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Constant Motion
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rainbow kirby wrote: »I'll be saying the same thing on your log in early June
I can only hope! (and train like crazy!)
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Finally home, alcohol out of system, so it's time for a race report. As ye all know I haven't had the easiest of leadups to Barcelona, and it really did feel like a total kick in the proverbials when the second cold arrived last week. One trip to the pharmacist for a tactical nuclear strike worth of drugs, and one absolute meltdown on Thursday night in front of an old friend, and we were off. Thankfully the cold had improved a lot by Saturday and particularly Sunday, but it didn't help the nerves much and I was still asking myself the usual "What the fcuk am I doing?" questions on Sunday morning. Was knocked a little out of my usual comfort zone by not being able to get my porridge in my hotel on Sunday morning, my substitute breakfast was some Catalan bread/pastry thing with loads of sugar and sunflower seeds. I don't like change on marathon morning, but meh. Nerves were hopping at this stage.
So to the race. Positioned myself between the 3:45 and 4:00 pacers at the start. Felt like absolute ****e for the first 5km, calves were tight and getting up to marathon pace felt quite tough. 5km split was 28:23. Definitely started to feel a bit better after that, but it really took about 8-9km for me to really settle down into my running. Hit 10km in 55:46. Left knee started to niggle slightly at about 13km, told myself "shut up, this is just a silly phantom injury" and kept on trucking. Pretty much got bodychecked at the water stop at 15km and swore at some random Spanish guy because of it. Hit 15km in 1:23:44. An English guy started talking to me at about 18-19km, he'd noticed my Dublin Half-Marathon 2009 shirt (my lucky shirt, I've done my first and third marathons in it now) and wanted to know my opinion of the race. Turned out it was his 88th marathon and he was aiming for the 100 Marathon Club, and he was giving his opinion on various races he'd done too. This was quite a nice distraction and it helped to bring me through 20km in 1:52:08 and through halfway in 1:58:10. He told me at this stage "Go on, you're a bit too quick for me" and this made me smile. Felt pretty damn good at this stage, and 20-25km was my second fastest 5km split of the race (27:24, to come through 25km in 2:19:31. Things started to feel a bit tough around the Diagonal at about 27-28km, and by the time I hit 30km (in 2:47:38) I was getting to the "Right. Just keep it going. Take absolutely everything you can just to keep on moving" stage. Started to suddenly feel quite cold and goosepimply and wasn't sweating much at all after about 32km and that worried me greatly - particularly because with this part of the course being in full sun right on the seafront it was probably the warmest part of the course. Lashed back a load of Powerade at the 35km water stop, took my fourth gel and that definitely helped because I did feel a bit better afterwards. At that stage it was just a matter of checking the Garmin every few minutes, trying to keep the pace under 6 min/km and keeping one foot in front of the other. The last 10km in Barcelona is probably the single hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Splits slowed quite a bit, went through 35km in 3:16:58 and 40km in 3:46:11. The last 2.195km was purely running on fumes, I had nothing left at all and just kept telling myself "Just get to the line, the pain will be over sooner if you just keep on running". Almost lost it at this stage too, the last 2.195km took nearly 13 minutes. Crossed the line in 3:59:00 by my Garmin, which also turned out to be my chip time. PB for me by 25:56.
Honestly I'm still in shock at going sub-4. If someone had told me on Thursday night that it would happen I would have laughed at them. The feeling on crossing the finish line is something that I just can't describe, not just to hit my target but to feel like I'd finally avenged Dublin '10 too... I really can't put it into words. Gracies Barcelona!
Congratulations to all the other boardsies who ran Barcelona too, some really great performances - and not just in the karaoke in the George Payne afterwards! :pac::D0 -
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Congrats Rainbow!!! We all knew you would do great!!! But you have set me target now!! gotta get 3:58.59 now :P
Depending on my circumstances in the next couple of months..... like on how things go.... I intend on running the London Marathon in 2012 and Dublin Marathon in 2012.... Wud anyone be interested in going for these:P.... Aiming for 3.30 again but would be happy with a sub 3.45....Rainbow you no u wna :eek::eek::eek::eek: 0 -
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After waking up this morning with every bit of my legs apart from my left knee and ITB feeling pretty much good to go (therefore proving that the knee niggle isn't just normal post-marathon crapness), I decided to head to the physio. Left ITB is pretty much in full rebellion. After having much pain inflicted on me, I've been told to take a week off running and that there's about a 90% chance that I'm out of Conn. ITB problems and hills don't mix.
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rainbow kirby wrote: »After waking up this morning with every bit of my legs apartMore info then we needed thanks! :eek: Well said Aimman....You must have been ready with that foam roller again RK 0
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rainbow kirby wrote: »Both myself and Opus got mentioned on Marathon Talk this week
Interesting! I can guess you got a nod for the stellar performance in Barcelona but can't imagine why they would mention me
Ah well I'll find out during my long run on Sunday. 0 -
rainbow kirby wrote: »90% chance that I'm out of Conn. ITB problems and hills don't mix.
So there's a 10% chance that you're in...:rolleyes: No pressure... Haha, only messing. Take care of yourself. You have a sub 4 pb to beat in the future 0 -
Roll on Dublin :pac:You have a sub 4 pb to beat in the future
Really though, before then I want to go sub-24 for 5k, sub-40 for 5 mile and sub-50 for 10k first, before having a good crack at 1:50 for the half. Physio pretty much rolled her eyes at me last night when I told her my marathon PB was 3:59 but my 10k PB was 52 minutes...0 -
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