If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.

ariana`

Kellygirl wrote: »

Oh I’m sure you won’t be alone. I burst into tears going over the finish line both years in Dublin - that’s how I know the medal givers give hugs

It must be a lovely job actually giving out those medals! I balled too both times, it's an emotional experience crossing that line after weeks and weeks of hard work and sacrifices and god knows what else to deal with on the way, it's well worthy of a tear or two.

tbukela

All the best for Sunday K, you've had an amazing training block with well earned PBs it seems nearly every race.

Back youself on Sunday, you've more than enough done to hit your target.

Kellygirl

tbukela wrote: »

All the best for Sunday K, you've had an amazing training block with well earned PBs it seems nearly every race.

Back youself on Sunday, you've more than enough done to hit your target.

Thanks T. I hope you have a brilliant race yourself.

skyblue46

Go do it on Sunday K. You've made huge improvements both physically and mentally these last few months. Looking forward to hearing the story of how a wonderful, negative split 3:59 came to pass over a few drinks in Mc Grattans

AuldManKing

Run well and enjoy it!

Kellygirl

Thanks guys! Can’t wait to get started now.

OOnegative

Go out there, back yourself and run the time all that super training you’ve ran deserves. It’ll get tough but as I said back yourself and you will come good again. Run well K!!

Kellygirl

Last week before Dublin

Plan:
70 mins easy
4miles easy + 2 moderate (9-9:10)
2-3 miles easy

Woke up Monday with sore throat so no running and dosed myself.

Tuesday: 3.1 miles @ 9:59
Felt ok so donned the running gear and had a couple of appointments that then ran over so decided just to do 5km and not break a sweat as I was going to be doing school collection etc before grabbing a shower. Staying healthy was more important I decided.

Wednesday: 6.5 miles
Ran with a friend and didn’t pay attention to my watch and even though felt easy we were at moderate pace by mile 2 and faster mp by mile 4. Nice looking progression run. Legs feeling fresh and watch still saying Peaking - oh and VO2 Max gone up a point too.

Thursday: 3.13 miles @ 10:02
Had planned to do this today but forecast was horrible so got out last night instead.

Looking forward to Sunday and trying to keep my head. Taper madness is coming and going a bit along with mystery ailments that luckily seem to disappear too. I know my training this year has been great and my training plan was fab. So glad I signed up with my coach. If I can run Sunday like I ran Galway a couple of weeks ago I’ll have a great day out.

Looking forward to see everybody in McGrattans after and hope everybody has a great run.

Bluesquare

Best of Luck on Sunday - enjoy the progression long run !

Comic Book Guy

All the very best on Sunday K, you have had an absolutely brilliant year with all those PBs and here’s to another one this weekend!
Love how you put the sub 4 hour out there rather than tip toe around it, great mental boost and shot of confidence in yourself.

Treviso

Best of luck on Sunday K! It took great guts to put your sub 4 target out there but I'm sure you will be able to achieve it on the day.

Kellygirl

Oh God, it’s prob pure mad but sure I’ll go for it and follow my plan and I’ll honestly be happy if I come in sub 4:05 but I’ll start with an aim for sub 4.

Pomplamousse

Best of luck on Sunday! You deserve to have a really enjoyable race & to smash that 4 hour target!:)

Singer

Have a great run! Hope it goes well for you.

Baby75

Kellygirl wrote: »

Oh God, it’s prob pure mad but sure I’ll go for it and follow my plan and I’ll honestly be happy if I come in sub 4:05 but I’ll start with an aim for sub 4.

Love it, you got this K, see you tomorrow

Huzzah!

I’ve loved reading this log from the start but it’s really come into its own this year as you’ve gone strength to strength. Hope you get the run your training deserves on Sunday. If I don’t see you in Milltown, see you in McGs.

Mr. Guappa

You've had a cracking year and a great training block and it's great to see you having the confidence to give the sub 4 a right good crack. Best of luck tomorrow K, and see you in McGrattans afterwards for the celebrations

scotindublin

Run well tomorrow K; you have had a great last few months; go out and be confident you have this.

mister paul

Best of luck tomorrow K. You had a great training block. I'm sure I'll see you in McGrattans after the finish line for a PB beer.

eyrie

Have my fingers firmly crossed that everything goes as well for you tomorrow as you deserve. Run well and enjoy it, you’re on track for a great one

Murph_D

Have a good one, K. Back yourself, as they say. See you after, hopefully.

Unthought Known

Best of luck for the sub 4 tomorrow.

coogy

Hope you have a great race K!!!

The Black Oil

Delighted to see WW's update in the events thread, with 4:03 next to your name.

