Tralee International Marathon

Saturday, 16^th March – 42.5kmTralee International Marathon (4:55/km)

I got down to Kerry around 6pm on Fri evening and picked up my number in the mount Brandon hotel. After a brief chat with Eamonn (4:30 pacer) I was off to my digs for the weekend (Ailbe & Margaret) halfway between Tralee & Killarney. My hosts had a great dinner prepared and after a bit of TV I hit the sack a bit too late at around 12:30am.

Next morning I was awake before my alarm at 7am. A quick look outside seemed to confirm the forecast for frost as all the cars in the estate were frozen over. Thankfully though the roads looked clear so there was hope…!

After a 20 mins drive I parked up in the Carlton Hotel, still a good bit early for the 9am race start, so I lazed in the car for 15 mins listening to the radio. Eventually I made my way to race start and at this stage the day was thawed out. No breeze and sunshine combined to offer idyllic conditions. Then, at 9:08 the gun sounded and we were off.

For the first few miles I stuck to my plan to start off easy. The first couple of urban kms were flat and I just about managed to stay the easy side of 5:00/km pace. As we began the drag out of Tralee towards Ardfert I noticed a car on the side of the road with two Mayo flags on the hedge beside them  - I took this to be a good omen for the day! On we climbed until cresting the hill at 4 miles before starting a descent into Ardfert. I was still sticking to the plan but decided that I’d up the pace upon leaving Ardfert.

At this stage the 3:30 pacers (John & Grellan) had made about 150-200m on me so I decided I’d try and bridge the gap over the next few miles. As it turned out I think they sped up slightly around here and the gap remained for a while longer than planned. So, I was now going a bit faster than I ‘d planned for the mid-section but I thought what the hell, just go with it. Around Mile 10 we reached the first switchback of the day at Barrow which coincided with by far the steepest hill on the course. It lasted about 500m but rose about 35m (7% grade) which meant a few people who had started too quickly were now walking the hill. This was another moment where I knew I was in decent nick as thoughts of walking never entered the equation at all. In fact along this stretch I managed to eventually catch the 3:30 lads and join their group.

A few miles later we entered Fenit village where we dropped down to the pier and continued on out the back of before turning at the bottom of St. Brendan’s statue and back the way we came. I took it a little easier on the rise out of Fenit than the pacers so by the time we were back on flat ground they were about 15m up the road. I was pretty confident though that I just had to keep ticking away and I’d catch them again in no time. However, as the miles rolled by they were gaining about 20m per mile. This section of the road saw many of the pacer group drop-off and it seems the guys belived they were behind schedule due to inaccuracy of mile markers and actually gained about 2 mins over the course of 2-3 miles. While this was happening I was happy with my effort/pace being nice and consistent so I just let them off.

We were back on the edge of Tralee before long and things were still going well. However, as we turned West and out of Tralee again to make up the last few miles it became a little demoralising. And when the surface we ran on detiorated to potholes and then a stony path along the canal from Blennerville it chipped away a little bit more. At this stage I’d have preferred a solid tarred road but it wasn’t a huge deal really. Along this section I was passing out runners every couple of minutes which meant I always had a new target to keep me going til the finish. I could also tell that I was gaining on the pacers again who had worked out they had time in the bank and eased off along this section. Still though I realised breaking 3:30 myself was a big ask as I was pretty whacked coming over the last mile or two. I kept it going anyways and as we got back to Town we ran past the Brandon Hotel and then crossed the main road before entering a nice finishing chute into the People’s Park. The clock was pretty small in the distance and it wasn’t til I was close that I could see the 3:30:xx registering. It didn’t really matter anyways as I gave it all I could in the last 500m but ultimately finished in 3:30:10. Very happy with that as it is my second fastest marathon and only 3½ mins slower than my PB. Everybody seemed to agree it’s a challenging course but apart from the hill at Barrow I thought it was pretty fair. 

Afterwards, I grabbed a bite to eat and had a couple of drinks before retiring to my digs for the evening. Had a few beers there and then into Killarney for a few more but home at a very respectable hour with one eye still on Mallow on Monday.

*Thanks to the Kerry Eye for the photos!

Sunday, 17^th March – 6.9km Recovery Run (5:37/km)

I went for a 7km run with Ailbe in the morning which was a good leg loosener. Nice easy pace and the legs felt remarkably good. Only after about 5km did I feel any sort of niggle and even this was just very slight.

Week 11 Summary:
RTW:   6 from 7 days
DTW:   98.8 km
DTY:    938.6 km