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Becoming a Real Runner
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Just back from the breakfast run with RK, Macanri, sarsfieldrock, pgmcpq and racheljev. It is really balmy out there about 15ºc and the sun is splitting the trees. The run up the hill into the olympic stadium is actually quite tough, but maybe thats down to all the booze and lack of sleep last night :pac: ´Promise I´ll be a good boy tonight
. We are going to the match tonight at 8 so i am gonna try to catch 40 winks this evening.
2.6 miles in just under 10 min/mile
WTD 4 days running, 25.9 miles
Month|No. of days Runnning|Miles
January|28/31|256.3
February|24/28|236.9
March|3/5|20.3
Total|55/64|513.50 -
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Pre Race. I only ever intended to do this race as a long training run for the Connemara Ultra, especially with the Donadea 50k just 8 days before. (I learned about this back at the start of January). As a consequence in my application I put down goal finishing time as 3:30-4hr, which consigned me to a pen quite far back in the field. I stuck to my plan right up to after the 50k race, but by Tuesday my legs were feeling as good as ever so I decided I would give the race a go. The main target was getting under 3:30, but on Thursday I printed myself off a 3:25 pace bad as I felt that would be about my limit at the moment. The race was to be a freeroll: if it didn’t go well it didn’t matter. I had nothing to lose. The performance in the 50k already meant my confidence was up as regards Connemara. If I blew up, I blew up. I was carrying my metro ticket and was prepared to pull out of the race if I got injured at any time.
As a consequence of my freeroll mentality I took a few liberties in my race preparation. I was wearing new shoes and socks. I was carrying gels in a pouch instead of my usual bottles premixed with water. I also enjoyed myself a little too much on Friday night and had a few too many to drink.
The race
I went down to the start line with Rainbow Kirby and we were both very nevous. I had planned to meet Oisin, jackyback and Brianderunner prerace with a plan to go out with Jackyback, but a trip to the toilet meant I was behind time. I ended up dropping the bag and going straight to my pen about 20 minutes before the start. There was only an entrance at the back so I tried to push up as far as possible. Unfortunately I couldn’t get too far up as it was already pretty full. To my disdain, with about 10 minutes to go the pacers entered the pens from an entrance at the front of the pen, drawing hundreds of runners with them. Not only were the 3;30 pace group ahead of me but the 3;45 group too.
The first 5k were the hardest by far. I spent most of the time dodging bodies and sprinting ahead of groups and found it very hard to get into any kind of rhythm. I managed to get past the 3:45 group after a few k and by 5km I had caught the back of the 3:30 group. Despite my best efforts to keep the pace up, I was slightly behind my 3:25 target at this stage. I stayed with the group through the first water station and at 6k spotted a gap and sprinted ahead of the group. The next 5k or so I was cruising and starting to feel very comfortable. The miles were flying by at mostly 7:3x and I was getting ahead of my pace band. Between 10-20k I was aware of the fact I was about a minute up on target and made a conscious effort to slow don the pace. I saw mostly 7:4x splits for these miles. There were a few tough drags but were quickly followed by down hills and I felt I was cruising. Through halfway it was slightly downhill and the field was coming back to me. I sped up again without being aware of it. Km 20-30 was my fastest 10k so far.
The first blip came around 29k. It was really and I was aware I was sweating a lot. I had been taking a bottle of powerade every second water station, but at this moment I felt my calfs twitching mid stride. Instinctively I knew a cramp was coming but luckily I had an electrolyte tablet in my pouch. I willed the 30k water station to come faster and faster and when it finally did it was a great relief to drink my electrolyte solution. All thoughts of cramps disappeared for the rest of the race.
Kms 30-40 were pretty uneventful. Looking at the stats now I am surprised to see it was my slowest. I felt like I was flying here, but that’s probably because I was passing so many, not down to my own pace. The crowds closed into us over a few streets so the field bunched up considerably we were also running slightly uphill along cobbled streets. I guess I lost seconds due to all that, but I wasn’t too worried and took the opportunity to high 5 with the cheering kids liberally.
Km 40-finish. Suddenly I felt I was in a bit of trouble, the legs were still turning and I was passing loads of people but it felt hard. I was surprised and delighted to see a final aid station with a mile to go (I thought the one at 36k would be the last) and took the opportunity to neck my last gel and pocket two orange squares. Eating took my mind off the pain and gave me some strength. I got a shout from woddle and his wife here and it was nice to see a friendly face. Unfortunately mile 26 was my slowest mile (8:05) and the only one over 8 minutes for the whole race. I had been over a minute up on 3:25 pace and lost my sub 3:24 here
. I was glad to see the finish when it came and wouldn’t have fancied any more miles on the day.
Below are the stats robbed from the marathon website:
Km0-5 00:24:28 (4391st position overall)
Km5-10 00:23:36 (4087th)
Km10-15 00:24:14 (3995th)
Km15-20 00:24:16 (3876th)
Half Way 1:41:51 (3856th)
Km20-25 00:23:50 (3727th)
Km25-30 00:23:55 (3487th )
Km30-35 00:24:34 (3143rd )
Km35-40 00:24:21 (2796th)
40-Final 00:10:54 (2499th)
2nd half: 1:42:15 (24 second Positive Split)
Total: 3:24:06. Av Hr 154. Av Pace: 7:44/mile
Post race much fun was had by all in the george payne depsite a power blackout. When the power came back we had perfomenaces by Macanri and Cristeb in the Karaoke to match all the great perfromances in the race itself :pac:
The plan now is to run connemara and win my bet with Sarsfieldrock by going sub 6hrs. I am down to pace 4hrs in Limerick and cork, so I am looking forward to that. At the start of june, I'll be getting down to some more tradtional marathon training for a 3:15 attempt in Berlin (probably the P&D 55-70 mpw programme). I promise there'll not be a 50k race a week before that one
Weekly total 5 days running, 52.1 miles
Month|No. of days Runnning|Miles
January|28/31|256.3
February|24/28|236.9
March|4/6|46.5
Total|56/66|539.70 -
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Enjoy the match tonight and see ya tomorrow... 
This discussion has been closed.
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