Florence Marathon...November 2010

asimonov

3 stars (average)

altercor wrote: »

The full?? My god Hot to trot..You're mad altogether!

Nice one on the 5 miler. Tempo is good to get the confidence up. Mind that achilles for the week!

So, have we all sorted our 'outfits' for the race? To recognise each other should we happen to see each other? My club singlet is a bit too fitted around the shoulders so Im afraid it'll chafe over the full 26 miles..Must reconsider what singlet and shorts go with my runners..:D:D

Have ye booked rail tickets from Bologna?? Im lookin at that option..

How far in a taxi would it be to Florence?? Im travelling with 3 others so that may be just the job..

looks like 90min in a taxi - checked one of those airport transfer sites and they are talking 40e for 4 or 30e for 6 if you'd let us jump in with you. It would be dead handy to jump in a cab from the airport.

mithril

3 stars (average)

We will probably meet in the hotel but if not I was intending to wear the Boards A.C. singlet.

However the extended forecast for the week-end is looking very grim.
Very cold and rainy with possibility of snow(:eek:).

Maybe long sleeve t-shirt might be more in order?
Maybe I should throw the mud-claws into the bag just in case?

altercor

3 stars (average)

Ouch! Rain!! Damnit!

I had been looking at the weather til today and it looked fine..Maybe it'll change again?? Anyways, I did Cork this year so Im well used to the wind and rain! Singlet may be a bit presumptious..

Asiminov, I must contact the guy Im going with. He's travelling with his parents also so Ill see what their plan is and suggest the cab idea. It seems a good option.

Hot to Trot! I hear there are 130 entered for the full in Clon! Ill really have to see how I feel after Florence before I go booking my seat in the restaurant to help spending your voucher ..I promised myself 3 marathons was all Id do this year! I looked at the route though and weather permitting it'll be a lovely run!

Im all over the post christmas ten milers...Sub 60 this year...Grrr...:mad::mad:

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Are you taking the p**s about the weather??? Please say you are.

By the way , what does the boards singlet look like. People often mention it but I never know what to look out for .:o

Sub 60 10 miler. wow. guess you will be back in the hotel having a shower by the time I get across the line. sigh.
I did achilles yetserday but forgot to do it today and it was tender on the run tonight. I made an appointment for January in case I cant get it sorted myself in the meantime.

I never have marathon nightmares/dreams ...until the other night. I dreamt I was doing the race and at one stage I came around a corner and everyone was gone. I was running up and down streets trying to find where the route was.There was no one about. My garmin was telling me 30 miles and I still couldnt find anyone. I knew I had well blown my sub 4 chance . Was getting anxious about trying to find my way back at that stage when I woke up.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Dreaming about marathons just mean that you are ready!

I just checked the weather again..Its gone to cloudy with patchy sun and about 7-8 degrees..That'd be nice..

Im aiming for sub 60..Thats not to say Im anywhere near that now!

I've got my last physio session this afternoon and then Im all set. I feel for the first time that the taper has worked..Fingers crossed!

That finish line peroni is gonna be swwwweeeet!

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Well any kind of confidence I had is well gone now. Because I run thurs,frid,sat and sundays it means that I will have almost no running done this week and already I am feeling very stiff and sluggish.
I am debating whether to put on old shoes and go do some intervals in the puddles to try to get going again. I had a hectic day today and only managed to scoff tayto and a mars bar since breakfast. Am just home and have another mad day tomorrow before I try to get to Dublin. Carb loading for me will be petrol station sandwiches I reckon.
Trying to convince brain that once I get a few miles behind me that I will be fine but those first few miles will be the struggle to get going. Am worried about not running from Tuesday until the race on sunday

altercor

3 stars (average)

Keep the head up HTT..Intervals in puddles is a bad idea! This is really the stage where you can slow your finish time down a good bit, NOT speed it up..Intervals will just be punishing yourself for not running this week (when you should be tapering anyways).. The fact that you've rested will serve you SO much better than if you ran the legs off yourself this week. Believe me, I made that mistake before and paid dearly for it.

