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hillsiderunner wrote: »Good luck for Sunday, Ariana, no bother to you. And enjoy the pub with your mentees!
Thanks a million hsr. I'm really looking forward to it now, i just want to get going
Wubble Wubble wrote: »Best of luck on Sunday E. Combining mentoring with marathon training isn't easy. Only 2 days left before you get to bask in the afterglow in McGrattans
I'm not sure about afterglow J but i am looking forward to it now. I'm in 2 minds as to whether i'd rather be sitting in the pub tracking all the novices or running myself (most of them could probably track me for the last few miles they're so fast :pac:) but i think i would have struggled with the mentoring if i wasn't in the zone myself so it's worked out for the best, roll on Sunday. Will you be around?OOnegative wrote: »Very best of luck Sunday, stick to the plan and relax and execute it. You’ve done a great job mentoring am sure you’ll run an even greater marathon. Run well, hopefully see you in McGrattans.
Thanks B. And best of luck with the pacing - i hope you get a nice bunch! See you after 0 -
I'm so excited for you to get to give it a proper shot after the ups and downs of last year. You've such a great block of training behind you, I think you're going to have a great run. Enjoy every step. I'll be around Milltown to cheer you and see you after 0
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I'm so excited for you to get to give it a proper shot after the ups and downs of last year. You've such a great block of training behind you, I think you're going to have a great run. Enjoy every step. I'll be around Milltown to cheer you and see you after
Brilliant E. I'll keep an eye out for you and look forward to meeting properly afterward 0 -
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Good luck tomorrow E! Thank you so much for everything over on the novice's thread the last few months.
You've done such great training you deserve to be really confident tomorrow. I hope you have a great run and look forward to hearing about it in person afterwards 0 -
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DCM 2018 - where to start? I've been writing bits of this in my head for the last few days. I'm hoping writing it out in full will help me to make some sense of what happened or what went wrong.
I set a target going into this race of 4:05. I came under a small bit of pressure to go for sub 4 and i'll admit i flirted with it and never fully ruled out - 4:05 gave me some wiggle room but also meant if things went amazingly well on the day that sub 4 might still be possible, a big negative split perhaps? Truth be told deep down i didn't think i had sub 4 in me but i also know i lack confidence sometimes so maybe baby!
In the week leading up to DCM i did everything right - ate a small bit extra in the interest of carb loading (i gained 1.5lbs), drank a little bit more water, went to bed a little bit earlier. I was fighting a cold off but i was dosing myself with Lemsips, Ecchinachea, Vitamin C & Zinc and on Thursday or Friday i think it was my RHR dropped back to normal so I was on the home straight from a health perspective.
I had no nerves all week which i was puzzled by but i had a lot of doubts. I've had a few niggles since the 3/4 marathon 3 weeks ago and i kept have this weird feeling that something was going to flare up on the day - it couldn't just go to plan. But i put all this down to a bit of pre-race anxiety.
I met up with Kellygirl on Saturday and we spent the day together - checked into our hotel, made our way to the Expo (lovely to meet up with Baby75 and her husband there), went for a sensible pasta dinner (we didn't even look at the dessert menu) and then Skyblue joined us for a quick drink in our hotel. He seemed a wee bit nervous if i dare it say it but it was nice to chat face to face after a year of online chat
Slept as well as can be expected and got up a bit ahead of the alarm clock. Forced 2 porridge pots into me - the 2nd was a real struggle, i was force feeding myself. And before we knew it we were heading into town in a taxi (we missed the free shuttle bus
). A short meet up with some novices and some grads - great camaraderie among both groups - gotta love the running community.
Not long and we were heading to our wave. Toilet stop, few photos, a gel and we were off. Starting at the back of wave 2 meant a lot less congestion than last year, i couldn't believe the difference - last year in wave 4 i actually came to a standstill a couple of times, that didn't happen this year so that was nice.
Miles 1-7: 9:57, 9:48, 10:11, 9:49, 9:44, 9:43, 9:52
My loose plan had me running these miles at 9:30-9:40.. Well that didn't happen. My feet were very cold starting off, they started to thaw out about 2 miles in but i just never felt comfortable. I expected to be holding myself back on these miles but instead i was feeling every drag. We were both on the same gel schedule so we took the first one after 35 mins (about 3.5 miles). It's funny i noticed eyrie in her report mentioned we were lucky that there was no breeze on Chesterfield Ave but funnily i felt one, i remember commenting to K that there was a strong breeze there Before these miles were over i had readjusted my target, that was fine, i'd stick with Kellygirl and we'd do 4:10 (her target) together, even if it ended up being 4:15 i would be ok with that and we'd enjoy the experience.
Miles 8-10: 9:37, 9:26, 9:20
I was glad to hit this section and get a reprieve from the drags. I started to feel ok again here, i was motoring along, nowhere near the pace i had planned for 4:05 but to be honest i wasn't looking at the splits anymore, i felt a bit stronger and that helped my head a bit. We must have taken our 2nd gel at early in these miles (70 minutes)
Miles 11-13: 9:50, 9:32, 9:32
3rd (and last) gel was taken early in these miles again. Coming up to half-way i saw the clock approach 2:09, i remember thinking and saying to Kellygirl that it was hard to believe a few weeks ago i ran a 1:52 HM and here i was feeling fooked after running 2:09 (official half-way time 2:08:59) My head was really starting to go here but i think going through half way gave me a little mental lift, i could start counting down now, yay!
