botched marathon had an effect on my speed this evening.

Final few metres...

Sprint to the line

I really enjoyed this race. I think a lot of this was down to the new pair of Innov8 X-Talon 212s which I bought just two hours beforehand. They are remarkably light with amazing grip on the boggier sections and much better than my old half worn Salomon Speedcross 2s. Unfortunately there was an issue with the results laptop and I'm still awaiting confirmation of my finishing position in what I hope was my best performance of the League so far. At least this race managed to get me back on track with the running and Saturday is now long forgotten!

Thursday 20th June, 2013 - 7.4km Recovery Run (5:27/km)
My legs were quite tender from last nights IMRA run so a nice slow run was required to get them ticking over again. I even flirted with the foam roller as well but figured the soreness is DOMS as opposed to strained/knotty muscles. Not quite sure how the two are related but I figured I ran the risk of further bruising tender muscles with the roller so I stopped before long.

I also debuted my second running purchase of the week this evening – A Garmin 310XT. After playing around with it a bit, some of the improvements on my old 305 included: 

• a more comfortable strap
• quicker to register satellites
• audio sounds available (My 305 used to have this but it disappeared with age!)
• vibratory/pulse alerts
• extra screen for data fields
• extra data fields themselves

Very happy with the new watch overall. Apparently the battery life is significantly longer also so will be taking advantage of that over the next month or so.

Week 25 Summary (so far):
RTW: 2 from 4 days
DTW: 17.0km
DTY: 1908.0km

My bad habit continues...

Saturday, 15th June 2013 – 27.4km Portumna Forest Marathon DNF

Sunday, 16th June 2013 – Rest Day

"I guess I got a bad habit 

Of blowin' away 
Yeah I got a bad habit 
And it ain't goin' away Yeah"

Well, that didn’t go to plan! Almost a week has passed since the race and I’m still trying to fathom why my second goal marathon of the year resulted in a DNF once again.

The lead-in…

I really dislike taper time as my discipline & diet often fall apart. I end up getting lazy which results in eating crappy foods, feeling sluggish on easy runs and generally feeling guilty that I haven’t done enough. The day before the race though I managed to have two medium sized pasta dinners to maximise the carb intake. I also decided not to run in order to be as fresh as possible for the Midday start. 

Up at 8:30am on race morning, I devoured a couple of scones and a cup of tea and was on the road by 9am. Arrived into Portumna for 11am, and after registering I hung around the finish area for a while chatting to a few fellow runners and helpers. 

Race

With 20mins to go we made our way to the race start and after a 5 min delay (which was just enough for us to get soaked by a thunder shower!) we were away. A mini group had formed in advance, all looking for about 3:15. Myself and Joe had been in Rotterdam where we both had very disappointing races and this was payback time! Dave was my co-pacer for 1:45 in Wexford. He wasn’t sure what time he was capable of on the day so his game plan was to hang with our pace for as long as he could. Anthony (or Plumber77) - a new guy to us all – completed the quartet and was looking to beat a PB of 3:16.

Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

There was a nice bit of chat between us over the first few kms. At various times each of us took up the pacing duties. We were sticking to approximately the correct pace by the time we were passing through the finish area for the second time (7.2km point). This had consisted of a 2.2km run from Aldi to the finish area and then the first of 8 x 5km loops. The loop was pretty flat with just slight drags here and there. The surface was good with tarred paths combined with gravelly sections. Unfortunately there was just a couple of short potholed sections towards the turnaround point but these were nothing too drastic. There was a lot of tree cover also and this seemed to throw my GPS signal off quite often. This meant I wasn’t sure if I could really trust the data it was feeding back to me so I kept asking the other guys for confirmation that we were on target. Even though the inclines were minimal they were still slowing us down enough to make keeping a consistent average pace difficult. Eventually I gave up trying to run the right pace and ran by perceived effort instead. This was probably where I was lulled into running that bit too quick.

Lap two was more of the same only a little faster. Again there was a little confusion over what pace we were running (add in to the mix kms v miles to further complicate matters!) and we worked out that we had just slipped off the pace a little. So, lap two came in at 20 seconds quicker than lap one. Not a huge difference in pace (just four sec/km) but probably the straw that broke the camel's back.

Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

Lap three and we appeared to be back on pace. I noticed though that the effort began to feel just a little tough. The rest of the guys seemed to be still going steady. Then just after the start of lap four at 18km it dawned on me for the first time to check my HR. it was showing a rate of 156-158bpm around now and I knew I had to ease back. My marathon HR ceiling is 150-152bpm so I was well above it now. The next couple of kms saw the rest of the gang break up ahead of me too. Joe pushed on as Anthony and Dave continued to run together. By the time I hit the turnaround point I was in serious blow-up mode. I stopped to get a bottle of water and throw in a salt tablet, and to help lower my HR in a bid to give myself a chance to return to a fully functioning level. This didn’t work though and by 500m later the HR was sky high again. That’s the problem once you overcook things early on in a marathon – it’s so difficult to recover from. The last 2km of that loop was a real effort and when I approached the finish area I had almost fully decided to stop and DNF. My pace for that 5km had dropped to 5:00/km and was only going to get slower. 

Goal time was well gone by now and any chance of PB was drifting away. Just after the finish area I was about to slow to a walk when I heard a shout from Anto who was doing the 100km. I wasn’t sure what he roared at me but the facts that the t-shirt I was wearing was from his 50km race and that I had ran barely a quarter of the distance of his race meant that shame prevented me from stopping here! I thought one more loop and see if I recover. A lot can happen in 5km! 

Photo courtesy of Peter Mooney

At this time my mind began to ponder turning this into a long slow run, and complete the marathon race, and forget about the inevitable slow time. As the kms slowly ticked by though I concluded that if I was just going to flog myself to get to the finish my recovery would take weeks rather than days and all for nothing really. Instead, I gave in to the Central Governor and reckoned that if I pull out at the end of the next loop then I could be back in training after a couple of days. The body was weak but the mind was weaker/more cunning! So, resigned to my fate I jogged the remaining 2km of the loop. Even at that pace though I had to stop and walk for 20m on the final straight. It seems that lots indeed can happen over 5km but in circumstances like today they are rarely good things. Eventually I made it round to the end of lap five and stepped off the course. First thing I did was remove my number before anyone could work out what had happened. Then I watched for a few minutes as the 50km finishers were arriving in to complete their distance (they had started 2hrs before us). A couple of minutes of that was all I could take though, and disappointedly, I faced into my 2.2km trek back to my car.

Afterthoughts

Still not quite sure what went wrong but my main reckoning is a combination of my pace being slightly too quick too early and the heat oft the day. Perhaps also I was low on nutrition (I don’t take gels and the Midday start time wouldn’t have helped). The result was an unsustainably high HR – I checked the data on the walk back to my car and was surprised to see it was consistently above 152bpm for about 10km before the blow-up. I usually keep a keen eye on the HR data during the run but today that lapsed for some reason. Perhaps I got caught up with sticking with the other guys rather than running my own race. Had I been running without such a friendly bunch maybe I’d have eased back much earlier and stil nabbed a sub 3:20 (which I would have been very satisfied with even before the race). 

I will be running the Le Cheile Midnight marathon this Friday night in Leixlip so I think I will make the HR display my main data field and keep sub 150bpm all the way and simply discover my pace and time when I cross the line instead. It’s a low priority run and all I really want to do at this stage is finish it to get some confidence back. After all, these DNFs are just a bad habit that needs breaking.

Week 24 Summary:

RTW: 4 from 7 days
DTW: 50.9km
DTY: 1891.0km

Only hours to go...

Thursday, 13th June 2013 - 7.3km Recovery Run (5:22/km)

Forecast for Portumna tomorrow.
The marathon begins at 12pm and
hopefully I'll be finished by 3:15 or so.

Friday, 14th June 2013 - Rest Day

Just a quick update in advance of the big day. I went for a very easy recovery run on Thursday and even though it felt awkward I still wasn't able to slow down properly. I guess it may have been just nervous energy. 

Then today I decided not to run and instead to stay off my feet all day. Two medium sized dinners should have me well stocked for tomorrow. Injury free so can't use that as an excuse but the weather could be tricky. Hopefully I won't need to manufacture an excuse out of that either though! 

This is an overview of who's running what tomorrow:

Looking like there's at least three of us aiming for 3:15 so at least I won't be on my own anyways!

So now, bring it on! ...well, after a good nights sleep first :-)

Taper funk!

Wednesday, 5th June 2013 - Rest Day
Thursday, 6th June 2013 - 60.6km Cycle
Two days of non running...it must be taper time! I simply got lazy on Wednesday and took a rest day and then on Thursday I had arranged to go for a bike spin with a mate around North County Dublin. Not running but I'm sure it was every bit as useful as an easy run! Felt grand afterwards which was a little surprising.

