Dublin Marathon 2012 - Mentored Novices Thread

RedRunner

rasher_m wrote: »

I read somewhere on here that the first half is supposed to be harder than the second half which didn't seem that bad. But from reading about Clonskeagh and Roebuck road it sounds like the second half is harder,

Hills- wise I thought the first half last year was harder. But when you get to the hills in second half you have less energy inthe tank to deal with them so they may seem harder but actually are not in comparison IMO. The long drag up Crumlin Rd I would say is worse than Clonskeagh so best to conserve energy there and save it till later.

Deedee2012

ncmc wrote: »

Was anyone listening to Roisin Ingle on Ray D’Arcy? She is walking the marathon; they were talking about Heartbreak Hill aka Roebuck Road. I made the mistake of looking at the video of the route and forwarding to mile 20…. Christ on a bike, I’m after scaring the crap out of myself! That hill looks long and brutal :eek: I envy the people who have been able to do their training along the route; at least they know what they’re dealing with. That’s the big disadvantage to not living close to the route.

God between nightmare hills and possible explosive diarrhoea, I’m beginning to wonder what I’ve signed myself up for !

The hill is not that bad at all, its not that long either. if you ran it any day other than during the marathon you wouldn't give it a second thought. I think the problem is purely that its at a point you'll be tired, there's a great long downhill after it, keep that in mind to get you to the top.

LarMan

I've run the entire route but on two different days, my experience would say that the long drag up Crumlin was difficult and I felt really tired even though you would have to look at garmin data to realise you are going uphill:rolleyes:

I did the second half of the route including going up Clonskeagh hill twice. The first time I was relatively fresh as I had only done 10K and it was no problem at all. The second time around I was at 20KM and it still was not too bad.

However we hit it at about 30KM during the marathon and I imagine it will be tough given the distance we will have covered.

As a comparison going up Upper glen road is a much tougher climb IMO

RunningKing

agree Larman.
I've done some hill work on the Kyber too as well as Furry Glen to tame the Roebuck beast.

Still, betcha I'll be cursing it on the day!

dechol

zefer wrote: »

Am I the only one having weird dreams?? Come on people, share!

Had one about MarthaStew last night (Well about the username at least!)

In the dream, I was at someone's pc in work and they had boards open and were posting under the name "MarthaStew". But u person was a man in the dream, so I didnt believe it was the same person pacing the 4.15, so I decided to wait until marthon day to see if it was the same person. And I'm not sure what happened as I woke up then
Very strange!

ps. I am only assuming MarthaStew is a woman...

I have had a few dreams all of them with me finishing in three hours fifteen. Fast pace for me is eleven min mile but I am an elite in my dreams. Last dream: I had no babysitter so I panicked a bit but then just strapped my two stone one year son to me and headed off & still finished in 3.15!

sureitsgrand

All this talk of hills!

Could anyone who has done both tell whether they think Athlone or Dublin was tougher hill-wise?

Strictly speaking there wasn't too many hills in Athlone (other than the last bit!), but the undulating nature of it took a toll on me...Up and down, up and down, up and down!

Runchick

irlirishkev wrote: »

I haven't enjoyed my taper so far. Pulled a muscle something terrible during my 12 on Saturday. Been resting up since then. Heading out now for a gentle 3 or 4. Fingers crossed.

Good luck irlirishkev

Runchick

All the crazy talk on here of dreaming about DCM and I was thinking you're all a bunch of headcases ...until last night that is...so I ran the thing in 4.29 thinking I was great but then was told I had to do another 10 miles as a charity run and couldn't get out of it...all very strange indeed Taper madness is alive and well

KillianByrne

ncmc wrote: »

Was anyone listening to Roisin Ingle on Ray D’Arcy? She is walking the marathon; they were talking about Heartbreak Hill aka Roebuck Road. I made the mistake of looking at the video of the route and forwarding to mile 20…. Christ on a bike, I’m after scaring the crap out of myself! That hill looks long and brutal :eek: I envy the people who have been able to do their training along the route; at least they know what they’re dealing with. That’s the big disadvantage to not living close to the route.
!

I am lucky to live close to both Clonskeagh & Roebuck and have run them a couple of times in training. Neither are more than 100m long and Clonskeagh is not bad at all; Roebuck is steeper but given it is not that long it is not as daunting as made out.

If you(or anyone) did the race series, I would put any of the hills in the Phoenix Park as more difficult. Roebuck is followed by a long downhill of nearly 1/2 a mile down Foster Avenue so bear that in mind when facing it from the bottom.

There's a real sense of 'nearly there' when heading down Foster Ave, going left onto the Stillorgan Rd is a real turn for home.

pistol_75

sureitsgrand wrote: »

All this talk of hills!

