Running Through The Wall

aquinn

Superb time. Congratulations. I've yet to find a non - smiling photo. Brilliant going.

Killerz

aquinn wrote: »

Superb time. Congratulations. I've yet to find a non - smiling photo. Brilliant going.

Thanks a mil, A. Smile for the cameras, cry once I get around the corner

Bungy Girl

Super race, congratulations!

aquinn

Disgustingly fresh looking after Saturday.

Killerz

aquinn wrote: »

Disgustingly fresh looking after Saturday.

Ha! What were the chances of us bumping into each other! Wouldn't say I was fresh now, but I'll take the compliment

Killerz

This was my second time doing this race, the first time being back in 2014. Ahhhh, the pre-babies era! Going into that race, I had the luxury of being able to follow a training plan that included long runs, paced sessions etc. This time, I did not. The week leading up this race hadnt been ideal, with a nasty fall on the DART a week before, a cold early in the week, and significant happenings at work all vying for my attention and headspace.

Ate a lot the day before - substantial breakfast, tray of pasta through the day, footlong sub and soup at lunchtime and a large pizza and doughballs at around 8pm.

Enough about that.

Arrived at Donadea just after 9am, picked up my number, had a chat with a few of the gang and said goodbye to the other 3/4 of my family who would hopefully be back later on to see me finish.

My plan was to go out and run as many consecutive 22 min 5ks as possible, with the hope that maybe I could hang on for a sub 3:40 if everything went superbly well. To get to 40k in around 2:55 would represent solid process, and I think would indicate that a marathon time of around that would be achievable. For anyone who has followed this log, you'll know that I havent really done many long runs, pacing 1:40 at Clontarf Half back in November being my last run of 13 miles or more. I've been concentrating on doubles, back-to-backs etc. So, I didnt really have anything on which to base my target on, but hey, you gotta have a target!

The first few 5k blocks passed off without any major incident. My nutrition strategy was take a bottle of water at end of each lap, finish it within 500m where there was a marshal to hand it to, and repeat every lap. After every second lap, I'd take a gel. I also had water mixed with dioralyte and some more gels in a bag just off the track if I needed them.

Lap 1: 22:17 (this lap is a little longer than the rest as it involves an extra couple of hundred metres to hit the 50k)
Lap 2: 21:45
Lap 3: 21:21
Lap 4: 21:12

So through the first 4 laps (20k) in 1:26:35, indicating a half marathon time of in the region of 1:31. All good so far. Plenty of banter on the trails and at the start/ finish area.

I knew that the real race - my real race that is - would start after 25k. But I kept ticking off those 5ks. I think the last time I did this race, I think I went out too fast. At least that's how it felt that time as I struggled late on. That might happen again I suppose, but so be it.

Lap 5: 21:28
Lap 6: 21:36

Still banging out consistent enough 5k times, and had a little in the bank. Tiring a little. Started lapping people I think on laps 4 and 5 for the first time. Got a good boost from meeting others on the route who were great with their support and encouragement. Lots of familiar faces. I used to hate races with laps, but I was settling in here and mentally was in a good place. But the 7th and 8th laps would be very tough mentally... kind of a neither here nor there kind of feeling.

Lap 7: 22:18
Lap 8: 22:18

That's not a misprint - two exactly the same times! I said I would take on the dioralyte water after lap 7 or 8 to stop cramp which might come later. But I felt okay so didnt go for it. It would have involved going slightly off track and having to stop and bend over to go to my bag, so that was a factor in my decision not to bother.

Must have been lap 8 where I got lapped by Gary O'Hanlon on his way to the victory, and then at some stage between then and the end by 3 more people.

So I was through 40k or 8 laps in 2:54:15. Right where I wanted to be, almost 2 minutes ahead of 2:56 which is where I needed to be to remain on course for 3:40. The support was great. The St. Anne's parkrun crew had arrived and were in full voice. That gave me a real boost, and I looked forward to seeing them at the end of the laps. But I was starting to hurt big time after I went through 40k. I had opened the hurt locker and was getting hammered by its contents.

