Sorry, I thought you said get faster before the 100th Marathon

Aimman

Saturday - Helped out ay the 5M race with Rainbow Kirby, handing out the goody bags and scribbling on women's number bibs.:rolleyes:

One the race was over, the sun came out and went on a 9.4 run with Ultraman after he doped me with one of his cocaine bars. Was hoping the figs wouldn't take affect too soon.

9.4M in 1:30 (9:32 pace, Avg HR 79% of max)

W.B. Yeats

Aimman wrote: »

Saturday - Helped out ay the 5M race with Rainbow Kirby, handing out the goody bags and scribbling on women's number bibs.:rolleyes:

Thanks for being the good citizen and working as a volunteer! It wouldn't happen without ye! You looked to be in decent fettle and enjoying dealing with all the women.....

jaymack75

great to catch up after the race yesterday - have a great run in belfast and enjoy a bellyfull of pizza

Aimman

6M in the park

Met up with Menoscemo, Chenguetti, Brianderunner and Jcsmum. One of them neglected to adhere to the strict dress code and showed up in a beer stained 5M top :eek:

Tagged along for 6 miles. The others were doing 10, but Jscmum already had a head start on us and clocked up over 12 miles already and was still looking fresh.

6M in 56:51 (9:24 pace, Avg HR 87%, seems very high)

Aimman

Did my last 5k on Monday and taking it easy since. All the bags are packed, Tent is ready and the food plan written on two tablets which Moses brought down from the Mountain.

Looking forward to it, but If you ask me at 3pm on Saturday as I pass the same spot for the 3*10^4 th time, I might not sound as enthusiastc. lol

pistol_75

Good Luck aimman

Mr Slow

Best of luck Mister!

Oisin11178

Hope you do well but not as well as me :-)

W.B. Yeats

Good luck man- hardcore running!

Aimman

Cheers everyone. Looking forward to it, mind you, I don't think you'll be looking forward to reading up the race report. (planning on a lap by lap account), lol. :eek::D

Don't think there is a live update to the times and distances or if anyone will be able to post updates on the 24h thread, but we'll try.

menoscemo

Aimman wrote: »

Cheers everyone. Looking forward to it, mind you, I don't think you'll be looking forward to reading up the race report. (planning on a lap by lap account), lol. :eek::D

Don't think there is a live update to the times and distances or if anyone will be able to post updates on the 24h thread, but we'll try.

Hope there's wifi. I won't have much else to do.

RAL3

Best of luck at weekend, reckon you're mad..... tough, but mad!

Aimman

menoscemo wrote: »

Hope there's wifi. I won't have much else to do.

There's wifi in the hotel, but it's £10 for 24 hours.

Macanri

All the best for the 24hr (race?)

hot to trot

You will be great. Believe in yourself. You have it in you to have a really satisfying day.

liamo123

Best of luck Eamon...

jcsmum

Best of luck... enjoy it :rolleyes:

shazkea

Good luck with this E, have you got your finishing dance moves planned

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

I want to see you doing cartwheels over the finish line. Have a good one you crazy man.

Bally8

Following your progress with great interest. Totally inspiring. Cant wait to read your report.

Aimman

Had a great race and a brilliant experience. Have to take a long time to sort out a race report, but covered just over 90 miles in the 24 hours.

Legs are a bit weak and stiff today, but no injuries showing up yet, just the usual aches when I go to walk on them after sitting for a while.

Have an extra special bottle of wine to open tonight in celebration :-)

Slogger Jogger

Great performance Aimman.

W.B. Yeats

Aimman wrote: »

Had a great race and a brilliant experience. Have to take a long time to sort out a race report, but covered just over 90 miles in the 24 hours.

Legs are a bit weak and stiff today, but no injuries showing up yet, just the usual aches when I go to walk on them after sitting for a while.

Have an extra special bottle of wine to open tonight in celebration :-)

90 miles:eek::eek:

That's crazy running E
Well done, it must have been a massive mental and physical effort

Mr Slow

Congrats, 90 miles is amazing.

jcsmum

Wow! Seriously, every time I read your log there is some new crazy achievement from you. Give the rest of us a chance!! :rolleyes:;)
Well done!

menoscemo

Where's the report Aimman?

hot to trot

Fantastic running from Aiman. Very impressive from the sidelines. Great courage and fortitude when things were getting tough. YOu will be back next year for some unfinished business I reckon. You learn a lot from the first one .:D

Aimman

My first impression on arriving at the track was that it resembled a mini refugee camp, with all the tents being set up. Some big, some small, one was made with a bit of tarpaulin and a step ladder, ‘Genius’. Second thing that hit me was the surroundings. I had expected the track to be right in the middle of a suburban estate encapsulated in grey buildings. Instead, to my approval, the track was on the edge of a forest with trails and paths weaving here and there. Might not sound important now, but it was a major element in getting around and around and around and did I mention around?