Miles 14-20: 9:52, 9:49, 9:47, 10:16, 9:50, 10:22, 10:06
I think K was struggling during the early part of this section but we just kept the heads down and kept motoring as steady as we could - we consciously pulled back on any hills/drags. We had the odd word to each other but not much chat was going on really. We both knew the 4:10 ship had sailed but it was all about finishing at this stage i believe. I went to take my 4th gel during mile 14 (iirc) and i gagged on it, i couldn't take it, just couldn't, i had to fling it to the side of the road. I attempted to sip water but gagged again. Just keep the head down, keep the legs moving, ignore the dry retching and cramping stomach pain, keep going. The support was great but it was hard to muster a smile at times.
Miles 21-26.2 (the death march): 11:14, 11:18, 11:04, 11:21, 11:46, 10:35, 8:53 (.39)
Shortly after going under the 20m gantry i told K to keep going, she initially refused but eventually i convinced her to go. I needed to walk and couldn't bare to be responsible for holding her back. There's not a lot more to add from here - it was a death march. I walked and ran the last 6.2 I tried to pick up the legs but everything was a struggle i kept telling myself if i could just manage 11 min/miles then i'd still get a PB. It was horrible though, the worst running experience i've ever had. I just couldn't believe i was walking :mad: Still retching and everything hurt now, i didn't actually think i would finish except i didn't know where i would go or what i'd do if i pulled off the course so i kept going. Unbelievably i managed to run the last 1.39 miles without walking I'm not sure how but I did.
Marathon #2 finished in 4:27:09, a PB of 9:57 - the time is strangely meaningless, i'd keep my time of 4:37:06 and last year's run any day over what happened out there this year.
Afterward
When i got to the bag drop i was K there just sorting through her bag, i was never so glad to see a familiar face. We got our bits sorted and made our way to McGrattans. It was lovely to meet some familiar and some not so familiar but all friendly faces there. I'm only sorry i was completely out of it. Every time i stood up for too long i felt really faint and just weak. I knew i needed to eat and drink but i couldn't face it either. I got presented with the most amazing gift from this year's novices - i was blown away, fab. Sadly though i just felt too claustrophobic and unwell i had to get out of there. I headed back to the hotel - no taxi to be had so i walked. I was surprised crossing course to see some still on it - i waited a few minutes and offered some support to the weary walkers.
The highlight of DCM 2018 for me will definitely be the people - the people i met on the day, the novices and how well they all got on, the grads i caught up with again and the more experienced boardsies that i finally got to put faces on in real life. What an amazing bunch of people in this little community. Unfortunately i know i didn't meet everyone this time but hopefully some day.
What went wrong?
I wish i knew.
Was i just not as fit/fast/prepared as i thought? Did i over-taper? Did i leave my race in the 3/4? Was i not fuelled properly?
These are all questions i've been asking myself in the past 3 days but i still don't know the answer so if anyone would dare to shed some light then i'm listening?
K sent me a message this morning asking if i'm ok - the answer i gave her is that in the grand scheme of life i'm absolutely fine (this is small stuff) but in just the running part of my life i am gutted.
Sorry for the essay and congratulations to anyone who has got this far 0 -
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Ah, I am really sorry to read about the struggles. Had been tracking you and KG on Sunday and was delighted to see you running together.
It's a bit of a mystery what happened, no? You had trained well and even the conservative 2xHM+20 would bring you to 4:05 (and you weren't 100% doing that HM). Unless the virus was causing trouble under the surface.
Know your head hasn't always been there for the Marathon training so hope you will enjoy getting some PBs for shorter distances going forward. 0 -
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You deserved a day a million times better than that E, I'm so sorry that that's how it went. It's so completely out of any relationship to the brilliant training you had done, just really really unfair. It's inevitable that we will all have crappy days where it all goes wrong for no apparent reason, but I really wish yours hadn't been Sunday.
It was heroic and really generous of you to still come to McGrattan's and stay for as long as you did and be as friendly and good natured as you were, being supportive to all the novices like me who owe so much of our experience to your hard work. Thank you.
You deserve an infinitely better marathon experience and I have no doubt it's there for you when you feel like going back to it.
Don't mind me! I'm sure you're right and there was. I'm in my own little world half the time and oblivious to what's going on around me. :rolleyes:It's funny i noticed eyrie in her report mentioned we were lucky that there was no breeze on Chesterfield Ave but funnily i felt one, i remember commenting to K that there was a strong breeze there0 -
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skyblue46 wrote:How to make a friend.......and alienate others
Haha. Kinda like saying if you've run a marathon you're not a Novice.
I also started following you
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Swashbuckler wrote: »Haha. Kinda like saying if you've run a marathon you're not a Novice.
I also started following you
Hahaha...yes! Very similar :pac: Too much R&R last night! 0
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