Dublin City Marathon 2015

average_runner

Notwork Error wrote: »

+1

The humidity early had me feeling a lot rougher than I should've going through the Phoenix park but a combination of the wind and trying to force the pace and stay on target just after halfway was the final nail in the coffin when I really should have backed off and let the effort do the talking. I've never seen so many people walking just after halfway, a good 30-40 runners who were targeting sub-3 or faster all stopped on the side of the road at 14 miles.

Round number chasing is the single biggest cause of blowing up for marathon runners, trying to eek out that little bit extra and getting obsessed with pace no matter what the conditions are.

It's also a tougher course, clonskeagh hill comes later into it and the first half is now tougher.

Don't think it's possible to get a flat marathon in Dublin

vanderlyle

annapr wrote: »

I did this stretch today... it's not as steep as the drag up from Parkgate st through the main gate of the Park, but there is a noticeable drag for sure and both Manor St and Aughrim st are narrow and likely to be congested I would think... and the left turn onto Aughrim St is quite sharp.

The highest point in the first 8-9 miles is just beyond Myo's in Castleknock, right after the left turn towards Chapelizod.... so all through the park is net uphill. But then there's the lovely downhill from Tower Road to Chapelizod Gate. That's as far as I got today!

I went up that manor st stretch today too anna. I'd add that when you get to the gate of the park at the North Circular Road, you're climbing again for almost another half mile along North Road until the turn right.

The drag from the gate at the end of Chesterfield up to Castleknock is a nasty one, so you're not over the worst when you get out of the park.

annapr

vanderlyle wrote: »

I went up that manor st stretch today too anna. I'd add that when you get to the gate of the park at the North Circular Road, you're climbing again for almost another half mile along North Road until the turn right.

The drag from the gate at the end of Chesterfield up to Castleknock is a nasty one, so you're not over the worst when you get out of the park.

I'm sure Manor St has never seen so many runners

and shouldn't that be a turn left off North Rd (and eventually right onto Chesterfield)?

I found that stretch from the park gate to Myo's endless last year, now I know why!

vanderlyle

annapr wrote: »

and shouldn't that be a turn left off North Rd (and eventually right onto Chesterfield)?

Oops, meant my other right

Downtime

vanderlyle wrote: »

I went up that manor st stretch today too anna. I'd add that when you get to the gate of the park at the North Circular Road, you're climbing again for almost another half mile along North Road until the turn right.

The drag from the gate at the end of Chesterfield up to Castleknock is a nasty one, so you're not over the worst when you get out of the park.

I did the same last night. Between Blackhall Place and the top of the park (Castleknock gate) there is only a 40m elevation gain, with the high gain being between Manor Street and North Circular. Once you get inside the gate of the park the elevation gain is only about 20 metre over 2 miles. Plus it is early on in the race so wont be very noticeable. I'd be more worried about Milltown to Fosters Avenue.

annapr

Downtime wrote: »

I did the same last night. Between Blackhall Place and the top of the park (Castleknock gate) there is only a 40m elevation gain, with the high gain being between Manor Street and North Circular. Once you get inside the gate of the park the elevation gain is only about 20 metre over 2 miles. Plus it is early on in the race so wont be very noticeable. I'd be more worried about Milltown to Fosters Avenue.

looking at strava and garmin, it's about 60m gain to Castleknock from Manor St (from 11m to 72m at highest point). It's not bad, just a steady drag, and not at the tough end of the race... hopefully!

chinguetti

The problem I thought last year was a combination of things; the wind, the heat and people didn't pace themselves right. The weather you can do nothing about but the pace you can.

I entered the Park besides two lads that I chatted along to as we ran along the Quays. They both asked me for local knowledge about the course. I told them they're a drag all the way up the Park and along Crumlin and the wind would be tough at these points. No.1 thanked me and tore off at the Zoo and was soon out of sight, the other stuck with me and I laughed and said that No.1 was a fool.

No.1 finished an hour after me, the other guy finished 5 minutes after me. I passed roughly 1,200 runners from halfway to the line and had a 20 seconds positive split.

After 5 marathons, I learned how to pace things right cause I'd done it wrong the previous 4 times.

rom

Signup closing in 2 hours.

dintbo

I'm running again this year, but going by a different plan for me. I'm using Hanson where the long run maxes out at 16 miles (though I did a 16.5 due to a route fook-up). Hoping sensible pacing and relatively fresh legs might bring me in under 3:30.

Outside

dintbo wrote: »

I'm running again this year, but going by a different plan for me. I'm using Hanson where the long run maxes out at 16 miles (though I did a 16.5 due to a route fook-up). Hoping sensible pacing and relatively fresh legs might bring me in under 3:30.

Don't know much of this Hanson training but 16 mi max long run? I thought my Jack Daniels 20 mi max was bad?! Obviously a tried and tested plan right?

Beef

Signed up months ago and this will be my 3rd marathon. It will be my first in Dublin though so I'm really looking forward to it. I don't really want to taper though, I'm enjoying the training and I always go fuc*king nuts!