Could anyone who has done both tell whether they think Athlone or Dublin was tougher hill-wise?

Strictly speaking there wasn't too many hills in Athlone (other than the last bit!), but the undulating nature of it took a toll on me...Up and down, up and down, up and down!

The undulations in Athlone are definitly harder on the legs. There is a lot of flat sections in Dublin and also downhill which people of course are not mentioning. Even the downhills in Athlone were undulating in spots.

overpronator

Ok, did a 22 mile LSR two weekends ago with no problems but could only get one run in the following week due to terrible ITB, got a 14 in last weekend and again it was fine but im laid up all this week with sore knees, had to abandon a 5 miler on Thusday, first time ever. I have physio planned this weekend and will be foam rolling myself into oblivion but Im probably realistically only gonna get one or maybe 2 runs in between now and the marathon, how is this gonna impact me? Was going to run with the 3.45 lads and was confident I could keep that pace but assuming I get to the line fit would I be better off easing back 20-30s and running my own race? This taper madness coupled with injury isn't good for your mental health!!

Gavlor

overpronator wrote: »

Ok, did a 22 mile LSR two weekends ago with no problems but could only get one run in the following week due to terrible ITB, got a 14 in last weekend and again it was fine but im laid up all this week with sore knees, had to abandon a 5 miler on Thusday, first time ever. I have physio planned this weekend and will be foam rolling myself into oblivion but Im probably realistically only gonna get one or maybe 2 runs in between now and the marathon, how is this gonna impact me? Was going to run with the 3.45 lads and was confident I could keep that pace but assuming I get to the line fit would I be better off easing back 20-30s and running my own race? This taper madness coupled with injury isn't good for your mental health!!

You're not going to gain/lose any fitness over the last 2 weeks before a marathon. If I were you I'd stick to the plan and go with the 3.45's. I'd also recommend bringing some neurofen with you incase the itbs flares up during the marathon. If you're planning on continuing running then you should make sure to do some bike work as cross training. it's helped me a lot with the itbs and I haven't suffered from it for a couple of years.

curr33

Ok it wasn't taper madness all last week when I could feel a sore throat/cold coming on. I now officially have a cold today so am skipping the 3 miler and will hopefully be fine by Saturday. Off to get oranges, grapefruits, echinacea and more vitamin C

On a more positive note, apparently my replacement Garmin arrived at work, exactly a week after I sent mine off. They must have taken pity on me

overpronator

Gavlor wrote: »

You're not going to gain/lose any fitness over the last 2 weeks before a marathon. If I were you I'd stick to the plan and go with the 3.45's. I'd also recommend bringing some neurofen with you incase the itbs flares up during the marathon. If you're planning on continuing running then you should make sure to do some bike work as cross training. it's helped me a lot with the itbs and I haven't suffered from it for a couple of years.

I do have some Spanish horse tranquilizer grade ibuprophen in the house and its brilliant stuff, I'll keep that in mind, might be risky to try it on race day but I'll have it as a last resort. I'll just concentrate on making it to the start line from now, and yeah I'll look into the bike work too as I plan to keep the running up. Cheers.

upthe19th

No weird dreams as yet but I'm waking in the middle of the night and not getting back to sleep at all. Really starting to take its toll at the moment. I was tired as it was, but seriously tired now. Any suggestions on how to break the cycle?

Eating everything in sight, especially sweet stuff.

lrak

upthe19th wrote: »

No weird dreams as yet but I'm waking in the middle of the night and not getting back to sleep at all. Really starting to take its toll at the moment. I was tired as it was, but seriously tired now. Any suggestions on how to break the cycle?

Eating everything in sight, especially sweet stuff.

I was recommended taking Kalms natural sleep tablets by my Dr, which I have taken occasionally and before the half and some of my LSR and they really helped me sleep with No side effects. May not be for everyone but they worked for me, really helped me to chill out and not stress before runs.

On food front, can't resist a Yorkie but eating peanuts, bananas and hazelnut yogs to beat the band

lrak

curr33 wrote: »

Ok it wasn't taper madness all last week when I could feel a sore throat/cold coming on. I now officially have a cold today so am skipping the 3 miler and will hopefully be fine by Saturday. Off to get oranges, grapefruits, echinacea and more vitamin C

On a more positive note, apparently my replacement Garmin arrived at work, exactly a week after I sent mine off. They must have taken pity on me

That's great Cur33, mind it before the marathon, my 3rd 110 died on me during the week and I eventually upgraded to a 210. Hopefully I won't jinx thus one !

Pacing Mule

Got up today and could feel a big difference in the right calf. Well done physio ! Left leg still sore but an improvment is an improvement !

