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Sorry, I thought you said get faster before the 100th Marathon
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Bit of an impromptu decision, but needed something to give me a reality check to see if I was making progress
Dunboyne is a lovely flat course and the weather conditions were spot on, no sign of a breeze.
I was content to aim for sub 36, which was 7:12 pace for the race
Went off a tad too fast, but it wasnt doing me any damage. I'll admit to easing off a little at times, so as not to blow up near the end of the race.
Splits were
6:45, 7:03, 7:13, 7:26, 6:49 finishing in 35:16
4th mile is where I got too cautious, worrying I wouldn't have it in me to finish strong, but managed to hold a good position in the last mile and got past the guy in front as we entered the running track and didnt have any challenges from behind at the finish.
In hindsight, I think I could have shaved off the 17 seconds over the course to go sub 35, but was trying to be sensible on the route and not be overambitious and pay the consequence. I think for the same type of course, I'll manage a sub 35 the next time, but in the meantime, I'm very happy with the PB and gives a big boost
5M in 35:16 (7:07 pace, didnt wear the HR monitor)
Finished May off with 240 miles.
June will definitely be an interesting month with the 4h pacing in Cork and the Portumna 100k, bring it on!
:D:D 0 -
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RacoonQueen wrote: »It's next week now is it? Time to load up on the grub!
Yeah, I'm already buying in the gels and stuff. Going to make my special flapjacks too. :pac:Oisin11178 wrote: »10 hours would be a very good time Eamonn. That's what Im aiming for. Its on:-)
Just be wary of your pre race dinner. Salthill was only a test run. Once you've finished the Conn Ultra distance, remember there's alomst a full marathon still to go. :eek: 0 -
OK, Quick catch up.
Woke up on the Sunday morning with a bit of a sore throat, skipped the running for a couple of days to give myself a bit of a chance to get over it. No Joy.
Tuesday UCD Track
10k around the running track. Set the Garmin to lap by position instead of distance, seeing and the accuracy around the 400m loop is atrocious. Tried yet another run walk approach, as H2T thinks my walk portion might be a little long, so embarked on a 1M repeat and 120 steps of walking. Felt comfortable for the first 10k anyway, if I can repeat another 9 times, I'll be happy. Throat was still sore and had to change my breathing to inhale through the nose and out through the mouth to avoid irritating the throat any more (as opposed to always breathing in through the mouth, before people are ready with the sarky comments)
After the 10k, I hung around while Menoscemo and Claralara finished off their intervals.
10k in 54.20 (8:43 pace Avg HR 78% of Max) including the 120 steps after each mile
Throat is still acting up, and doing my best to keep the head cold symptoms and tiredness to a minimum. Don't imagine I'm going to be 100% for Saturday. Trying to keep it going for a whole 100k will be the challenge in itself, but I've come this far, its too late to back out or postpone. Not entertaining the possibility of changing to the 50k or Marathon, done all that, got the tee shirt. Time to push the limit now and go for the 100k or I wont be going for the next biggie.
All the supplies are bought, flapjacks are made and my best running shorts are dry cleaned, starched and ironed.
Taking it easy tonight and tomorrow. And hoping the energy levels will be back somewhat by 6am Saturday.0 -
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If you haven’t got time to read the whole report, just skip straight to the last line and pretend you read the whole thing
Coming up to the day of the race, I had to try to forget a few things before stepping up to the start line
1: The mentally wrecking bad Back to Back long runs weekend in Germany in May
2: The throat infection that’s left me practically voiceless since last Sunday
3: In the last week since I got the infection, I only managed to do a 10k track run, so my taper was basically feet up for the week
4: On the Thursday night, when I need the major good night’s sleep, ended up in a disagreement until 2:30am which successfully undid all the mental repair since the bad weekend running in Germany
On the Friday, I was still feeling drained from the illness and was trying to find some spark of motivation. Not to start the race, but to keep going when things started to get bad. The apartment in the Shannon Oak’s Hotel was fantastic. Two bedrooms, all the facilities and lots of space. Had to share a room with Frank, but every silver lining has a cloud. After a feed of Ally’s homemade Spaghetti Bolognaise, we were carbed up and ready to face the 4:45 rise and shine.
After a whole 2 hours sleep ( not all in the one go), the bowl of porridge was eaten, can of red bull guzzled and we met the other ultra running lunatics in the bar and headed off to the start line. This was the smallest line up I’ve ever been at with mo more then thirteen runners. You know when you are getting more and more into the specialised stuff when the participant numbers get smaller and smaller. Just as well some of the 50k runners came out to see us off. Lined up at the start, Seb gave us the run down on the route. Not as simple as Ray’s guidelines for Connemara, (run, turn right, run, right, run, turn right, run turn right, run, stop), but just as handy to follow.
No point in using the water belt, because there were supplies every 2.5k and I’d pass my picnic basket every 5k. Quick squeeze of Seb’s horn :eek:, and we were off. 6am and a handful of running nutters heading off to finish 20 loops of Portumna’s forest trails. It’s a bit hard to do a proper report of this type of race, because after so many loops, they all blend into one another and you cant remember what happened, or when. But here’s the highlights:
The plan was set in stone from the start, 1mile running and then 60 paces walking, and keep going. I had the bright spark plan of using the Garmin Lap by Position setting which meant that each time I went under the finish line gantry, a new lap would start. Unfortunately, because of the little out and back leg at the finish line and the fact that my food bag was beside it, each time I got something out of it, a new lap would start, then a few seconds later, it would start another lap as I went around the deadleg and under the gantry.. Never mind, it wasn’t essential, just messed up my stats when I downloaded them.