Notwork Error

Outside wrote: »

Don't know much of this Hanson training but 16 mi max long run? I thought my Jack Daniels 20 mi max was bad?! Obviously a tried and tested plan right?

Same method as the Hanson-Brooks elite training group or whatever they call themselves now use. Personally, I wouldn't be confident without 20+ under my belt but it works for some people, most notably on boards, aero2k has had good success with it. the plan is more in line with using cumulative fatigue and intensity to get a training effect rather than the major focus being on a long slow run.

dintbo

It's very much an experiment which could go horribly wrong. I've already run a marathon time I'm happy with this year so I thought I'd try something different. 16 is scarily short, but it has worked for a lot of people. I guess I was just curious to see if it could work for me!

My pb from Cork this year came from a P&D 55-70 cycle so I'll go back to that next year if this goes badly!

Outside

dintbo wrote: »

It's very much an experiment which could go horribly wrong. I've already run a marathon time I'm happy with this year so I thought I'd try something different. 16 is scarily short, but it has worked for a lot of people. I guess I was just curious to see if it could work for me!

My pb from Cork this year came from a P&D 55-70 cycle so I'll go back to that next year if this goes badly!

Interesting! I suppose having a good base anyway and a relatively recent marathon will stand to you, obviously not a beginner plan. Looking forward to seeing how it goes, more than one way to skin a cat! Good luck!

Bez Bing

dintbo wrote: »

It's very much an experiment which could go horribly wrong. I've already run a marathon time I'm happy with this year so I thought I'd try something different. 16 is scarily short, but it has worked for a lot of people. I guess I was just curious to see if it could work for me!

My pb from Cork this year came from a P&D 55-70 cycle so I'll go back to that next year if this goes badly!

Very interested to hear this goes. Definitely believe there is more than one way to skin a cat but only doing a 16m long run would scare the bejasus out of me. Best of luck.

robinph

Bez Bing wrote: »

Very interested to hear this goes. Definitely believe there is more than one way to skin a cat but only doing a 16m long run would scare the bejasus out of me. Best of luck.

It is definitely possible, but I'd not recommend it if you can fit in more miles. I did just scrape a sub three from very minimal miles and about 35 a week max, with possibly only one 18 mile run in addition to several other 16ish.

Not a good idea though and far easier with more miles.

Bez Bing

robinph wrote: »

It is definitely possible, but I'd not recommend it if you can fit in more miles. I did just scrape a sub three from very minimal miles and about 35 a week max, with possibly only one 18 mile run in addition to several other 16ish.

Not a good idea though and far easier with more miles.

Yeah I'd imagine this would only be possible after a couple of marathon cycles and a decent endurance base.

dintbo

Outside wrote: »

Interesting! I suppose having a good base anyway and a relatively recent marathon will stand to you, obviously not a beginner plan. Looking forward to seeing how it goes, more than one way to skin a cat! Good luck!

Bez Bing wrote: »

Very interested to hear this goes. Definitely believe there is more than one way to skin a cat but only doing a 16m long run would scare the bejasus out of me. Best of luck.

robinph wrote: »

It is definitely possible, but I'd not recommend it if you can fit in more miles. I did just scrape a sub three from very minimal miles and about 35 a week max, with possibly only one 18 mile run in addition to several other 16ish.

Not a good idea though and far easier with more miles.

I'm pretty interested myself and a little scared.

I should point out though, it's not necessarily a low mileage plan, just one that takes the emphasis away from the LSR and shares it around the rest of the week. So for example this week the plan was/is:

Mon: Easy 8 mi
Tue: 2x3 mi at HMP(ish) with 1 mi rec and 1.5 mi warm up and cool down (10 mi)
Wed: Rest
Thur: 10 mi @ MP with 1.5 mi warm up and cool down (13 mi)
Fri: Easy 7 mi
Sat: Easy 8 mi
Sun: 'LSR' 16 mi

I know you wouldn't call 62 miles a high mileage week, but it's not that low either. I'm not much of a runner or writer but if anyone fancies reading about it from the start I've kept a log here since the beginning of the plan.

Notwork Error

Bez Bing wrote: »

Yeah I'd imagine this would only be possible after a couple of marathon cycles and a decent endurance base.

Suprisingly not. It could actually be just as useful if not more for a beginner or 3.30+ marahon runner if they are willing to put in the mileage as it is for the Olympic hopefuls that use it due to the way the physiology of the human body. Your 3.30 runner does not get much bang for their buck physically from a run lasting more than 3 hours, this is true for everybody from elite to first time runner and why elite runners will run 30 miles in marathon training, because they still get big benefits up until 3 hours.

