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Eye of the Tiger Beer.
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There will be a proper race report, however I ran 2:55:27 today, which still feels like a bit of a WTF and a bit OMFG.
1st half: 1:28:00 (at the time, the 2nd fastest half I've ever done)
2nd half: 1:27:27 (6 second HM PB
)
The last few miles were no fun. I slowed down a good bit and suffered a good deal. I didn't run as disciplined a race as I should have, zero miles were over 7:00. I got caught up in the crowds a bit, and probably paid for it. However I got to run with Krusty, dressed as Krusty which is an amazing way to spend part of a marathon. I smiled a good bit on the course but put my head down a lot towards the end as it was very hard. Nothing went very wrong and I think I ran the best time I could have on the day. I'm still trying to get my head around what happened 0 -
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OOnegative wrote: »Any chance of a Kipchogesque report ala Berlin last year......
The report is on the way, but it's pretty boring so far.
"I trained for a time, ran at that pace, got tired near the end and was happy when I finished. The end" 0 -
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An epic race report should have something deep and meaningful in it, right? A marathon race report is an opportune right moment to reflect on life’s bigger concerns other than whatever pace a session was run at and what podcast was being listened to on an easy run. Why run at all? What does it mean? I know that it’s good for me physically, socially and mentally but I don’t really have any answers to the existential questions. I do have a load of boring detail to write about the best race of my running career though, so I’ll just write all that up. There was a bit of emotion before and after the race but unfortunately for the narrative of this race report the race itself wasn’t very dramatic, although it was in the magnificent setting of DCM.
This year I found myself for the first time with a set of race results that indicated that a sub-3 marathon was achievable and so I committed to going for it. Running a lot of miles and running the sessions from a half-decent plan at 2:55 pace seemed both achievable and the conservative way to go about going under 3 hours. Despite running relatively a lot of miles, my race times at 5k/10k have always been better than longer distances and this year was pretty much all 5k/10k type training. Tempo running was probably a weakness for me, and the Hanson plan seemed relentlessly focussed on this. The book and related blog posts provided enough wiggle room for commutes, extra miles etc. (though not occasional fast-ish parkruns ). I did obsess a lot over the marathon for the last few months, which was good for motivation but probably bad for my stress levels. Bloody marathons.
The preamble
I got very little sleep the night before. I couldn’t stop thinking about the marathon which got the adrenaline going and as time passed I was getting even more stressed about still being awake. I think I last looked at the clock after 3AM, and that’s after the clock went back. My alarm went off at 6AM but I was already awake, so less than 3 hours sleep which is far from ideal but whatever.
I gave the kids breakfast, threw a couple of cans of beer into my bag, had a bowl of muesli, drank some fruit juice and had a beetroot shot. My taxi arrived just before 7, dropping me off at College Green. I love the buzz around town on marathon morning. I put on some Godspeed! You Black Emperor, walked up Grafton St. and started to get a little emotional. Thankfully I then met crockmac who had just hopped off the Luas. A couple of coffees were procured at Starbucks and we strolled over to an office building on the other side of Fitzwilliam Square where Crusaders and runners from Bray congregate. I met nop98 there and we exchanged well wishes and took a selfie After the obligatory club photo on the steps outside the building,I did a brief enough warmup with crockmac, which was just a slow km before heading to the pen and then a another two minutes of at the side of Fitzwilliam Square in wave 1. It wasn’t really much of a wamup but I didn’t want my legs to be completely cold at the start.
I shuffled up kind of beside the 3:10 pacers but a bit behind the 3:00 pacers. I took my first ever Maurten gel just before the start, it was a little weird and chewy but no problems going down. Off went all of my sacrificial clothing items a good few minutes before the start as it wasn’t as cold as I was expecting.
The amble: (6:43, 6:51, 6:58, 6:49, 6:48, 6:45, 6:44)
It was unsurprisingly pretty busy and it was difficult to not get dragged along by the crowd. Running the racing line was not realistic for the first few miles, though I did avoid jumping around the place. I had the strange sensation of realising “I am actually running a marathon” and “I am actually running *THE* marathon that I’ve trained so much for”, and it was a bit surreal. I took a bottle at the first water station and drank it all. Soon after I met a guy from Rivervalley parkrun on the North Circular Road, pretty much the same place as I meant him last year. We chatted for a bit but parted ways on Chesterfield, as I was running a different line to him. He was targeting around 3:05 and was noting that the 3 hour pacers seemed to be fast. I got a few shouts on Chesterfield including from aquinn and a few club folks. From the first few miles my watch was already over 0.1 miles out from the official mile markers, I put it down to GPS madness but could have also been due to running long thanks to the crowds. I shoved another gel into me on Chesterfield, a Gu Double Expresso thing which was like eating a chewable coffee jelly. There were three sub-3 pacers ahead of me, the two running together were pulling off a good bit into the distance and one was a lot closer to me. As always, the atmosphere going through Castleknock was amazing, you get to feel like a real sports star for a minute and you’re still feeling good enough to enjoy it! I caught up with James and Catherine from the club just after Myos and we had a brief chat before I moved on. I knew they were both also going for sub-3 and were well positioned but I was running my own race and made no excuses when I moved on ahead.