Friday, 7th June 2013 - 12.1km Easy Run (5:00/km)
Saturday, 8th June 2013 - Rest Day
Sunday, 9th June 2013 - Rest Day
Pretty much the usual route for an easy run. Not a lot else to report. Went to the pub that night to watch the Ireland match and a few too many beers meant I was lazy and lethargic the next day and did nothing as a result. Disappointingly though this spread into Sunday also and I again failed to get myself out the door for a run. A real case of self-discipline slipping big time when in taper. I sometimes think I'd be better off just continuing as normal during taper rather than easing back as I invariably go to the opposite extreme!

Week 22 Summary:
RTW: 3 from 7 days(!).
DTW: 45.0km
DTY: 1840.1km

Monday, 10th June 2013 - 8.9km Easy Run with 4km @ MP (4:48/km)
Kept this run shorter than the usual loop but threw in a few MP kms just to ensure the legs understand what's required this Saturday. This left me surprisingly worried afterwards!

Tuesday, 11th June 2013 - Rest Day
Wednesday, 10th June 2013 - 7.3km Easy Run with 4km @ MP (4:37/km)
I had fully intended on going out for a run on Tuesday but had to go to Tesco in the evening and en route got caught in a traffic jam caused by an accident so that added 30mins to my journey and by the time I returned home it was too late.

I volunteered for the IMRA race tonight rather than run it and boy was it a bad decision. We had to endure the worst case of midges I have ever witnessed. It was only on the way home I noticed the bites on my skin and now it looks like I have the measles!

Attacked by midges!

When I got home I managed to head out for a quick run. I threw a few MP kms in again and it felt alright. A short, easy run tomorrow evening and then a leg loosener on Friday afternoon, then it's PB time on Saturday! I've decided to aim for 3:15 instead of 3:10. If that comes off I'll be very happy indeed but if I go for closer to 3:10 then I fear it could get ugly towards the latter stages. I just want to get a decent PB and can aim for 3:10 later in the year.

Week 23 Summary (so far):
RTW: 2 from 3 days.
DTW: 16.2km
DTY: 1856.3km

Cork Half Marathon

Sunday 2nd June 2013 – 4.6km Easy run (4:55/km) 
I got the train down to Cork the evening before so after manning the pacer stand from 4-5pm and then watching the Ireland v Georgia game in the hotel, it was time to go out for a short leg loosener. I managed to run the last couple of kms of the race course in ideal weather conditions so all was nicely set up for running tomorrow.

Week 21 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 89.9km

DTY: 1,795.1km

Monday 3rd June 2013 – 21.4km Cork Half Marathon (4:39/km)

I ran the one mile from the hotel to City Hall for the pacers meet-up but was there pretty early so went across to the marathon start at 9am. A quick chat with Tom and Eamonn (the 4:30 pacers) and the race was soon started. Great weather for it and I made my way back to city hall to get a bus to the HM start in Mahon. Unfortunately there were a few issues with bus availability meaning that when we eventually got to the race start it was delayed by almost 30 minutes. This allowed for a good chat with several of the pacees. My pacing partner Ben arrived at this time also and before too much of an inconvenience we were walked to the start line itself.

It was just then that I noticed there was no start mat for our chips. This was a big let down for many of the runners who had paid over €50 for this race and now they would only have official gun times and no proper chip times.

The race itself started well. There was some congestion in the early minutes but it was never too bad. Almost immediately the marathon field veered right and we continued along the road and into Blackrock. Not long later the marathon course rejoined our route again. For most of the time along the Marina there was lots of people around us and we were probably carrying about 40-50 pacees with us at this stage.

Throughout the first few kms we were keeping a close eye on the pace as we wanted to ensure the volume of runners didn’t distract us from the main job of keeping a steady pace. The pace bands at the expo stated a 4:44/km pace would complete the 21.1km in 1:40:00. However, these races usually end up being long for GPS devices so I was aiming to keep things closer to 4:42/km and thereby allowing a 50 second cushion for a long course.

I had described the course to pacees as split into one third flat, middle third undulating with the final third flat all the way to the finish. By the time we hit the South Link road we were beginning into the hilly middle third and it didn’t take long for some of our group to drift away around here. We eased off the pace when going uphill to give people a chance to stick with us and regained the time on the downhill and flats. The steepest part of the day came soon after with the corkscrew turn up onto Turners Cross. After this I noticed the beginning of heavy breathing in our group as one by one another bunch of people started to whittle away.

