The (Not So) Flying Scotsman

Ah thanks @Laineyfrecks, the track was far from easy. Good to have the Queen of Tallaght out supporting, catch you in 2022.

Thanks for kind words and vote in the 2021 Awards. I shall work on being less modest in 2022.

Thanks lads was really pleased with how it went. Got roped into doing the Leinsters in Dunboyne on Saturday to make up the team.....heard some interesting comments on the course.

It has been a couple of weeks since the last update, so have a couple of weeks to cover.

Week Starting Jan 17th - 43 miles, 1 controlled session and plenty of easy miles.

Monday 17th - Legs fairly wiped after Dunboyne so a very easy 7.5 miles at 9 mins per mile on a lovely clear evening in the Phoeno.

Tuesday 18th - Under coaches orders it was to be a controlled effort of 8 x 600s with a 300 recovery. Pretty much ran this solo and all was well until the 6th or 7th rep when I felt some sharpish pain in my knee, sort of thought nothing of it.

Wednesday 19th was very stiff all day in work, calves especially weren't great and knee seemed to take a while to feel right when walking after sitting at the desk for any length of time - probably shouldn't have ran but it was an easy 6.1 miles at 8.43 with one of the lads from work.

Home to foam roll (calves didn't like this) and hopped into the first of a few evenings of baths.

Unplanned rest day on the Thursday and had the normal Friday off......knee was still twingy.

Saturday 22nd - Didn't risk the club session and just ran on the grass on the acres 7.6 miles at 8.37 some discomfort in the knee still but running on it didn't seem to be making it worse.....continued the rolling/stretching/ bath routine. Decided to get myself booked in for a Sports Massage/ once over.

Sunday 23rd 12.6 miles at 7.58 - good Sunday crew but hung out down the back and didn't push too much. Knee/calves improving.

Week Starting 24th 43 Miles - 1 Physio visit/ 1 controlled session and 1 race in Raheny.

Monday 24th 7 miles at 8.07 in Malahide after work followed by a Physio visit for a once over. Headed to the Club to see one of the lads who had set up in the clubhouse. Explained what had been going on/how I had been feeling- knee put into all manner of positions and he was happy enough it was just cartilidge inflammation after running 3 XC races in the space of 4 weekends, the calves got a good going over as they were tight and was given the ok for Raheny.

Tuesday 25th 8 x 400s off 200 - nothing crazy legs were OK and just a bit of feedback from the knee starting the session after the warm up.

Wednesday 26th a very easy 7.25 miles at 9.08 per mile, more of a jog than anything knee/calves much better. Home to watch Celtic make hard work of beating Hearts.

Thursday 27th - ended up being a late one because of work. 6.3 miles at 8.16 nothing much to report. Legs decent but tired.

Saturday- 6.1 at 8.35 per mile, slightly longer than my normal pre race shake-out some acres laps and strides with the DH folks doing Raheny - no feedback from the calves/knee.

Sunday - Race Raheny - one of the aims this year was to set a decent mark for 5 miles as I hadn't raced one since Terenure in 2019 (30.08 in a race I wasn't happy with).

Good crew from DH out in Raheny and a good buzz about the place, was out stupid early due to concerns over parking. Spotted J when I was warming up.

Race itself - Aim was to get as low into the 28s as possible and felt I was in good shape to do this (turns out I was but just not officially today).

Fairly normal melee in the start pen due to sheer numbers and was happy to get a reasonable spot, a nice well deserved tribute to the Raheny Legend Pat Hooper before hand. Hooter went and we were off.

Will just list the mile splits off the watch -

Mile 1 5.42 had to do a bit of dodgy for the first 0.5 mile or so but nothing crazy, settled into it as we hit the mile mark which was impressively bang on according to the watch.

Mile 2 5.42 knew there was a slight climb to the highest point on this mile so kept the effort levels up but knew there would be some leeway in mile 3. Marker bang on again.

Mile 3 5.34 effort levels were raised but was feeling strong enough, a nice mile as we dropped down towards the park.

Mile 4 (on the watch not the course marker) 5.39 remembered that the section heading up the Avenue would be tough enough and there was a bit of wind to contend with aswell.

Mile 5 (again on the watch) 5.38 was working hard but still feeling strong.

The extra bit - 0.3 of a mile in 1.41, pushed as much as I could and crossed the line in a chip time of 29.54.

A solid solid run where the pace was well maintained so going to take plenty of confidence from that. The hunt for a proper 5 mile time continues (said in the same voice as the voice over guy from the apprentice).

Good chats with folks after the race, the DH crew seemed to have all run well, I am sure the hiccup with the course will be rectified in 2023 and thanks to all in Raheny for putting on the event.

Decided afterwards that I am going to give Trim a miss as I think the body needs a break from racing.

C

I had deliberated on whether to resurect the log for this race report (thanks for being recommened to write this)but here we are and here we go - This might take a while 🤣

Bank of America Chicago Marathon - Finish time 2.52.46

A quick review of training - I had always planned to condense what I will call the "proper marathon" block from the middle of July to the end of September. The only race I ran during training was the Tullamore 1/2 when I broke 80 minutes for the first time. That result had a lot of positives (the only aim I had for Chicago was always to break 3 so I was on track) and some negatives, which were mostly and I don't want this to sound bad but managing other people's expectations on how I would run in the marathon.