Focus now on food!! PASTA PASTA PASTA!! Dont leave it til saturday night! Today is a good day for carbs! They are slow burning so 3-4days prior to race is best!

Im telling you. You will arrive on the starting line on sunday and the adrenalin of the event will put that spring in your stride. RACE DAY MAGIC!!

If it doesn't, Ill give you my first pint!

Be positive. It will happen. Dont break the taper rules!!

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

ok boss. Will continue to do SFA. Do you think perhaps a 5 miler easy later tonight would be a good idea?

altercor

3 stars (average)

I wouldnt, personally. Id rest today, tomorrow and trot about 2 miles and do a decent (but not too tough) stretch on saturday just to flex the legs out.

Im open to correction by anyone else that is more wise (of which there are many, daniel son) than me here though!

What benefit do you think you'd get from doing 5?

Do you think it would make you go faster on sunday?

I personally dont! Have faith in the hard work yo've put in!

My friend has been sick for the past week and a half and he is still gunning for sub 3. He did all the hard work. Long miles, tough speed work etc..Time to sit back now and wait for sunday.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

Best of luck guys....

I haven't trained in two weeks so I am definitely not racing it and pretty unlikely to run it at all; if i feel ok on sunday i'll go to the start and see how i get on - but either way I get to see my OH do her first marathon!

If i do run it; i'll be in a red gowran ac singlet - say hello if you're about.

dermCu

That's really bad luck asimonov, especially whe you were in such good form.
If the knee feels ok on Sunday give it a go - if it doesn't work out you are never too far from the city centre if you need to do a 'Geb' on it. Don't worry too much about the 2 weeks not training. You'll still have retained most of your fitness.

I'll be knocking around the start area in a grey hoodie and if it's not too cold will be wearing a navy Nike singlet.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

Thanks derm, I'll drop you a message on Saturday, we'll be messing around at the expo for a while I'd say.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Bugger! Sorry to hear that asiminov. Thats not good. As Derm said, give it a lash, you never know how these things pan out!

Im sure we'll all be fairly visible at Dublin Airport tomorrow. The only plonkers going to Bologna in running gear.

If I dont see ye, have a good one lads. Best of luck.

C.

RacoonQueen

asimonov wrote: »

Best of luck guys....

I haven't trained in two weeks so I am definitely not racing it and pretty unlikely to run it at all; if i feel ok on sunday i'll go to the start and see how i get on - but either way I get to see my OH do her first marathon!

If i do run it; i'll be in a red gowran ac singlet - say hello if you're about.

Sorry to hear that asiminov. You were all set for a cracking run too.

Best of luck to everyone else going out there, look forward to your reports.

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

Asimonov thats dreadful for you. Fingers crossed things might come around enough for you to take part. At least there will be a physio going in case you need a bit of attention before or after.
I hope things are going better for your OH.

I will be going over on the Pisa flight Saturday . I cant remember who I gave my mobile number to , but if anyone wants it or has it and will be at the expo on saturday , text me and we can say hello.

2 more sleeps :eek:

altercor

3 stars (average)

Enjoy your sleeps!! I think I have your number. Ill be knocking around the expo for a bit too on Sat..Ill send on my number if you dont have it..

SharkTale

Best of luck to all in Florence,

Hope Asimonov you get to start and finish

tunguska

asimonov wrote: »

Best of luck guys....

I haven't trained in two weeks so I am definitely not racing it and pretty unlikely to run it at all; if i feel ok on sunday i'll go to the start and see how i get on - but either way I get to see my OH do her first marathon!

If i do run it; i'll be in a red gowran ac singlet - say hello if you're about.