The way I train, the distances I do, there is going to be a point where you just can't expect to have the endurance. Or certainly be able to mix the endurance and speed. I believe that point is probably around 35k or so. I started to feel cramp in the legs as I approached marathon distance (around 3 hours and 3 mins/ 4 mins). 8k to go. A bit light headed now and slowing down big time. Just get around this next 3k, see the gang to cheer you on and hear the imaginary bell for the last lap.

Lap 9: 24:22

So really, sub 3:40 was out of the question now, but beating my time from 2014 (3:46) was very much still on the cards. 5k left. But really cramping in the calves. Not pleasant. Regretting not taking the dioralyte now. Dug very very deep. Had to walk bits of this lap. First 2k of each lap is the toughest, so I knew that when I got to the 2k marker, it was kind of downhill to the end. I was sick of gels but needed a boost so took a couple of shot blocks just for some sort of hit... unlikely it did anything but they taste so good and it took my mind off things at least.

Lapped some people for the second time on Laps 9 and 10 and getting the cheers pushed me on and made me feel like I had to keep running. Pushed on, pushed on. Was looking forward to the finishing straight. Somewhere inside the last km, I was passed by someone that I figured I was racing (ie not a lap behind) for the first time since the early laps. I was practically crawling. Cramp, stitch, the works. Not finishing strong at all. The person who passed me was looking great, looking strong and I had nothing left to respond. So I reluctantly let go. Turns out it was Matt Shields, Country Manager for parkrun Ireland, and someone I would know from my work with St. Anne's. He put in what was truly one of the performances of the day... and in the M60 category.

But I was on the finishing straight now. The crowd were in full voice and cheering me on, the St Anne's crew, and my wife and babies all pushing me up that hill to the end. Huge thanks to all who cheered me on - it really really helped.

Lap 10: 25:27

Overall: 3:44:04; 16th place. Same finishing spot as 2014!

Comparing 2014:
22:45 21:35 21:33 21:44 22:00 22:23 22:35 23:09 24:26 24:22

With 2016:
22:17 21:45 21:21 21:12 21:28 21:36 22:18 22:18 24:22 25:27

I was delighted with this. While it would have been great to try and stay on 22 minute 5k loops, I'm okay with the result. I understand the limits of my training and I had nothing left to try and keep that pace up.

Mrs Mc

Wow J I just could not believe the mental strength of the people doing this race but reading this I am even more in awe, fair play to you pushing through the pain, it can't have been easy and really glad that the cheers of the Park Run gang helped in some way to get you over the line. We had great fund ! Super report and seriously well done.

Killerz

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Wow J I just could not believe the mental strength of the people doing this race but reading this I am even more in awe, fair play to you pushing through the pain, it can't have been easy and really glad that the cheers of the Park Run gang helped in some way to get you over the line. We had great fund ! Super report and seriously well done.

Thanks again Anne. The support both pushed me on and made me feel accountable... felt I owed it to the support. Seems to have worked

PS Looking forward to your report from next year

Mrs Mc

Killerz wrote: »

Thanks again Anne. The support both pushed me on and made me feel accountable... felt I owed it to the support. Seems to have worked

PS Looking forward to your report from next year

ABSOLUTELY NO WAY !!!:eek:

Killerz

Mrs Mc wrote: »

ABSOLUTELY NO WAY !!!:eek:

Hmmm... we'll see...

tang1

I missed your last two laps but up till then you looked the definition of comfortable and a man in the zone. You glided past me every lap and disappeared up the hill towards the finish looking good every lap. Inspirational performance in honesty, top 20 in National Championships as I said is something to be damn proud of.

Killerz

tang1 wrote: »

I missed your last two laps but up till then you looked the definition of comfortable and a man in the zone. You glided past me every lap and disappeared up the hill towards the finish looking good every lap. Inspirational performance in honesty, top 20 in National Championships as I said is something to be damn proud of.

Thanks tang - maybe I needed you there for the last two laps....