Kellygirl

DCM 2019

Official time 4:03:04 - PB by 17:01

Before:
Readers of my log will know that I had decided to attempt a sub 4. In all honesty I did think it would a surprise if I got it but I was confident of sub 4:05. I prepared a course specific paceband with a very conservative start, reaching 10km in just under an hour and halfway in 2:02. I hoped I could pick it up to come in at 3:59:59 then but if not I should be capable of doing the sub 4:05 anyway.

Enjoyed the expo meeting up with friends and my coach and wandered back to the hotel to meet Ariana. We’d a lovely pasta dinner and got our stuff ready for the next morning ...and we both went to bed drinking lemsip at about 9pm! Up before the alarm clocks the next morning after sleeping reasonably well. Had our porridge and toast, got ready and met Browneyes and headed for bag drop. Queues for the toilets were unreal but I was in the lucky position at the back of wave 2. Waiting for wave 3 to walk up so not under too much pressure. My coach had come along at that point and we strolled to the start line, she went over after Wave 2 and I waited and then slipped in a few rows back from the 4 hour pacers, being careful to stay on the right hand side to try not to add too much distance on in the very first mile going round that first corner - we counted down from 10 and we were off.

Miles 1-7: 9:28; 9:25; 9:46; 9:19; 9:26; 9:24; 9:26

I took these miles really handy trying to save the legs for later. I let everybody go passed me and just chugged along. First mile was slightly faster than planned but I knew I was ok and just took care to ensure mile 3 was very slow. I carried my own water bottle from the start so didn’t need water there. I was 7 seconds ahead of my paceband in mile 2 and 10 seconds in mile 3. I just went with how I was feeling and kept it easy without being a slave to my watch. My watch would beep about 0.1miles before each mile marker so I’d glance at the paceband to see what time I was supposed to be at passing the marker and what pace I was to do in the next mile so I’d have a guideline of what to expect. I got a stitch in my right hand side round mile 2 and had it for the entire run. It’s still quite sore today whatever it is. As I started up Chesterfield Avenue I saw Omeceron and Skyblue and Lazare who were just leaving to go to their next supporting point. Gave them a shout out and enjoyed the run up chesterfield spending most of it trying to calculate where I would pass Ariana who had started in Wave 2. I figured mile 16/17. Castleknock was amazing as always and I joined in the singing and dancing to I Gotta Feeling. I was looking forward to finishing mile 7 and starting to up the pace. Without trying to hard I was hitting all the mile markers at close to the exact time on my paceband so was happy out.

Miles 8-13.1: 8:45; 8:56; 8:39; 9:13; 8:44; 8:57
Time to start picking up the pace here and really enjoyed this. I started passing people out and stayed at that for the rest of the race just like in 2017. Got a fright when mile 9 beeped and the marker was nowhere near by. It was .3 of a mile later when I hit it and I asked around but didn’t seem to bother anybody else. I had been day dreaming while freewheeling down the bendy road in the park and thought I’d gone completely off the race line that I was working so hard to stick to. However, we got out of the park and all was well again with the 10 mile marker and bang on with my paceband. I took the hills that appeared on St Laurence’s road very handy and always allowed myself time to recover before picking up the pace. I kept my eyes peeling for supporters around mile 12 but I was confused as to who was going to be where and the sun was in my eyes so didn’t see anyone. Passed my friend and her family round Dolphin’s Barn and loved the shout outs they gave me. Hit mile 13 bang on time - 2:01:20 and through the halfway mark 2:02:00, exactly as planned. Legs were feeling good. I;d warmed up and rolled the arm warmers down but was motoring along nicely.

Miles 14-20: 9:22; 9:04; 8:54; 8:50; 8:55; 8:57; 8:25
After the halfway mark I was looking forward to a few downhills which I expected after mile 14 though turned out to be after mile 15 which threw me a little. All was ok and I was delighted that the legs felt great. Suddenly Ariana was in front of me and I grabbed her arm as I ran past and kept going. Had to check with her after where that was but mile 16.2 so my maths on Chesterfield Avenue were right!! Gave me a little boost seeing her and on I went. I don’t really remember too much about these miles. I went through a wobbly mile where I felt quite hot and thought I was in trouble. Applegirl’s comment on the novices thread about being trained to endure pain became my mantra and I knew I’d come back out of it. I was taking Maurten gels every 30 mins and had planned caffeine ones for the 3 and 3:30 marks and was starting to look forward to them. I seem to lose maybe 40 seconds somewhere round here but then suddenly I was passing the 19 mile marker ahead of my watch beeping which was really weird and I seemed to be a minute ahead of my paceband. I couldn’t be that lucky, surely? Up until mile 18 my watch was beeping 0.25 miles before the mile markers. Mile 20 was through Milltown and I was flying again. I passed my husband which was a nice surprise as he was going to try to be there but he wasn’t sure he’d make it. Then I saw “Mr Guappa says relax” and said hi to V and E and continued on delighted with life. Up until this point, besides my slight wobble, I was thinking I was in with a chance of the sub 4. My average pace had come down to 9:06 at that point and I knew I just had to stick to the paceband and get my pace down to 9:04and I had it.

