Athlone ¾ Marathon, Sun 7th Oct 2012 11am

rocknchef

4 stars (good)

Great race, super organisation and great people. Hills were tough. Can't wait for DCM2012. Does anyone know when official times get posted on the main website?

Muppet Man

4 stars (good)

Fantastic orgnization folks... very very well done. Could NOT fault. Weather was just perfect.

Big big big thanks to Ultraman for pacing the 2:50 runners... (3:30 marathon). Thanks Ultra - you showed us the way and prepared us well for the hill at 18 miles. Your pacing is very solid (I was the clown in the sunglasses on the 18 miler with you trying to look cool and hide the pain! )

I missed the name of the second 2:50 pacer - but thanks to you sir for the words of encouragement along the way. Finished around 2:46 I think and felt strong in the end, so I reckon I have a 3:45 in me for Dublin.

Again, great organisation folks. Great water stations. Great course. Everything perfect. I'll be back next year.

The one down side was a few potholes on the Narrow roads which were hard to see with the pack close together, but I wouldnt blame ye for that

5 stars.

Muppet Man.

Muppet Man

4 stars (good)

Provisional results:
http://athlone3quarter.com/userfiles/Athlone3Quarter2012_Provisional.pdf

Excuseless

Muppet Man wrote: »

Provisional results:
http://athlone3quarter.com/userfiles/Athlone3Quarter2012_Provisional.pdf

And some finish line pics at Facebook Page - more to follow shortly from Action Photography

Great day for running - good luck all with the DCM or wherever is your next race

Anyone able to set up a poll thanks?

ultraman1

4 stars (good)

+1 to all the comments,great race,organisation,water stops,etc,,,3rd time doin it and lookin forward to nxt year...its the little things dat count like the numbered board dat corrasponded to ur race number dat u could safely put ur car keys on...

kencoo

4 stars (good)

Excellent race. very tough. those hills for the 3 miles were killers. Finished in 2:57 very empty. Organisation was excellent. water stops were brilliant, jellies fruit and plenty of other things. Quiet roads helped as i was wandering for the last few miles. thanks again.

zefer

4 stars (good)

career_move wrote: »

One dark haired, One blond with plaits ???

Dont think it was ye (but then again there was a few different people who tried ) but I think you might have ran past me towards the end after helping somone else up the hill. I was in yellow portmarnock club bib!

belcarra

My race report is available over here if anyone's interested.
Great race, organisation and day all round!
Tough course alright but it'll make Dublin feel easier for sure!

belcarra

I've always been wary about the elevation data that Garmin offer you on runs but this race compared to last year tells a story:
2011: Elevation Gain: 312m Elevation Loss: 321m.
2012: Elevation Gain: 191m Elevation Loss: 201m.

Thanks to the organisers for ironing out the route this year!!

SnailsPace

3 stars (average)

bazman wrote: »

It is an undulating course - a little more that Dublin. There is 150m climb over 20 miles - same as Dublin, but obviously over 26miles. The difficult section seems to be mile 18 where there is 100m climb over the mile when everyone is tired ...

While I read your advice.. I was in total shock when I reached it.. almost resorted to walking.. Still, it was a great event, finished in 2:55, happy with that. That should give me a 4:15 DCM I reckon.

Muppet Man

4 stars (good)

SnailsPace wrote: »

... finished in 2:55, happy with that. That should give me a 4:15 DCM I reckon.

Well done! Good time on a tough course. Just a note that you finished the race at an average pace of 5 minutes 31 secs per KM... assuming you sustained the same consistent pace in Dublin, you would finish DCM in 3hrs 53 min 15 secs. Just saying

Unless you were totally dead when you finished, maybe think about running DCM with the 4 hour pacers.

Muppet Man

jcsmum

4 stars (good)

Fantastic race yesterday. Super organised. Loved all the little 'extras' like the watermelon and the jellies at all the water stops. Lots of t-shirts in both men's and women's sizes available. Post race massage. Quick and easy registration, bag drop, key drop. Plus the comfort of the hotel as race HQ was great too, lots of toilets, tea/coffee/scones pre race, comfy seats made everything very relaxed beforehand.
I paced the 4:00 hour slot yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Craptacular

3 stars (average)

Thanks for the pacing jcsmum. I stuck with you guys for 14.5 miles but then had to stop for ice cream. Found the last few miles very tough but latched onto another runner and we carried each other home in just under 3.20.

All very well organised but who's idea was it to make us climb stairs after the race?

jcsmum

4 stars (good)

Craptacular wrote: »

Thanks for the pacing jcsmum. I stuck with you guys for 14.5 miles but then had to stop for ice cream. Found the last few miles very tough but latched onto another runner and we carried each other home in just under 3.20.

All very well organised but who's idea was it to make us climb stairs after the race?[/QUOTE]

Hate to have to tell you this, but there was a lift right beside the stairs!

jcsmum

4 stars (good)

career_move wrote: »

Fantastic race - definitely 5 stars from me Had such a good run. Finished quite strong in 3.06

Well done! Lovely to meet you yesterday.

bazman

Thanks to everyone who ran, in particular the pacers who did an amazing job.