Once the tent was pitched, the banter started with the rest of the runners. No one appeared nervous or tense, there was a strange sense of calm, despite not knowing what lay ahead. Like the rest of them, I didn’t seem phased by the prospect of running for the next 24 hours. Maybe it hadn’t sunk in yet, which might have been a good thing considering.

This was the first time I had faced this kind of challenge, a time based race. The best analogy I can give to compare this with the likes of a Marathon or such races, would be like comparing an English Exam to a Maths Exam. Bear with me on this one, and it should make sense. When you sit a Maths exam, you have a 2~3 hour time to complete the questions. All maths questions have a definitive answer. No matter what your method is to reach that answer, if you didn’t get it, you cant get full marks. An English paper however, has 2~3 hours to complete, but it’s up to the student to make the most of the time and give as much or as little information and depending on the quality of the answer determines the final grade. With me so far? No? OK. In a marathon, you can have up to 8 hours to complete 26.2 miles. If you miss out on either, there is no medal, no official time recorded, no result. With the 24 hour race, you can do as much or as little as you want, its up to you. That’s what probably kept me sane before the race. No matter how much ground I covered during the race, I can only do my best and if I had to pull out for any reason, the race is still completed, recognised and I gave it my best shot. Maybe people could argue these analogies, or criticise my attitude to the race, but until then, the furthest I clocked up 100k and if I go beyond that, I’d be a happy man, the only question was how far beyond could I go?

Ok, left skip the Leaving Cert Maths and English papers and focus on the race. I shared my food table with John O Regan and Thomas Maguire, Their half of the table looked like a tuck shop in a school, while my stuff was only stocked up every hour or two, just to have what I needed to hand. Part of the pre race prep was to sit back in a comfy chair and enjoy a cheese baguette and red bull. Niall and Frank put their stuff in my tent for easy access and Anto gave me a supply of much needed gels and ‘cocaine’ energy bars. Ally planted the comfy chairs near the timing mats ( but not too near the portaloos) and camped there for the night and the next day.

The starting horn went, and the laps commenced. Still not phased, I ran the first mile brisk, but not too fast. I was up near the front, but what the hell, might as well be in the lead group for the first few minutes. I was keeping to the ‘Run 1 mile, walk 60 paces’ religiously and kept it up for the first 12 hours, however, after the 4th hour, My ambitious pace plan was starting to wane a little, but not enough to affect the 100Mile target, I still had some time and miles in the bank. When the Pizzas came out, I avoided them. It was going to be a long night and I didn’t want cramps messing up things on me. As night gradually fell and darkness covered the track, I had no concept of time. I deliberately avoided looking at the actual time. Every now and again I’d catch myself doing a quick sum and realising it was 1am or maybe 3:30am etc and couldn’t believe I was actually running in the middle of the night, while people slept or were shaking the booty on a dance floor of some late night club ( the latter seemed like a good idea) After watching the night fall, the next thing I focussed on was the Moon rising from the trees and slowly arcing its way through the sky towards the car park.

After six hours I was in the top 10 and I knew I was going out a wee bit too fast, but I felt good and strong, I had my first pit stop to change my shoes and socks. I pre warned Ally that she would have to do this for me, as I wouldn’t be in a position to sit and do it myself. I also changed my top to a long sleeve one just to keep warm. Around 4am, I noticed the mist rising from the grass in the middle of the track and the camp site resembled some scene from a fantasy film, like Lord of the Rings. The damp air got into the spare clothes and made everything soaking wet. The gel packets and nutrigrain bars became slippery and difficult to open.

Then the moment I was waiting for happened, one corner of the sky was brighter then the rest and the dawn was on the way. We had survived the darkness and now we had the daytime to look forward to.

I haven’t mentioned much about my running yet, and that’s because I spent more time concentrating on the surrounding and enjoyed the atmosphere to help the time pass. On a 400m track, you get to see everybody on a regular basis from elites to the walkers at the back of the field, but we were able to have a brief chat, share a bit of banter and slagging and offer support and receive words of encouragement as needed.

Sometime before 6am, I was feeling tired and would have loved a bit of a rest, but because Ally was helping out on lap counting, I kept on going, hoping the food on the table would keep me going.