Miles 21 to 26.51: 9:05; 9:44; 9:41; 9:22; 9:20; 9:33; 8:40
Not sure what happened here but my energy suddenly took a dive. I went up the hill from Milltown slowly there but found it hard to recover. For some reason I had it in my head that there were just 2 hills here with the 2nd during mile 22 but all of mile 21 seems a complete drag and I was struggling. I just did what I could and was getting thirsty too. The water station was cups so I stopped for. Few seconds and filled the bottle I was carrying and went on. I started wondering should I take my next caffeine gel early and I had a spare normal gel anyway in case I lost one somewhere. I decided to walk up Heartbreak hill to give myself a breather. My average pace was going the opposite way again and I knew then sub 4 was gone but I couldn’t lose my head and not get in under 4:05. Took the next caffeine gel at 3:20 and took off after my breather, slow but moving. I have never walked in DCM before so I was not going to do it again. I started passing people again and got a decent pace going down to the Stillorgan road. Across the flyover and I remember it was a little drag up before Nutley Lane. Just a parkrun to go and just move it. My right IT band was fairly sore and I started it thumping it and it seemed to go away. I took my spare gel at 3:40. Was doing an ok pace down Nutley when some fella cuts across the road in front of me and I nearly tripped. Grrrrrr. Luckily more water bottles here so got a fresh one and round onto Merrion Road. A friend who supports me every year gave me a shout there and I nearly cried. I always see him in Terenure and I’d missed him and thought maybe he hadn’t made it out to support. I ran on through Ballsbridge. Skyblue and Lazare gave me a shout out along there somewhere and another friend and her family too which was brilliant. They were literally bouncing up and down and it was so good to see them. Running towards Mount street I could see a big red balloon and wondered what the 4 hr balloon was doing there - it was a crossover point and the volunteers indicated we needed to veer right so I ran to the right and next thing they sent me off to the left again. The same thing happened up further. It was only afterwards I actually found out what was happening there. The crowds and noise were unreal. I got choked up and found it hard to breath. I could see the finish line and just went as fast as I could. Another friend shouted out and then there was the blue carpet and I flew over it, arms in the air thrilled with myself. Stopped my watch and 4:03:04. PB of 17:01.

Afterthoughts

I am delighted with my time. Until a few weeks ago I thought 4:10 would be what I may possibly achieved. I got more confident, especially after Galway. I honestly knew that sub 4 was a long shot but until mile 20 I thought I was in with a chance so I am slightly disappointed I didn’t do it. I am wondering what happened that caused the sudden dip in energy - did I run mile 20 too fast? Was it a fuel issue? I took Maurten every 30 mins and had eaten well all week. I was very thirsty in the last 6 miles so was I dehydrated? I was sipping away throughout but had a slight need to go to the loo for the entire race but wouldn’t waste a minute so maybe I was too cautious with the amount I drank. I’ll prob never know. I’m delighted I still had a negative split though.

I don’t want this to end negatively. I had a great run and a great weekend overall. I loved meeting up with everybody again.

What’s next?
I don’t plan on any more marathons for the time being, certainly not next year. The long runs are too time consuming and I much prefer HM training or shorter where runs are max 2 hours and fit into family life much easier. I’m going to stick with my coach as I think she’s amazing and plan to do a number of half marathons next year and I know she’ll want me to do some shorter fast stuff too at times. I’d like to go sub 1:50 and sub 1:45 in maybe 2 years.

ReeReeG

Wonderful report K! Was delighted for you, and it's so deserved You ran a great race, shame about the energy drop but every race is a learning experience I reckon. Great to see you again

p.s. totally jealous of your time

scotindublin

Brilliant stuff K excellent run.

hillsiderunner

Well done again, K! Your training has been so consistent and you ran such a sensible race, you should be very proud!

Laineyfrecks

Brilliant race report & amazing time! Chuffed for you

Was an absolute pleasure meeting you in McGrattons, you are even friendlier in real life if thats possible:D

skyblue46

Great report as usual K. Brilliant to see you in tiptop form as always too. Enjoy the slightly shorter stuff, it sounds like a great plan for the year. Congrats on the chunky PB, it was very well earned.