Spreading the mileage across the week with intensity will create a cumulative fatigue heading into the run of 16 miles will make that run just as hard as your typical 20 miler from other plans and you will get still be taking alot more bang for your buck if you are even a 3.20 runner as the run will be under that 3 hour threshold. In my opinion, it's a better plan than P+D and pfitz if you are around that pace or slower and want to run good mileage still. It's an interesting take on marathon training and goes about achieving the same training effect in a different way. It's actually a more balanced plan for that time goal than any of the others.

Outside

Notwork Error wrote: »

Suprisingly not. It could actually be just as useful if not more for a beginner or 3.30+ marahon runner if they are willing to put in the mileage as it is for the Olympic hopefuls that use it due to the way the physiology of the human body. Your 3.30 runner does not get much bang for their buck physically from a run lasting more than 3 hours, this is true for everybody from elite to first time runner and why elite runners will run 30 miles in marathon training, because they still get big benefits up until 3 hours.

Spreading the mileage across the week with intensity will create a cumulative fatigue heading into the run of 16 miles will make that run just as hard as your typical 20 miler from other plans and you will get still be taking alot more bang for your buck if you are even a 3.20 runner as the run will be under that 3 hour threshold. In my opinion, it's a better plan than P+D and pfitz if you are around that pace or slower and want to run good mileage still. It's an interesting take on marathon training and goes about achieving the same training effect in a different way. It's actually a more balanced plan for that time goal than any of the others.

That makes sense now alright, Jack Daniels plan will specify his longest run as "20mi or else 150min, which-ever comes first" so for a slower than 7:30/mi runner the time limit of 150mins will dictate the length of the run.

I suppose for a first-timer, it might be a problem convincing the head that the legs can do an extra 10-12 miles on the big day.

6781

What's the elevation gain on this race?

annapr

6781 wrote: »

What's the elevation gain on this race?

according to Garmin, last year was about 173m/568ft. Much the same this year, I think.

hot buttered scones

annapr wrote: »

according to Garmin, last year was about 173m/568ft. Much the same this year, I think.

There's a bit of a course change this year both at the start and finish. I've mapped the new course on both Strava (elevation gain 1156ft) and Mapmyrun (733ft). I tried using Garmin connect but that doesn't give elevation data for some reason. All three sites measure the course as 26.6 miles though, but I'm guessing that's because the route mapped doesn't follow the best running line or I've made an error somewhere.

robinph

Zero as it's a one lap course essentially finishing in the same place as the start...


...but there is a couple of slight inclines on the way round:

http://sseairtricitydublinmarathon.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Route-Profile-2015.jpg

It's really nothing much to be bothered about. I'd say you'll only actually notice one bit of uphill in the first 10 miles, and then it will be over before you know it. Then you have one more noticeable hill just when you don't want it at 22 miles, but it is then just a downhill run to the finish. All the other hills on that course profile you'll probably not realise your going up much.

annapr

robinph wrote: »

Zero as it's a one lap course essentially finishing in the same place as the start...


...but there is a couple of slight inclines on the way round:

http://sseairtricitydublinmarathon.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Route-Profile-2015.jpg

It's really nothing much to be bothered about. I'd say you'll only actually notice one bit of uphill in the first 10 miles, and then it will be over before you know it. Then you have one more noticeable hill just when you don't want it at 22 miles, but it is then just a downhill run to the finish. All the other hills on that course profile you'll probably not realise your going up much.

Hah, easy for you to say!

frash

Singer wrote: »

I noticed an updated map on the website:
http://sseairtricitydublinmarathon.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/SSE-AT-DM15-ROUTE-MAP_Toilets.pdf

There appear to be more water stations (11), all with toilets and first aid stations. Gels at the 16 and 21 mile water stations, Lucozade at the 9.5 mile and 13 mile water stations, and at the 22 mile cheering zone (the 1000 foot 45 degree climb of Roebuck Mountain). There are also more cheering zones (10).

What exactly are the 'cheering zones'?
Are they just suggested places to stand or are there tiered seats there or what?

robinph

frash wrote: »

What exactly are the 'cheering zones'?
Are they just suggested places to stand or are there tiered seats there or what?

Place where the sponsors pay a few people to stand around in bright tshirts, and hand out advertising material to the supporters on the side of the road, shout a bit, bang those noisy inflatable things together to make a bit of noise and play some pop tunes very loudly on the car radio of the brightly coloured VW Beetle that is painted in the sponsors livery.

eyeball kid

A question on logistics for the people that that run this before. I'll be driving up from Kildare (N7 direction). Are there road closures that will stop me getting close to the city centre. Also, where would be a good place to park? Don't want to be walking too far to the starting area.

RayCun

eyeball kid wrote: »

A question on logistics for the people that that run this before. I'll be driving up from Kildare (N7 direction). Are there road closures that will stop me getting close to the city centre. Also, where would be a good place to park? Don't want to be walking too far to the starting area.

you won't have to deal with road closures beforehand until you get very close to the start area. Don't know about parking - Hatch Street?

Murph_D

May be of interest to some that DCM entry seems to be still open at a "late entry" price of 200 which it says will be shared with two charities.