Original provisional results were very difficult to read - updated here:
http://www.athlone3quarter.com/userfiles/2012Results.pdf

Final results will be posted very soon.

My run for anyone interested: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/231302255
Delighted to run - only made possible with the volume of helpers who arrived on the day.

belcarra

Congratulations on the win Barry and the event itself also!

career_move

4 stars (good)

jcsmum wrote: »

Well done! Lovely to meet you yesterday.

Likewise....thanks for the excellent pacing job yourself and Aimann did

dernipper

4 stars (good)

Really enjoyed yesterday, well organised, great facilities and nice surronds for a race, well done, it is very hard to find a fault with this event,,, will be back again next year !

Quote=career_move;81143151]

jcsmum wrote: »

Well done! Lovely to meet you yesterday.

Likewise....thanks for the excellent pacing job yourself and Aimann did [/Quote]

jcsmum

4 stars (good)

bazman wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who ran, in particular the pacers who did an amazing job.

Original provisional results were very difficult to read - updated here:
http://www.athlone3quarter.com/userfiles/2012Results.pdf

Final results will be posted very soon.

My run for anyone interested: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/231302255
Delighted to run - only made possible with the volume of helpers who arrived on the day.

belcarra wrote: »

Congratulations on the win Barry and the event itself also!

You won the race (I just assumed you were one of the organisers full stop! )Well done!

tunguska

Definitely echo all the positive comments, cant say a bad word about this race. My only complaint is in relation to 17.5miles to the finish.......mother of jesus that hill almost brought me to a standstill. Get rid of that hill and its a perfect race. Bloody good prep run for the marathon though, some tough stretches, but if you can run this at marathon pace you're bullett proof for dublin.

blockic

4 stars (good)

Was some hill alright, but Im actually glad it was there as it is perfect preperation for Dublin.

So keep it there I say!!

SnailsPace

3 stars (average)

Muppet Man wrote: »

SnailsPace wrote: »

... finished in 2:55, happy with that. That should give me a 4:15 DCM I reckon.

Well done! Good time on a tough course. Just a note that you finished the race at an average pace of 5 minutes 31 secs per KM... assuming you sustained the same consistent pace in Dublin, you would finish DCM in 3hrs 53 min 15 secs. Just saying

Unless you were totally dead when you finished, maybe think about running DCM with the 4 hour pacers.

Muppet Man

Thanks for that, im really unsure as to whether to give the 4hr a lash or not...

Recent Runs:
Dublin Port eco2run Race 15miler: 2hr 4mins
30k LSR Phoenix Park: 2hr 38m
Dublin Half Marathon 1hr 47m
DLR Bay 10k 48m

Being my 1st Marathon , im happy I could do 33k at 5:25perkm, but I have no doubt i will have to crawl the last 9k.

I think I would be more gutted with 4hrs 1min than a comfy 4hr 15???

bazman

SnailsPace wrote: »

Thanks for that, im really unsure as to whether to give the 4hr a lash or not...

Recent Runs:
Dublin Port eco2run Race 15miler: 2hr 4mins
30k LSR Phoenix Park: 2hr 38m
Dublin Half Marathon 1hr 47m
DLR Bay 10k 48m

Being my 1st Marathon , im happy I could do 33k at 5:25perkm, but I have no doubt i will have to crawl the last 9k.

I think I would be more gutted with 4hrs 1min than a comfy 4hr 15???

Look at this website: http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/calculator
Based on your eco2run 15 you've potential for well under 4 hour marathon. I'm not sure what your training is like, but based on this alone you should go for it

DublinDilbert

Great day out yesterday, well done all.

I enjoyed the course this year, hills and all. Also managed to save something for that final hill, wasn't going to beat me this year :-) happy to get around in 2:36.

Aimman

4 stars (good)

Thoroughly enjoyed doing the pacing. Everything went smoothly from registration, assemble for the start, accurately measured route and well stocked and manned food stations (I loved those big Strawberry sweets, I was tempted a half mile after the 16M water station to run back and get a couple more, ) We had a good crew of people with us all the way and they tackled the last hill well and pushed on for the last 1k to get in under the 3:10

Weather conditions was a bonus.

career_move

4 stars (good)

Love Love Love.........my t-shirt :D

opus

4 stars (good)

Was touch & go about running this as was struck down with a dose of man flu (ok a cold ) last week so only finally decided on Sat to give it a go. Ran it a bit slower than I'd planned but my lungs still insisted on producing industrial quantities of phlegm so lots of hacking & spitting etc. Hill at the end was tough going I must say! No ill-effects thankfully & the cold is almost gone today.

Very well organised race, nice course & fantastic stewarding so full marks from me!

Muppet Man

4 stars (good)

Well done Barry on the race win... did you take a short cut or something Reminds me of that episode of father ted where ted "organised" a raffle and says something along the lines of "Its not unusual for the organiser to win these raffles"... j/k

It was a truly great day out with great pacers. Personally, I loved the hill at 18 miles. Not sure what that says about my mentality. See ya next year for sure.