Klowning around (6:31, 6:32, 6:22, 6:48, 6:28, 6:36)
I naturally sped up on the way back down into the park, but effort levels remained constant. I noticed that there was a guy in fancy dress just ahead of me. Really? What sort of joker has gone out at sub-3 pace in a clown costume, no doubt about blow up in any moment? Hmm, that looks like a Simpsons costume? IT’S KRUSTY_CLOWN!!! Instantly recalling that Krusty had posted on the DCM thread that he was gonna run around 3 hours and enjoy it, I put two and two together. I made my way over and reintroduced myself (I had chatted to him once a few years ago in McGrattans after my DCM 2016 DNF) and we had a bit of chit chat. He said some very nice and positive things about my sub-3 chances at the time, which may or may not have been true but coming from Krusty during the marathon gave me a good boost
Generally though things remained fairly focussed and boring. I had to remind myself to look over the city skyline when running through the park. The effort level was locked in, and it was just a case of running the miles. I worked my way through the group with the lone 3:00 pacer and started to slowly play catchup to the group of two. Back on the Southside now, I slowed things down to a laughable pace going up the two hills under the bypass and rail line content to see everybody stream plod on past me. The support at Kilmainham was sensational and I was smiling a lot from there until after the canal. I was moving well and easily catching up to the pacers, and reckoned I’d pass them out by half-way as vaguely planned though I knew that they were going reasonably fast. Going up the Crumlin Road had a bit of wind in our faces so I was happy to hide in a group for a while. As we made it to half way the clock had 1:28:30 or so on it, though in reality my time was actually 1:28. A bit faster than I’d planned but I didn’t feel like I had done any damage for now. Some fatigue was starting to kick in and I realised that I was already well over what I had done at MP in training but felt nowhere near what I felt towards the end of those sessions. Maybe that training plan was on to something with emphasising running at MP when fatigued as a good way to train for a marathon.
Movin’ on up: (6:48, 6:35, 6:29, 6:31, 6:28, 6:27, 6:33)
Time to move into nosebleed territory, past the fastest pacers. Maybe it was because I was working hard and being all serious and stuff, but things felt a lot more focussed up here. I guess there were club women running for decent scoring positions and maybe more at stake. The crowds seemed to get a bit quieter the further I moved up, I guess the pace groups raise the atmosphere though there were fellow runners encouraging the crowd from time to time. The drag after half way was noticeable and I slowed down a bit, but once it was done with I clicked back into sub-6:40 pace without having to push things too hard. Around mile 16 effort levels started to noticeably rise, it was no longer as easy but I still wasn’t planning on slowing down as I wanted to take advantage of the few remaining faster miles. I was giving occasional shout outs to other runners who were running strong and did run with short lived groups but was generally hopping from group to group. At one stage a kid had a hand stuck out and I thought it was for a high five so I smashed my hand off of his, hurtling a jelly that was actually being generously tendered into oblivion. I was continuing to take water in at every station, and was munching a few “Margarita” flavour with electrolytes Clif Shot Bloks. Around mile 17 I took a caffeinated Maurten gel which went down easily which was basically the last fuel I took onboard (other than some Lucozade Sport at mile 22 which was spilled all over the place). It was great getting on to the road alongside Bushy Park which is just fabulous to run on with a nice downhill, but also soon afterwards I was on familiar territory and getting ready to attack the end. I’d stuck “2:07” in my head as being a safe time to go over the 30k timing mat at, so going over it in 2:05 an a bit meant that I knew that I was ahead of target. Honestly my math on the course was pretty dreadful, I wasn’t paying much attention to paces or figuring out where I was at. You’d think that with all the obsessing about the marathon that when running I’d be all over this, but I never bothered looking at the 3:00 paceband while running and just kind of focussed on… well, not thinking about much at all really.
