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BQ or Bust!
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That's great going in those conditions Murph, probably not what you were looking for but there's a marathon a week now for the rest of the summer so take your pick.
Make sure you hold hands at dinner with the gooseberry so he doesn't feel too awkward!
TbL0 -
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Mon 6 Jun
Cork City Marathon.
So this was an attempt at some Boston redemption. I trained quite well using P&D 7 week back to back marathon plan, although I never really got that champing at the bit feeling that you usually get in the couple of weeks prior to the race, so felt a bit flat going in. Not helped by some insomnia in the days leading up to this, then a pretty nightmare night in Cork where loud music from pub across the street was so annoying I actually tried to sleep on the bathroom floor to get a bit of peace.
Met up with Ferris and KennyG at start line. Introduced G to the 3:30 pacers and took up position a little past 3:15 group, with Ferris up ahead. We were underway after a 10 sec countdown with minimum fuss. Target pace was 7:42/m, which I’d adjusted from 7:34 to allow for an average temp of 18 degrees. (This was not conservative enough, as it happened.) So the idea was to try to “stay in the game”, as FBOT had put it the other day, as long as possible. London GFA (3:20) would be out the window at that pace, but a NY GFA (3:23) would still be on.
The first quarter, around the city centre and out to the Jack Lynch tunnel, went swimmingly enough, although the drag just before the descent into the tunnel took the first bit of a bite. Still in the game.
Miles 1-7: 7:32 7:38 7:45 7:42 7:49 7:47 7:51
Enjoyed the tunnel. Took advantage of the downhill and ran a good line through the gentle bends. The drag out of it was OK, then around the Mahon loop trouble free. Starting to feel warm. Identified a couple of runners who looked like they had similar targets and attached myself to a little group, but people started to fall away pretty quickly and by the time we hit the coast and a fresh cooling breeze in mile 13, I’d moved on to the next little group. The pace, however, was getting harder to maintain and already starting to drop. The game wasn’t over yet, but it might have to change.
Miles 8-13: 7:44 7:45 7:35 7:37 7:54 7:57 (Halfway: 1:42:29)
Through halfway over a minute behind schedule. The section along the railway line brought some welcome shade. Got past the half marathon merge point just before the HM leaders joined, so had a close up of Sergiu, Peter Somba et al. (No sign of Dublin Runner though
) Mrs. Ferris and the junior Bs were supporting in mile 17 and gave me a shout. They looked happy so I knew Ferris must have gone by looking comfortable. A couple of clubmates passed with the faster end of the HM field. One gave me an encouraging shout; the other was buried in headphones and didn’t notice me at all, I reckon. :rolleyes:
A 3:23 finish was starting to look like a tough prospect, with the hillier part of the course still to come. Still felt reasonably OK although the pace was definitely feeling a lot tougher. I should be able to hang on for 3:25 though, and a three or four-minute PB, surely? All I’d have to do is ship 8-minute miles from here to the finish. Mile 18, and the drag up the South Link was strength-sapping, though. I’d moved the goalposts, but this new game was going to be as hard as the old one. Especially as the course continued to climb gently up over the next couple of miles. Last year I hadn’t really noticed some of these drags, but they were really starting to take it out of me now.
Miles 14-20: 8:08 7:49 7:54 7:47 8:10 8:24 8:13
I hit the 20 mile mark at 2:37, more than three minutes outside the original goal, but still in the tiny-PB game. Mile 21 was pretty lumpy, but went to plan. Mile 22 had the last of the hills, and the Model Farm Road broke me. Couldn’t pick it up despite some downhill respite. Hit the “straight road” with only 5k to go, and I think I worked out I’d need to cover it in 23 minutes to have a chance. People were streaming past now, including a 3:30 pacer with a small group (no sign of KennyG, unfortunately). I tried to go with some of them but the legs wouldn’t respond, and neither would the head. I’d kept well hydrated but my brain was a bit fried. At mile 24 I knew the game was finally up and I did my best to enjoy the run in. I applauded a couple of aul lads playing some roadside Dixie jazz and encouraged some supporters at the Mardyke to give me a bigger shout. The last mile was much harder than my reccie yesterday (and just as slow!) Turned onto Patrick St at last and managed to muster up a bit of a finish, crossing the line in 3:32:27.
Miles 21-26.2: 8:12 8:36 8:32 8:57 9:22 9:15 (2:30)
Finish: 3:32:27
So three minutes outside my PB from the same race last year. I possibly should have dialled it back even more from the start and maybe gone with the 3:30 group, but I was here to give the 3:22-ish goal another shot. The conditions were a lot tougher than last year, I think. It’s my second best marathon time to date, and in many ways much harder earned than last year’s PB, with no pacers to follow, a hotter day and a less than ideal build-up. I lost the game, but it was reasonably well played: steady enough first half, and improved from 209th to 195th position in the second half, despite the slowdown. If you have a weakness, the marathon invariably finds it and turns the knife, but I fared better than many. Managed a M55 podium. The 50 quid prize will be the first thing I’ve won for a run since I managed a bronze medal in some Phoenix Park sprint race when I was about 13.
Met Ferris in the finish area, glowing after a great result. We waited around for a while to see if KennyG and Anna would come in. Ferris tactfully told me I was looking a bit grey and gave me his space blanket and I headed back to the hotel. A appeared soon after me, happy enough with her half marathon training run, which was a good result for her after being out of sorts of late. G gave us a bit of a scare, taking a while to appear, but thankfully he turned up eventually in one piece. No doubt he will tell all about it on his log. A nice few pints in the hotel and The Sextant afterwards, then dinner in Market Lane, and finally, after nearly a week, a decent night’s sleep at last.
5k splits (target 23:55)
23:48 24:12 24:18 24:05
24:34 25:15 26:39 26:37 (12:57)
Previous PB: 3:29:16 (Cork 2015)
Target: 3:22:59
Official time: 3:32:27
195th (of 1,110) posn. 3rd M55 (of 24). Age grade: 67.5% VDOT: 45.3.
Verdict: Happy enough: better than time and collapse suggests.
WTD: 42k (26m)
MTD: 73 (45)
YTD: 1,447 (899)0 -
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