2018 longford marathon

judeboy101

40 days to go. Little annoyed with the 10am start time given the chance of warmer conditions than last year but still looking fwd to it.

conti

Looking forward to it, haven't done it before but I did the half last year and enjoyed it. I've missed a lot of key training because of a weird flu and your 40 day reminder has made me nervous! Guess I can get 4 quality weeks in then taper for 2. Here's hoping it's not heatwave conditions.

Running Fool

conti wrote: »

Looking forward to it, haven't done it before but I did the half last year and enjoyed it. I've missed a lot of key training because of a weird flu and your 40 day reminder has made me nervous! Guess I can get 4 quality weeks in then taper for 2. Here's hoping it's not heatwave conditions.

What's the half like?

conti

Running Fool wrote: »

What's the half like?

A generous start, flat middle, and couple of significant ascents towards the end. Kilometres 15 and 16 are the toughest, the first dip/ascent of the last 3 in the attached image.

bonaparte2

Anyone else doing it ?Only ten days now

judeboy101

bonaparte2 wrote: »

Anyone else doing it ?Only ten days now

Yep, just on my taper did 18mil weekend, 12 next weekend and loads of tempo and hills . Long range forecast is 17c abd over cast kinda like today

bonaparte2

My plan is to follow the 3.15 pacer and see how it goes. I followed a pace group in the Dublin Marathon once and had to back off at halfway, still only lost five minutes in the second half so I figure its a reasonable strategy. I could follow the 3.30 pacer from the start but that is the pace I am running in training

judeboy101

bonaparte2 wrote: »

My plan is to follow the 3.15 pacer and see how it goes. I followed a pace group in the Dublin Marathon once and had to back off at halfway, still only lost five minutes in the second half so I figure its a reasonable strategy. I could follow the 3.30 pacer from the start but that is the pace I am running in training

Doing same but with 4hr pacer, hoping for the best and not too warm or sticky

conti

Tapering now but still eating like I'm doing 100km weeks, cutting back on food is the hard part! Had a 32km run on Sunday, bit slower pace than planned (4:37m/km) but it was after a week of mostly fast-paced medium/long runs so hopefully can improve on that for the race.
Doing all short runs for next week and half, and I have the Rock n Roll 10km on Sunday to keep the fast-twitch muscles in check.

judeboy101

22c and humid for Sunday.

bonaparte2

Pretty close now. Sticky conditions it would seem but thats what everyone will have trained in I suppose.

conti

Have to say this is an excellent event: A very generous goodie bag, free pasta the evening before, loads of water stops which also had other treats, the post-race physio rub-down, free use of the Longford Arms gym showers, and post-race meal – they really go all out to keep the runners happy. I was chatting to the organiser after and he was saying it's all donated and volunteered, any surplus money they make goes to a school for special needs.

As for the race itself, the heat was just too much. They weren't lying about it being a flat course though, 2 maybe 3 inclines worth talking about. If the day was about 5 or 6 degrees cooler it would have been ideal circumstances for a PB attempt, though it didn't stop Gary O'Hanlon from setting a course record!

I wasn't my best nor my worst marathon time (3:19 according to my Garmin, official results not out yet 3:20:52, my Garmin was a minute off), but happy enough given that I had to resort to walk/run strategy for the last 8km.

judeboy101

Best result ever but by feck was it close(humidity wise). I was between two pacing groups and that section from roosky back to n4 was lonely. Also the n4 was feckin busy.

conti

judeboy101 wrote: »

. Also the n4 was feckin busy.

Yeah it was a bit full-on with the traffic coming towards us at such a rate, especially seeing as I get wobbly whenever I get leg cramps.

bonaparte2

A great event. I went out too fast and suffered on the last twelve miles home, especially the last eight . Only good things to say about the organisation. The results were a little slow in coming but so what.

judeboy101

bonaparte2 wrote: »

A great event. I went out too fast and suffered on the last twelve miles home, especially the last eight . Only good things to say about the organisation. The results were a little slow in coming but so what.

Speaking of results, is it me or are those times the clock times not the chip times. If I remember correctly they never gave the chip times last year

bonaparte2

I presume that they were the clock times.

judeboy101

bonaparte2 wrote: »

I presume that they were the clock times.

My watch has a 10 sec difference, I was at the back when the race started. Same thing last year.

bonaparte2

chip times up now