To be honest training went really well, peaking at 68 miles.....I missed a few recovery runs when my body was just really tired. Some tough club sessions and good strong Sunday long runs had me well prepped.

OK to the bones of why we are here -

Pre-Race

Flew over to Chicago on Thursday - a bit of a pain when United stopped their direct service but otherwise uneventful. Got to the Expo Friday to collect the number etc, a massive operation but well organised. Saw a good bit of the City and caught the Bulls game on Friday evening. Probably too much time on the feet to be honest but at least it was Friday.

Saturday was due to run the 5k but decided to give it a miss as I was feeling tired and didn't want to be hanging around in the cold for ages. Got out for three miles in the afternoon.....a very quiet day apart from that. A lot of time chilling out. Lesson learned here is to book dinner for marathon weekend well in advance, we got somewhere in the end.

Race Day

Not that I needed waking but was up at 0415 to try and eat.....got a bagle with strawberry jam/banana and electrolyte drink into the system, the hotel had laid out loads of water/fruit/nutrition bars which was nice touch. Met a lad from work who was running and we walked down to Grant Park (much to the surprise of an American chap at the hotel who was also running, it was barely over a mile to walk down). Through all the security checks dumped the bag and headed into the start corral for about 0710.

Myself and the lad from work are very closely matched for times so planned to stick together for a good part of it but had said it was every man for himself when we got to the business end. We had said somewhere around 2.55 pace was reasonable.

We were off, fairly congested and chaotic for the first few miles, plenty of zigzagging through downtown Chicago - saw one poor lad face plant himself after about 3 miles. This wasn't the time to do anything silly, was actually behind the 3 hour pacers until just after 5k but we moved ahead to get some space.

It was a very controlled start, the only thing that threw me was almost choking at the first water station, I hate those blooming cups 🤣. I pretty much took on water at all the stations barring one or two early in the race......slowed the pace down going through them.

Settled into a nice rhythm as we headed North out of the City, there was a pipe band playing at maybe the 5/6 mile mark which raised a smile and made me think of home.

Everything was feeling good here and it was a case of keeping a steady pace and not going crazy. Had a bit of a wobble between 9 and 10 miles where the energy just seemed to drain from me but got back on track. Myself and the lad from work had a good laugh after 12 miles when I got a massive shout out (I didn't have a clue who it was, turned out to be the partner of another lad in work who was running, maybe the red hair and white DH top makes you easy to spot).

Through half way in 1.26.28 and we were comfortably motoring, past the real boss just before mile 14 and another big cheer of encouragement). Took on half a jelly energy sweet just before half way, I still don't like taking on much during the race.

We were getting to the stage where it was time to start digging in, the pace felt fine but you know you are starting to work hard. The miles are all a bit of a blur to be honest as I was trying to zone out and just run. We had been checking in with each other until about 16 miles but all chat stopped here and we got separated at about mile 19.

Aerobically I was bang on but the legs were starting to ache, threw a gel down me around 19 miles in, hoping for a boost......it was time to dig in a trust the training.

21/22 my glute/hip really started to give me some grief and I could feel twinges of cramp in my hamstring, in both Dublin marathons I have had to stop because of it, I didnt want to let that happen here. Around the 22 mile mark you can see the 24 mile marker so I said to myself dial back the pace a little for the next couple of miles and reassess. Probably dropped the pace by about 10/15 seconds, that seemed to work......any time I tried to up the pace the twinges came back.

22 to the end were a real guts it to the end, its mad what goes through your mind here......I knew I was on for a good time but was even thinking I can run 8 minute miles here and break 3. Got to mile 25, go on push it a bit.....nope body says no. 800 to go the crowds are going nuts, checked my watch for the first time in ages here, sub 2.55 was on but my head was all over the place so didn't know what it would be.

Where is the turn into the blooming Park oh there it is followed by the only hill in the whole race, worked the legs up the hill swung left and could see the finish line......boom done 2.52.46. Gave it the big fist pump going over the line a better result than I expected and the sub 3 monkey off the back.

5k splits 21.01/20.20/20.12/20.27/20.08/20.11/20.13/20.53

Absolutely buzzing after it to be honest, some nice chill out time in Grant Park afterwards and plenty of celebrations in the evening.

Body is fairy beat and my feet are destroyed but it was worth it.

Apologies for the epic post.

Thanks for reading

C

Thanks everyone, still buzzing after it. Been walking the legs off myself in NY and got a run in today.

Recovering well but my feet are a mess 🤣🤣.

C

I think my lack of motivations stems from putting so much into the marathon and now I am like what's next, what do I want to achieve.

Will be ok once I get through the next couple of weeks and start looking towards to goals for 2023.

Maybe I am being a bit silly with the Strava thing but I am sorta liking not being on there too much seeing what others are doing. Like you said it is sometimes good to have a bit of a mental reset.

Great to hear you are doing Jingle Bells, I will be out stewarding again this year. It feels like the start of Christmas from the race onwards.

C