Firedance

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Wow J I just could not believe the mental strength of the people doing this race but reading this I am even more in awe, fair play to you pushing through the pain, it can't have been easy and really glad that the cheers of the Park Run gang helped in some way to get you over the line. We had great fund ! Super report and seriously well done.

big + 1 to this, watching everyone's race unfold with only the teeniest idea of what it must be like to run that distance was inspirational, truly, I know I've used that word before but its true. Hats off to you J, super race & super report.

Kennyg71

Well done on pb J, and on back of limited training some result. GOH better look out when you get into full training;)

dintbo

Brilliant stuff. Well done!

FBOT01

As I said on the day, nice going!

You can stick me down as pacer for the last two laps next year and as a Chief bottle hander outer on lap 7 to save you having search for the dioralyte

Murph_D

Enjoyed that report, well done again!

annapr

Murph_D wrote: »

Enjoyed that report, well done again!

+1 J, brilliant result, especially as your training (and sleep ) have been interrupted!

Bungy Girl

Brilliant report. I felt like I was almost running those last couple of laps too. In awe of those splits, most of which represent an eyeballs-out 5K for me ! Well done on such a super performance with less than optimal training opportunity.

Killerz

Thanks very much for all the kind comments everyone - much appreciated and mean a lot. I have a target for the next few months now which I'll post here when finalised. It will really put this type of training to the test :eek:

Not much running done since Donadea, bar a 4 mile lunch run on Weds and 6 odd miles last night and another 6 odd tonight. On the plus side, Garmin sent me a new watch, so I'm ready to give that a good time!

Killerz

Nothing hugely significant to report over the past couple of weeks. 40 mile week completed this week gone by, back to my usual double/ overnight trebles again. Paced the 20 minute group at St Annes last Saturday which was fun.

Following on from Donadea, the question I asked myself was something aquinn seems to do regularly... 'OK, what's next?'

The goal for this next block of training is... the Energia 24 hour race in Belfast at end of June. I'm already paid up and ready to go.

I've never done anything like this before. I've run midnight marathons, double marathons, ultras, multi-day events, but the longest I've ever gone in one sitting if you will is 50 miles. That was a grueling trail race in searing heat in Ontario in June 2010 and took me almost 10 hours. That was pre-babies... But pre-babies doesnt mean anything anymore if I am beating my pre-babies times.

It's on a 1.7k loop this year for the first time (moving away from the track and into a local park). My target isnt determined just yet, other than to at least break 100 miles.

My training... isnt going to change much, so let's see how that goes!

In the meantime, I plan on doing the Wicklow Way Ultra (51k) at end of March and Wings for Life (target ??) in early May. The WW race is planned on tired legs while W4L I'm undecided on just yet.

In order to get the most from limited training time, I'll be running lots of shorter runs, running with the buggy some more, running on tired legs, running in the dark, running loops. I want to cover the bases as much as possible.

It probably wont be a conventional approach to a 24 hour race, but I've long since departed from convention so that's just how it is gonna be.

I'm open to any thoughts on nutrition, training, other advice that people may have.

tang1

Crazy man, you obviously like torturing yourself!! The very best of luck with it J.

Firedance

is there something in the water on here with people signing up for 24 hour runs :eek:

best o luck with it J, I've no doubt however that you'll succeed #nuts

annapr

Wait, you're bringing the buggy to Belfast, did I read that right? :eek:

You're mad, but you seem to have tons of endurance... Best of luck with it!

Mrs Mc

I'd be more worried about what's next next !!! How do you top that ! Best of luck with training you crazy person !!!

Murph_D

Great stuff J, definitely saw this in your future when I read Ed Mc's report last year. Very best of luck with it, no better man.

Kennyg71

Best luck with it J, no advice, bar what read on other logs, make sure you have
Good crew on board for event, no better man.

FBOT01

Start by getting your head checked

Killerz

Thanks for the well wishes and suggestions that I need my head checked haha! I'd say I'll regret signing up from about 4 hours in and every 10 minutes after that!

No buggy planned for this one

Ferris B

Love it. Will be following with interest.