F u c k!! Man thats a pisser. Sorry to hear that Asimonov. Whats up, are you injured?

asimonov

3 stars (average)

All expo'd out - beautiful day over here. H2T and Mithril had a nightmare day stuck on the tarmac in Dublin airport but have just arrived in Pisa.

Our flight landed late into bologna and we missed the last train to Florence by 3' last night. Result? €160 taxi to our hotel....even though we got to split it with 2 others, it still hurts worse than the knee ever did but on the brightside at least we got charged less than altecor ;-) now for more pasta

mithril

3 stars (average)

2:58:xx for me in wet and cold weather.
Asimonov 2:52:xx.
Have not met the others yet.

donothoponpop

Awesome run Pat, congrats on going under 3 hours!

Great time from asimonov, kudos.

RacoonQueen

Congrats guys. Good run for asiminov with an injury. Hope the OH did well too.

Abhainn

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Congrats guys. Good run for asiminov with an injury. Hope the OH did well too.

a 4:02 I think. Great running guys.

altercor

3 stars (average)

Well done to all who ran on Sunday! Some fantastic times in awful conditions..Fair to say that we all finished with ice blocks for shoes..It was really nice to meet you Hot To Trot, Asiminov and your other half...true to say that runners are just a nice breed of people.

Hope ye all got home safely and are planning the next trip already!:D ...I know I am...

dermCu

altercor wrote: »

Well done to all who ran on Sunday! Some fantastic times in awful conditions..Fair to say that we all finished with ice blocks for shoes..It was really nice to meet you Hot To Trot, Asiminov and your other half...true to say that runners are just a nice breed of people.

Hope ye all got home safely and are planning the next trip already!:D ...I know I am...

How did you get on altercor?
Sorry I couldnt meet up, I had to head back to London that evening.

altercor

3 stars (average)

No Probs Derm!

Well done on the run!

I had a horrible day out. I was flying until mile 19. Looking at the splits they sent me i was well on track for the sub 3 til then. I just started projectile vomiting (sorry everyone ). Had to stop and sit on a kerb for about 5 mins til I got it all up. No idea why it happened but I was useless afterwards. Freezing cold, dizzy and disoriented. Struggled home in 3:24 in the end. Suitably gutted at a wasted opportunity. trying hard to put it behind me but it's hard when You're recovering and have loads more time to yourself without training! Can't say I enjoyed the Florence experience on the whole though, but that is of course because of my race (and the poxy weather)...

What to do now??! Ballycotton entries out today folks..In case ye didnt know..

dermCu

Oh man, thats pretty crappy. Bad luck.
I had a very similar experience in London earlier this year (minus the spewing).

I know how you feel. Its tough to get your head around it in the first few days. I had to fight hard to resist the urge to go out and take my anger out by running some monster sessions.

If you have no idea what went wrong I'd really recommend that you pay a vist to the doctor first and take it from there. If you think that you just didnt react well to a new energy drink or some food then fair enough but there could be other reasons.

You might not want to think about it now but trust me if you can even get a best guess at a root cause it'll give you confidence when you line up for your next race. I had about 8 different tests after London and ended up wearing a small wireless monitor stuck to my chest for two weeks during the hardest part of Florence training. It was a right pain in the arse at the time but the consultant was able to give me the all clear and make what sounded to me like a good guess at what happened.

In short; if you are in any doubt get it checked out and it'll be all the sweeter when you nail the next race.

hot to trot

4 stars (good)

What a beautiful city and pretty nice route, when you could afford to take your eyes off the ground with all the rain and puddles about . In all fairness I thought it was well organised and put together. Its not their fault it had miserable weather and apart from that there wasnt a lot to change , if anything.