The end game: (6:35, 6:46, 6:36, 6:43, 6:49, 6:59, (6:30 pace))
Not only was I tired, I was starting to get sore. I had some pain in my right quad which was grinding any positivity away. I wasn’t watch watching, more keeping myself in check with the runners around me, generally I had been moving through the field though this was starting to slow down. The splits look way better than they felt at the time, I was pretty much resigned to just trying to run at sub-3 pace and not bleeding any buffer time away. Coming up through Clonskeagh I made a move across a Raheny runner to keep on the racing line and got briefly given out to. It was probably a bit close, and everybody was getting tired. I apologised a couple of times and we ran beside each other along with some brief motivational chit-chat for a bit so I think we were friends by the end of it. Roebuck mountain was a fun bump that signified the end of the annoying minor hills. The downhill wasn’t great though as my quads were sore, so there was no massive speed up. As we got closer back to the city centre there were increasing numbers of Crusaders supporters so got more and more shouts which by now was very appreciated. Some negative thoughts started to pop up: Slow down to easy pace! Why not stop and take a break? The leg pain was causing a bit of suffering, I was able to recognise it a bit for what it was, but it was an tough, weary battle and I was starting to go downhill. Still though, it was hard not to occasionally smile and I started to get more shouts from club members including a particularly enthusiastic encouraging me to battle for every position as it was a championship race. Slowly, the end came closer and as the finishing gantry became visible I was able to pick things up a bit. I even got into the spirit of things and did some ludicrous arm waving and shouting. The clock was well under 3. I’d visualised this a lot so it was worth celebrating the moment and nobody would judge me for making an eejit out of myself
Mid-2:55, jaysus. I didn’t run any surprisingly fast miles, I ran what I trained for, but it was still around the threshold of what I thought I could run. There was a fade towards the end which was disappointing but not a total disaster.
The postamble
Finishing a marathon is pretty surreal. Going from a singular focus at maximum intensity to nothing is like… now what? That’s it? You can’t anticipate the exhaustion and emptyness that occurs at the end before you recover from the race. There were plenty of smiles as I creaked my way up to the medal and had a few euphoric chats with strangers as if we were all on MDMA. I popped back over to the Cru building, got dressed and got my stuff together and then ended up drinking my cans of beer and some champagne out of paper cups with another club mate and his other half. I had a pint with some club folk before heading off to McGrattans where I was kind of drunk, but at least I remembered to eat this time. It was fun keeping up with the reaction on Strava etc. After I got home I couldn’t go to sleep until quite late as I was still quite wired.
The day after
My right quad remains quite sore, I’ve got a blood blister on one of my left toes and my right elbow is aching. There are other aches and pains, but I’ve been far worse in the past, especially after races like Run The Line. I might try a jog tomorrow or Wednesday and see what happens. I’m utterly thrilled with how it went and even though it was actually kind of boring and executional it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I probably could have run a little bit more conservatively and that could have made a difference towards the end, so maybe there were 30 seconds more that could have been squeezed out on the day. Pain management is hard though, and not something I really dealt with on the training plan. It doesn't help that my last race was way back in May! Still a good return on the training overall.
I plan to spend the next few years telling people the way to run 2:55 involves doing loads of slow running in and around 9:00 pace. Future novices and sub-3 prospects will be sick of me bringing this up!
The boring stuff
Here’s my race by the numbers. That damn 40k timing mat exposes some serious time bleeding!
Distance|Time|Position|Predicted finish
10k|42:42|911|3:00:09
20k|01:23:39| 639|2:56:28
Half|01:28:00|625|2:56:00
30k|02:04:37|450|2:55:16
40k|02:45:54|389|2:55:00
Finish|02:55:27|397
Fuel wise, I had a bottle of Lucozade Sport finishing it around 45 minutes before the race. Then a gel before the start, a gel at 5 miles, half a pack of Bloks and another Maurten gel. I picked up water at most stations but didn’t bother from mile 17 or so. I had a mouthful of Lucozade Sport when given out on the course but didn’t slow down and it mostly ended up all over me. I ended up with three gels and half a pack of Bloks uneaten at the end, but I could also feel the sugar just sitting in my stomach and didn’t feel that topping it up would be useful. Last year I threw up a load of undigested gel gloop at the end of DCM so most of my eating was ineffective. I’m not gonna go full Enduro but in future I’ll probably stick to a minimal gel intake, and the Maurten ones seem like good candidates for this.
Thank you
Even though the vast majority of running that I do is solitary and mostly as boring commutes, it enables me engage into various communities (parkrun, Crusaders and here) is an essential part of my identity these days. I’m not competitive or anything, but as a hobby it’s very fulfilling. Of those communities, this one is the most influential and meaningful to me. I couldn’t have run anything like this without you all (including many former posters who will never read this), so thank you. This community is great to be part of. It changes, of course, but that's life. I wouldn't be half the runner I am without it.
Finally
Ever since I read TFB’s first sub-3 race report many years ago, I’ve always wanted to write this.
When I was brushing my teeth this morning, I looked into the mirror and saw a sub-3 marathon runner looking back at me :cool:0 -
Epic! Many many congrats (and many more). I've read that TFB blog too, and have fantasised about one day being able to use that quote - great that you got to actually do so!
Having done that lunch run with you last week, I was pretty confident you'd pull it off - mainly from how zen you seemed about the whole thing. Your report confirms that. DOn't see any anxiety in there at all. Truly, you 'backed yourself' and the odds were right this year. Congrats (again)!
And look after that elbow! Hope it's not sore from shoving Raheny lads out of the way. 0 -
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Super report B and not a bad run either. I'm delighted for you, you give so much to this community with your support to other runners, advice and warts and all reports. It's great to see that all your hard work and dogged determination paid off. Congratulations
Does jcs sell beetroot Juice? 0 -
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