As the sun gradually rose through the trees and shone the first day’s rays on the track, I remember closing my eyes each time I passed this part of the track and just feeling the warmth on the face. It felt good. Better then that , It felt like the next day and the finish was nearing, even if it was still some time away, it was coming…..

BREAKFAST TIME!!!!!! And the Porridge was served up. Unfortunately, one of the runners collapsed right beside the porridge stand which made me a bit dubious as to what was in the porridge…. But I guzzled a bowl of it as I ran the next lap. Ally went off to help them cook up the second batch of Porridge which I tucked into to (general consensus was that the 2nd batch was nicer)

Somewhere in the small hours of Saturday, the legs were starting to feel a bit tired and I needed a bit of a jumpstart to keep me going. I managed to get a great massage on the legs which gave me a bit of life to carry on. My left shoulder was also tense, a by product of me hunching my shoulders and tensing when fatigue starts to set in. After a few minutes of what felt like being pounded with a meat tenderiser, I was good to go. It was great to have the real time stats as I crossed the mats. Niall and Finn were able to keep me up to date whenever I asked.

At the 12 mile mark, the runners and socks were changed again. I had a couple of bloody toes from sharp nails and I snipped off the offending corners and also had to burst a blood blister and bandage it up. The pace was slowing down. At this point I was doing a slow jog, but couldn’t managed to muster up a decent pace. I passed the 100k mark in the twelfth hour and gave a celebration jump on the mats at my name was called out for hitting the kilocentury. By hour thirteen though, I was reduced to a fast walk and I had to get Ally to do some maths to find out what I needed to achieve each lap in order to hit 100M within the 24 hours. I needed to complete each loop in 2:17 minutes for the next 11 hours without stops. Half sounded easy, Half sounded ARRRGGGHHHHHH!!! ELEVEN HOURS?!!!! But pushed on. I was keeping good time and kept putting valuable seconds in the bank on each lap, but coming up to the 16 hour mark, the wheels came off the truck in the worst possible way. The lap times were getting longer and longer and I was starting to panic as the legs felt too heavy and the 100M target was slipping away. As the direction was changed again, I came off the course and needed a sleep, whether I liked it or not. 16 hours on the go was taking it’s toll and the fact that I was sliding from my goal was messing up my head. I reckoned I needed a 20-30min rest to try and get my head back in the game. I lay on the airbed with my legs raised up and wandered in and out of sleep until I heard Ally coming to wake me up. the tears welled up and I felt like I couldn’t go on. I’ve gone beyond the 100k and the legs were shot. Was that enough? Did I finally meet the barrier I’ve been pushing to find for these last three years. Everyone had their limit and I secretly sought to find mine and perhaps I’ve got my answer. There was nothing to be ashamed of. I racked up around 70 miles, surely that should be a good distance. I told Ally I couldn’t go on. I wanted to keep going, but the legs just didn’t have it in me to keep going.

After some debate with Ally and also an intervention from Niall, I agreed to get to the track and see how I would get on. Shoes and Socks were changed again and as I rolled out of the tent, I made the agonising 20m limp to the track and the pain was more than I could deal with for the next 7.5 hours. The tears came again and a disheartened resolution to just sit by the track side and just cheer on the other 39 runners who became friends over the 16 hours.

Ally made a last ditch plea with me to take another couple of Ibuprofen and get a massage. If the legs were still the same, I could just sit the race out.

A new physio was on duty, Alan. He got me on the table and seemed to be obsessed with trying to push his elbow through my legs to make it come out the other side. It was the most painful experience I ever had and did my best to hold back the screams and bit the bullet. After the torture, the legs felt like they were back to some level of normality. I set out on the track again and Ally kept me company for some of the laps. After about two laps, the legs miraculously felt in great condition. Not enough to run on, but at least I was waling. I felt like one of the cripples cured in the bible. I COULD WALK!!! PRAISE BE!!!! At this point the mind finally focused and sorted itself out. I resigned to the fact that I would not be running, but more importantly, I set myself to the task of walking for the next 7 hours. For every 4 laps I covered was another mile notched up on the scoreboard. It I end up being the slowest walker today, I didn’t care. I did all my running in the first 16 hours and clocked up a decent distance. And NO! I didn’t reach my limit. Far from it. Time to HTFU and keep looking for that point where I cant go on. This was just a glitch in the plan and probably a psychological test. Well, you know what? I passed it. Next lap please….

Because I was keeping up a brisk walk, there was no need for my food plan. I was feeling quite full up and didn’t crave any food or goodies. If I needed something, I’ll pick away, Especially when they brought out the hot dogs.. YUM!!!!!!