Plan for my sub 4 was hang with the pink balloons and see how you get on. Only problem was I couldnt get near the balloons ( why dont they spread out pacers rather than have them all clumped together where they will only beneift a very small group. Grrr).
I did spot them on a double back loop about mile 8 and a few times I almost caught up with them. WIll do my race report on my training log, but suffice it to say that in spite of knee issues and garmin dying after 3 hours that I didnt know whether I was on target, ahead with breathing space( pace) or behind and needing to catch up. I battled on and came across the line not having a clue about my time. It was hours later that I got a text from a mate in Scotland to hear I got 3:58:14.
Happy bunny getting happier by the day as I thaw out .:D
Met some lovely people including MIthrill, Altercor and buddies but was sorry not to meet Asimonov +Asimonova. Next time guys.
Right , recovery this week and then taper for Clonakilty.;)

altercor

3 stars (average)

dermCu wrote: »

Oh man, thats pretty crappy. Bad luck.
I had a very similar experience in London earlier this year (minus the spewing).

I know how you feel. Its tough to get your head around it in the first few days. I had to fight hard to resist the urge to go out and take my anger out by running some monster sessions.

If you have no idea what went wrong I'd really recommend that you pay a vist to the doctor first and take it from there. If you think that you just didnt react well to a new energy drink or some food then fair enough but there could be other reasons.

You might not want to think about it now but trust me if you can even get a best guess at a root cause it'll give you confidence when you line up for your next race. I had about 8 different tests after London and ended up wearing a small wireless monitor stuck to my chest for two weeks during the hardest part of Florence training. It was a right pain in the arse at the time but the consultant was able to give me the all clear and make what sounded to me like a good guess at what happened.

In short; if you are in any doubt get it checked out and it'll be all the sweeter when you nail the next race.

Thanks for that Derm. Ya, Im trying to go over what happened/what I ate/when I took gels etc.. So far I cant put my finger on it. Then again, Im no doc! What was strange (without going in to the details) was that I was able to throw up food for 7 mins after 2 and a bit hours of running. It was as if none of the food was absorbed or digested. I didnt have a big breakfast at all that morning and I think I did a decent carbo load as per the textbooks.

I don't know if it was a freak occcurence or not. The only difference with this marathon was the pace I ran it at. I had never done that kind of speed in a marathon before. I had done plenty of it in training..Maybe it was effort related?? Or maybe it was just one of those things where the weather and other things just worked against me.

Feeling a bit crap about it all. What makes it worse is that Im still to knackered to go out and do a session!

What to do..

HTT: I take it by your post that you made it home safely without your car heater? Not a nice night for driving!!

asimonov

3 stars (average)

I’m not sure that this was how it was meant to be; standing in the 2:30 - 3:00 hour starting pen at the Florence Marathon, freezing cold, wet to the core, necking difene and wondering how far they were actually going to get me and hoping it was going to be somewhere near where i left my gear.

3 weeks earlier my “focus everything on one big marathon effort in 2010” strategy had backfired spectacularly during the peak week of a 12 week marathon schedule. Over 6 days , the leinster novice xc, an 8 X 1k session and a massive tempo had knocked my knee out of kilter and about 10 months of training ground to a sudden halt. In the three weeks and 2 days between then to the race, I had run 3 times – 50’, 15’ and 45’ and done 3 half-hearted pool sessions. It had been 5 weeks since my last run over 90’. I was less than confident I was going to be able to go distance. I had no time goal, no pace bands, no real strategy; just one in case of emergency break glass anti-inflamm and 3 gels.

After another little delay; we were off; the basic plan was to run it easy; protect myself physically and finish the race. I wanted to stick behind the sub3 guys for a while and then push on if it felt ok; grab a PB and at least get the medal at the end. I caught up with Mithril pretty quickly; there’s lot of congestion at the start and I felt conscious of getting my heels clipped and after a few quick words I moved on a little.

I was running with a forerunner 110 someone had given me as a loan as my OH had mine – and I couldn’t really work it out as it was pacing in miles and I wasn’t sure if it was telling me instant pace of average or what. So i used it as a stop watch and tried to work out my splits against 4min kilometer pace. I think i was able to do the maths until about 22k at which point I lost that faculty.