Decided to run home from work today. 8.5km total distance. My thought process was to see how the legs held up running at marathon pace. I set off determined to run the entire distance without stopping. It was important to me psychologically to do this ahead of the marathon so that I could feel somewhat prepared and fit On the way back about 6k in there is a hill of Clonskeagh proportions too so it was a bit of a test I had set myself up for.

So I set off determined to break through whatever pain and out of breath barrier I needed to break through to get the job done. Turned out though that there wasn't much of a barrier to break through. Yes the left leg was sore, yes the hill was steep, yes it was my first run over 2k without stopping in a month but it didn't feel like a great effort to make it home. In fact there were brief glimpses of running bliss - where there was no pain at all and everything felt very very comfortable - dare I say it even enjoyable. Turned out to be a fraction slower than 5 hour marathon pace but that's the least of my concerns at the moment. I made it home in one piece and had an hour on my feet non stop. Happy days.

As a comic aside - about 2k from home I had an enormous build up of wind. Don't know how or where it came from but all I could think about was menoscemos pic earlier in the thread and I was afraid to let it out. Running on a wind filled stomach is not fun.

New runner

upthe19th wrote: »

No weird dreams as yet but I'm waking in the middle of the night and not getting back to sleep at all. Really starting to take its toll at the moment. I was tired as it was, but seriously tired now. Any suggestions on how to break the cycle?

Eating everything in sight, especially sweet stuff.

I'm with u on both counts, keep waking very early, awake before 5am this morn n tossed n turned n didn't sleep again grrrrr!! Eating n craving so much surgery stuff!!

SnailsPace

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Got up today and could feel a big difference in the right calf. Well done physio ! Left leg still sore but an improvment is an improvement !

Decided to run home from work today. 8.5km total distance. My thought process was to see how the legs ....

As a comic aside - about 2k from home I had an enormous build up of wind. Don't know how or where it came from but all I could think about was menoscemos pic earlier in the thread and I was afraid to let it out. Running on a wind filled stomach is not fun.

God, im going to miss your posts, only 10 days to go PM, I might see you in the Maldron, although I still think if I cannot figure out a way of getting porridge with milk, I'll be staying at home. 1st world problems, eh?

blockic

SnailsPace wrote: »

God, im going to miss your posts, only 10 days to go PM, I might see you in the Maldron, although I st ill think if I cannot figure out a way of getting porridge with milk, I'll be staying at home. 1st world problems, eh?

yeah, im staying at maldron as well but will be looking for porridge with milk too!! if you think of anything let me know!!

Pacing Mule

SnailsPace wrote: »

God, im going to miss your posts, only 10 days to go PM, I might see you in the Maldron, although I still think if I cannot figure out a way of getting porridge with milk, I'll be staying at home. 1st world problems, eh?

Ha ok my suggestions ...

Use water (kettle in room) instead of or as part substitute for milk. I find water and honey with some milk delicious. You could heat water and add some cold milk.

Boil water and put baby's bottle of milk in it.
It will heat the milk.

Bring a microwave with you - extreme yes but hey first world answer

Or order hot milk from room service.

career_move

Thats great news PM Its amazing how the fitness stays with you even when you're out of action. Hopefully you'll have no more set backs. Remember you're tapering though.....don't want to wreck all the good work by doing too much

SnailsPace

Honestly, I am planning on bringing the microwave, just have not found a big enough bag to disguise it, as I would be mortified walking through reception.

Should be some craic carrying that out to the car after 42k.

SnailsPace

We can have a porridge party in my room at 645am. 😴😴

career_move

SnailsPace wrote: »

We can have a porridge party in my room at 645am. 😴😴

Is that not a bit late if the race is at 9? I was going to have brekkie at 6

ncmc

Is there no porridge in the hotel? I'm staying in the Ballsbridge Hotel and I was wondering about the porridge situation too, was going to email them and ask, but I was worried they'd think I was a crack pot! I'm going to ask when I'm checking in and if they don't have it, I'll buy a bag and ask them to prepare a bowl. I'm sure they would under the circumstances.

I plan to eat breakfast at 7am. For all my LSR's, I've eaten breakfast 1 and 1/2 - 2 hours before running. Any earlier and I'd be worried I'd be famished half way through the race. Haven't had any ill effects so far - touch wood my luck will hold!

career_move

I'm staying in Ballsbridge as well but in the Sandymount Hotel.Maybe we could share a taxi to the start Monday morning?

blockic

career_move wrote: »

Is that not a bit late if the race is at 9? I was going to have brekkie at 6

Nah, ive tried and tested 2 hours before. Everyone is different I suppose!

blockic

career_move wrote: »

I'm staying in Ballsbridge as well but in the Sandymount Hotel.Maybe we could share a taxi to the start Monday morning?

Taxi??? are you not going to run in as a warm up?

Perfect distance! :-D