The great advantage of being faced with walking for 7 hours was that the sun was up and the temperatures were rising. Even if I wanted to run I couldn’t, which meant I could enjoy walking in the sun and not have to battle with keeping up a fast pace in the heat. Time to change top to the singlet and top up the tan.

On a trip to the toilet, I realised that all the sensitive bits were badly chaffed and raw red, despite wearing compression shorts. After a quick trip to the chemist, Ally brought back some baby powder which I applied liberally down the shorts like the guy in the chipper putting salt on your chips. The inside of my shorts looked like an explosion in a cocaine factory. I was too afraid to fart on the track in case a puff of white powder came out of my shorts and a new pope was elected.

During the next few hour, I has many chats with the other runners. I was actually enjoying the last few hours, keeping the spirits up and concentrating on keeping up a decent pace. I had another 2 very excruciating massages but each time, my legs were like Lazarus coming back from the dead and gave me the extended life to keep going. As each runner crossed the 100Mile mark, tears were welling up emotionally as I knew I wouldn’t be hitting the Century but at the same time, I was excited and delighted at another one breaking the 100.

My spirits were still up and I even threatened to shoot the Lap counters with a banana just to keep smiling and enjoying myself. The miles clocked by and the total sent from 70 to 75, then to 80 and then 85. Ally kept me company for most of the last 4 hours probably clocking up 12 miles just walking during the day.

As soon as I hit the 90 miles, I was happy with distance. I did a couple more laps just to be on the safe side and I pulled into the pit lane with a half hour left. Passing the 90 mark was more than I thought I could do when I sent to bed, and I was damn proud of myself for spending all that time since, just walking non stop to clock up the mileage. It gave me the chance to sit back with Anto and Frank for the last half hour and cheer on the other runners that went by. At the end of the 24 hours, we all made our way to the track to run a little and then stop to have the last few meters measured. My total was 90.5 miles and despite the highs and extreme lows during the whole day’s running. I was delighted with the distance covered and by the end of the weekend, I went from Never wanting to run again, to planning my tactics for next year.

Looking back at my performance, I think the week’s rest before Portumna and the two weeks ‘Runner’s Blues’ rest after it along with the proceeding low weekly mileage, softened the legs and made it hard for me to go beyond the 16 hours. I think I might have been too ambitious with my hour by hour mileage plan for the first twelve hours, but I was factoring in banking some extra miles in the first 12 hours, but maybe I just banked too many.

In conclusion, it was a far better experience than I expected. I thought the concept of running for 24 hours and also, looping around the track would eventually become too repetitive, but the scenery, support and other runners helped to take my mind off it and make it a bloody good run. Furthermore, faced with 7 hours walking at the end, I feel that I managed to alter my plans and just get on with getting the best result I could and not give up. OK, I planned to give up after 16 hours, but with great support and the massage, they convinced me to get back on the track. Without that support, I’d have had to make to with thinking I met my match, but next year, I’ll know I can go further and I’ll be damned if I don’t hit the 100M and get one of those swanky jackets!

Massive thanks to Ally for the 24 hour crewing and support, even though she completed 12 miles and walked like John Wayne with Me and Frank for the next 24 hours. Thanks to Niall for the additional support and MacD Hash Brownes (even if one was half eaten). Cheers to Anto for the grub and recovery drinks and to his Dad for the great encouragement. Cheers to Frank for the shortest Post Race Celebrations where the two of us were falling asleep talking to each other after one pint of Magners.

W.B. Yeats

Massive well done- fantastic achievement
I'm in awe of you running 90 miles
I was struggling away this morning doing 9 and I was thinking about you doing 90!

The extra 10 miles are just the little bit of motivation for next year. It would be interesting to see how you'd get on with the same training and a different race strategy, it seems to me that an awful lot of how you get on depends on your plan for the day and how you react to unfolding events. And I don't mean that in any superficial type of way- having never gone longer than a half I can't imagine the fitness and resolve required to keep going, I have a sense that psychologial preparation and tooling yourself to deal with the pain, the wanting to give up is probably really really important.

Having said that I'm sure you've ideas about what you'd do differently in training and in the event.

10 miles is less than 1/2 mile extra per hour for 24 hours- I've no doubt but that you have that in you. ( thus spake the man who is clueless about ultrarunning!)

A hearty congratulations again- be proud of your magnificent feat!

Mr Slow

Aimman wrote: »

I was too afraid to fart on the track in case a puff of white powder came out of my shorts and a new pope was elected.

Well done again Mister.