I tucked in behind the sub3 guys for a while, and as there was quite a wind I felt happy to get the draft off them. I ran with them for the first 5k, and then pushed on, passing a crazy barefoot runner guy. At around the 8k mark I had to stop for a pit-stop and lost about 30 seconds or so. A t this stage i was about 1:15 down on 4:00 pace - I went through 10k in 41:12 – and it was a cruise. I took a gel here (enervit lemon) and kept motoring. I couldn’t find a group to run with as I seemed to going a faster than those around me, it was just case of catch a group; sit in for a while and then push on. A lot of this stage of the course felt like it was run into a headwind – so there were times when I backed off the pace just to get to sit in; the third 5K went by in 20:02. From 15k to half way; brings you back into town across a river and I still felt good – my left hamstring was starting to tighten, I had never felt my left hamstring before – but it felt ok to think about something other than the knee. I went through half way in 1:25:26, and took gel number 2, everything feeling good – a little bored maybe; the downside of foreign marathons is there is no-one to even attempt to talk to.

Between the half way mark and 35k is a pretty mundane stage of the route; they bring you out past the sports stadium and around some of the suburban streets close by and whilst there was some support it was hard to lift the mood above the weather.

I took my last gel at 30k and decided to try and push on a little here, and again it was the case of bridging gaps to pass lines of runners. This took effort with the wind, I started to get pretty fatigued and a little disorientated as to where i was in the city and what direction i was running in; i was also feeling a little grubby, my hamstrings and calves were sore and my shoulders felt tight. I realized I didn’t have a big finish in me; so at 35k I just covered up my watch and was content to run it out and enjoy the last few k’s as much as I could. Every now and then someone finishing strong would go by me and I’d stick with them for a couple of hundred metres before letting them go again.

I really enjoyed this last phase, knowing that I was going to get to finish and get my medal and that the effort I had put in through the year wasn’t all in vain. I totally different feeling than last years goal oriented sub3, this was more about being grateful for the opportunity to run at all, something that is easily forgotten, and 2:52 after no running for 3 weeks and no long runs for 5 weeks still feels pretty good.

After the marathon, I changed pretty quickly to get out my wet gear, and waited for my OH to finish her first marathon. She rocked it and finished in 4:02 with a smile on her face and already discussions have moved to dublin marathon next year.

It was great to meet mithril, altecor and his mate and it was a pity to miss dermot and H2T - but hopefully our paths will cross again

altercor

3 stars (average)

Fantastic description of the race man..Kudos!

Your must have been just in front of myself and my buddy at half way so..We were tucked in about 20metres behind the 3hr pacers.

Fantastic that you could overcome injury to do a pb! Well done.

The enjoying the last phase and seeing your OH finish with a smile is the business though, they're the bits that stand in memory. Well done to both of you!

misty floyd

Yeah top stuff asimonov, well done.

Congrats to all! Really great stuff.

seanynova

altercor wrote: »

No Probs Derm!

Well done on the run!

I had a horrible day out. I was flying until mile 19. Looking at the splits they sent me i was well on track for the sub 3 til then. I just started projectile vomiting (sorry everyone ). Had to stop and sit on a kerb for about 5 mins til I got it all up. No idea why it happened but I was useless afterwards. Freezing cold, dizzy and disoriented. Struggled home in 3:24 in the end. Suitably gutted at a wasted opportunity. trying hard to put it behind me but it's hard when You're recovering and have loads more time to yourself without training! Can't say I enjoyed the Florence experience on the whole though, but that is of course because of my race (and the poxy weather)...

What to do now??! Ballycotton entries out today folks..In case ye didnt know..

dont worry about it, i did edinburgh earlier in the year and was on track for a sub 3 until mile 24.....ended up finishing in 3:25.....but ran a 2:56 in dublin later in the year so you have no worries....have anotrher craic at it in spring...