We did our best to coax the gang through the inclines and we were soon at the top of Model Farm Road but the group was now down to about 6 or 7. I was happy to confirm all the hills were done away with now and the run in to Cork should be very manageable. My mind soon changed though as we turned right at the end of Inchigaggin Lane and onto the Straight road only to be met with a strong breeze. This made the 2km stretch tougher than it should have been and around now we noticed our av pace of 4:42/km was going to be very tight for the finish. So, combined with the breeze we now had to push the pace into the late 4:30’s to ensure we finished inside our time. In fairness to the remaining group they kept it going most of the way and by the time we were in the park crossing the Lee we advised a few of the stronger runners to push on, which they did. A couple of other runners started to fade and we did our best to keep them going but it was just a tiny bit too fast for them and they fell away over the closing mile.

With about 1,000m to go myself and Ben were running alone for the first time today. We tried to grab a few people as we went past them on the run-in to the finish but we soon realised we’d need almost a sprint finish from Patrick’s Bridge just to get in on time ourselves! The last few hundred metres was ran closer to 4:00/km pace and as I crossed the line I stopped the watch on exactly 1:40:00! The distance read the course to be 270m long but the reality may well be somewhere in the middle. Thankfully anyone who was fit for sub 1:40 appeared to nail it and the first runners to miss out on the time did so by about 40-50 seconds so they would always have been just a little short of pace regardless.

Afterwards I jogged back to the hotel for a shower before returning to ‘Pana’ for a few pints with some familiar faces as well as some new. Everybody agreed it was a tough day with humidity high from the start but also the sun breaking out later on and making it especially difficult for the marathoners. 

Hopefully nothing clashes next year and I’ll be back in Cork once more.Total distance including jog to/from hotel = 24.0km

Tuesday 4th June 2013 – 8.9km Easy run (5:04/km)

Went out very late in the evening for this in order to avoid the sweltering heat. When I actually went outside I discovered the weather was perfect – it was just my apartment that was sweltering! An easy 8.9km followed. I shortened the route to allow for taper and by the time I returned home I barely knew I had been out at all!

Week 22 Summary (so far):

RTW: 2 from 2 days

DTW: 32.9km

DTY: 1,828.0km

Keeping it 'Easy'!

Monday 27th May 2013 – 11.8km Easy Run (5:10/km)
Another 'run of the mill' easy run on the regular figure of 8 route. Began to wane in the last few kms due to effects of the race yesterday.

Tuesday 28th May 2013 – 15.6km Easy Run (5:11/km)Lovely weather for being outside at long last! A little bit tired after Mondays run but nothing too bad. Today I woke before 6am and for some bizarre reason decided to get up and make the most of the nice morning by going for almost 10 miles! Very enjoyable and was surprised to see the roads evolve from being empty at the start to traffic queues by the end! Think I really should try and get out for more of these types of morning runs. 

Wednesday 29th May 2013 – 10.1km incl. 1x2 Miles + 1x1 Mile @ 4:05/kmOn the way home from work the car thermostat registered 20 degrees for the first time this year. Happy days although my plan for this evening was not exactly conducive to hot weather.

The aim for this run was the 3rd McMillan session of 2x2 miles followed by 2x1 miles @ 4:02/km. Kept to my local park for this but a number of things conspired against me this evening including the high temperatures, the strong breeze and all the people walking their dogs and kids in the park, all topped off with the few inclines that you really feel when running near max effort! All this meant that by the end of the first 2 mile split I was just about in touch with the target pace (4:05/km) but halfway through the second 2 mile split I was done. The clammy conditions and tired legs led to me quitting with a 4:08/km paced mile. I knew things were already on the downward slope and that it simply wasn't going to happen tonight. On the jog home I reckoned that the fast running from last week and then the big effort in Enniscorthy were probably still in my system. I will give this session another try in a weeks time to see if I fare any better.

Thursday 30th May 2013 – 11.8km Easy Run (4:55/km)
Another very warm and sunny evening. Legs were a bit dead after yesterday but still managed to maintain sub 5:00/km pace.

Friday 31st May 2013 – 20.0km Easy MLR (5:19/km)
Called to the Park after work for a Medium Long run. Parked up beside the Papal Cross and ran towards Ashtown and onto the banks of the Royal Canal. Turned at Castleknock rail station (Path changes from tarred to trail here) and went Eastwards to Phibsbrough before once again turning and returned to the car for a 20km run. Pace was kept at very easy which was a good thing as not sure I had the energy to go much faster!