Lap 3, Vasily lapped me. WTF???? So Soon? At this rate, I’d be lapped another couple of times before he was finished.
Lap 5, The 50k starts and there’s a few more people and familiar faces on the route to keep us company.
Marathon Distance, Passed the 42k mark in 4:07 and laughed at the though of finishing a marathon just after 10am, while most people were still tucked up on bed. This was crazy.
The first 10 laps were run at about 9:20 pace, so by the time I hit the 50k, it was about 4:56 on the clock. Very happy with the first half. But was unlikely I could repeat that for a 10h finish time
On lap 11, when I passed 55k, the wheels came off a little bit, daunted by the prospect of having another nine laps to go. The regular voices started to appear, ‘Never Again’ and ‘What the hell was I thinking?’ and a new one ‘If I decide to just walk from here on in, can I do it under the 16 hour cutoff point’? The pace started to slip away gradually and I did me best to ignore the things to forget 1, 2, 3 and 4 above. Around this point I was overtaken by the guy behind me, just when I thought everyone had settled into their steady race pace. Miraculously enough, within the next 2 km, I had got my second wind, came to terms with my new pace (somewhere between 11 – 11:20 pace) I felt comfortable. When I hit 58k I laughed to myself, realising I only had a “WHOLE MARATHON” left to do, but in fairness, I was feeling good again and it all seemed possible. The constant change in the weather from heavy rain to Sunny spells helped break any monotony of running 20 laps
I should mention that the race started off lonely but built up as the 50k and marathon runners joined in. As both the other races were finishing up, the road got progressively more lonely again until it was just me plodding along.
Fast forward a few laps, and on the 2nd last lap, the heavens just opened again unmercifully, practically flooding the roadway. Myself and Frank passed in opposite directions at the same point for the third consecutive time and I know he was still only 4k ahead of me, but on a 5k loop, he was on his last lap and only needed to gain 1k to lap me. I wasn’t sure what Frank had left in the tank, but I wasn’t taking any chances, in case he was going to gun it for his last lap to catch up. I put the bejasus up myself and upped the pace, or I’d never hear the end of it if Frank went past. As I past Paddy and Pat, I told them to let Frank know I was miles ahead, to put him off his pursuit and was delighted to get through the gantry without seeing Frank behind me. One lap to go……
Happy I had no one in pursuit of me in the last lap, I sauntered on looking forward to the last crossing of the finish line. Ouch!!!!! With just over 3km left, the digestive system finally decided that enough was enough. It endured over ten and a half hours of picking at gels, couple of flapjacks, bananas, oranges and coke and decided to have a spring clean. Having forgotten to keep some toilet paper handy, I wasn’t able to join the bears in that famous question and had to carry out some very tactful walking to the toilets at the halfway point in the loop During the walk, a photographer popped out of nowhere and I had to start running for the sake of the photo, it was more uncomfortable then the photo lets on. After a very cautious 5 minutes in the cubicle, I reckoned it was safe enough to leave the happy place and get this bloody race over with. My only concern at this point was that the 11th hour was creeping up on me. I was confident enough of getting under the 11, but if the digestive system made a come back, it would slip away.
1k left and everything is still in good condition, 99k had passed without any major problem. Only one dip at the 55k point and an emergency toilet stop ay 97.5k. This was going to be the kilometre to enjoy. Coming up to the deserted finish line, I was glad to see Ally, Frank and Seb cheering me on. One last little loop around the water station (should I stop again for a coke and banana????? Better not) I sized up the finish line one last time and gave it a big Hop Skip and a Jump coming up to it. Legs felt much better then the last celebration in Dingle after 50M, so I reckoned the legs weren’t going to buckle under me.
Finishing time was 10:58:09, delighted with the time and feeling good at the finish line. After Seb gave me the medal, Ally handed me a lovely can of Weissbeir to celebrate. People always say that you shouldn’t consume alcohol straight after a marathon, but I don’t remember any such warning after a 100k, so feck it, I think I deserved it.
Recovery was quick enough, teasing Frank with my ability to run up and down the stairs that evening and leap them two as a time. Frank reckons because he finished before me, his legs are entitled to be knackered, but as far as I can see, I spent more time on my feet, so my muscles went under the same amount of endurance.:p
Looking back on the whole occasion, I spent the last week or so dreading the run because of the sore throat and other stuff and found it hard to be positive about the mental challenge that lay ahead. Thankfully, I got in the right zone at the last minute and set out to finish, no matter what. What I didn’t expect, was how good I’d feel after completing the race and the speed of recovery afterwards. Unfortunately, my voice is still knackered (for anyone that got to see the ceremonial champagne video on Facebook) but it’s a small price to pay for a great race.
One thing I will take from this race was the amazing comradery of the runners. From Vasily right through the ranks, everyone was continuously supportive and encouraging to each other, even if it was just a brief nod or thumbs up, we all had our own race to run but had the backing of everyone else to help you finish it.
100k in 10:58:09 (10:35 pace) and enjoyed the whole day!0 -
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