Saturday 1st June 2013 – 16.0km Easy MLR (5:07/km) 
Met my Brother for a MLR in the Park this morning. Similar type route as yesterday but with pace a little quicker. Cooler this morning and I seemed to have a little more energy than the past few warm days. Didn't push it too hard though with one eye on pacing 1:40 in Cork HM on Monday.

Week 21 Summary (so far):
RTW: 6 from 6 days
DTW: 85.3km
DTY: 1,790.5km

Enniscorthy Half Marathon

Friday 24th May 2013 – 17.2km Easy Run (5:13/km)
An easy run along the seafront in Clontarf. A little bit tired towards the end from the faster stuff earlier this week.

Saturday 25th May 2013 – Rest Day
Took a rest day this evening to allow me be a bit fresher for the Half Marathon tomorrow.

Sunday 26th May 2013 (morning) – 21.1km Enniscorthy Half Marathon (4:22/km)
I’d managed to get a free entry for this race from Alan & Orna (thanks again!) who were doing pacing duties. I had originally planned to go West and do the Moy HM but I figured this would be just as good, closer and cheaper. It was a lovely sunny morning which meant the chances were it was going to get hotter later which would mean a tough day on a hilly course. 

I ran into my two sponsors beforehand and with them were Johnny, Matt (both pacers also) and Barry (who was also aiming for 1:30).

We made our way to the start line and the race started just after 10:05am. Immediately there was almost a pile-up as a guy to my right tripped up on the starting mat and half fell to the ground. Luckily he was up and moving again before anyone else had fallen over him, but not a great beginning!

Race Start with Barry in blue (& me in grey!).

The first half of the race contained the majority of the hills and while most of them were a manageable gradient I was maxing out my effort trying to keep with the 4:17/km pace. This was confirmed with my av HR consistently being around 163bpm for the first half of the race. Given my LT HR lies around 158bpm I knew there’d be payback later on. By the 6km mark I was beginning to drift off the back of the pacing group and over the course of the next few miles I tried to limit the gap as much as I could. Unfortunately though, every time we went uphill they gained extra time on me and by the halfway point they were approximately 200m ahead of me.

Around this time I was going through a tough patch mentally, debating if I shouldn’t just ease off the pace altogether given it was plainly obvious this wasn’t a PB course. I stuck with the effort though and happily the next couple of kms were reasonably flat so I managed to exorcise the demons in time for the next hill.

I managed to close the gap and 
pass this guy over the next 100m!

There were only a couple of short hills in the final 6km but the one just before we emerged onto the N11 really slowed me down. I probably wouldn’t even notice it on an easy run but where it came and the fact that I was maxed out meant pure misery. Once on the N11 it was pretty flat for a mile and a half before we passed over the last drag and then it was downhill/flat to the finish. I had been passed by a couple of runners at the start of the N11 and they had created a gap of about 30m on me while I was struggling along. However, once we were over the last incline I was slowly catching the second guy again and made it my goal to reel him in over the final km. Eventually, with about 400m to go I managed to get by him as I was on the opposite bank of the river from the finish line. It was only then that I realised the lead guy was only another 40m ahead at this stage and fading. I kept up the pressure and by the time I rounded the final bridge and beginning the 200m run-in to the line he was still about 20m ahead. Yet I was getting faster and he was slowing so I went into overdrive once more to keep the legs turning over and managed to nab in front of him with about 15m remaining. I was hoping that he’d not have enough time to react and didn’t dare turn to see his reaction as I passed by. Simply kept the legs pumping and I was over the line in 1:33:31 – 42 seconds slower than my PB from Bohermeen but a much tougher course and conditions.

I think judging by my HR data it was definitely a PB effort if not quite a PB result. Disappointed not to grab the PB but I’ll put it down as a really good training session for the bigger picture of Portumna. Hopefully the sub 90 will come in the Athlone Flatline half marathon in September, if not before.

Sunday 26th May 2013 (afternoon) – 4.1km Recovery Run (5:19/km)
I called into the Phoenix Park on my way back home to go for a leg loosener after the race and the drive back up. I was pretty stiff starting off but after the 4km things were much better and the legs had loosened out nicely.

Week 20 Summary:

RTW: 6 from 7 days

DTW: 72.5km

DTY: 1,705.2km