Festina lente

I'll never get a proper race report together, so some disconnected thoughts...

Going in to the race in the morning is fantastic. I was at a LUAS stop at ten past seven, pitch dark, freezing cold, no-one around. Get on the LUAS and there's about ten people carrying the marathon bags, and every stop we collected more (some in full race gear, including shorts :eek:, already) Then when we got into town, 3 out of every 4 people was heading to the race start. It really built the anticipation, the feeling of a great collective event.

Met Grimbergen at the start, but lost him almost immediately. He was the only familiar face I saw running, but then I wasn't at my most perceptive on the way around.

The first few miles were pretty crowded, and were two of my slowest. I was very impressed by the visually impaired runner (and her guide) who were near me for most of the first 6/7 miles. I saw them again after the finish line, looked like they finished before me.

The sub4 pacers got away from me a bit in the first couple of miles, same as at the half. I sped up a little to catch up with them, but only ran behind them for a mile or two. It felt a little crowded, and that I was holding back a little too much. I passed them on the downhill on Lower Glen Road, with half a plan of speeding up on the downhills and letting them catch me on the uphills (I was thinking of that Chapelizod hill), but I opened up a bit of a gap and just decided to stay at 9.07 pace myself.

Splits were 9.15, 9.10, 9.08 for the first three, between 8.41 and 8.58 in the next six, between 8.49 and 9.11 in the next ten, Milltown and Clonskeagh I dropped down to 9.20 and 9.30, and between 8.58 and 9.10 for the last section.

After dropping the pacers, I found myself in my own group of runners, featuring Ninja Aoife! Well, Aoife was the name on her top, but with a black long-sleeved compression top, black capri tights, black calf warmers(?) and a utility belt on, she was obviously a ninja. I also caught up with a wheelchair athlete on the Crumlin road, and we spent the rest of the race overtaking each other - I'd catch him going up the hills, he'd fly by me on the downs. I think he finished in front of me, but I'd lost track by then.

The crowds really picked up around Walkinstown roundabout. This was all home territory for me anyway. Dotcomdolly, the kids, and my mother were there on Cromwellsfort road to wave me on - I caught them by surprise because I was ahead of the pacers - and all down to the KCR, around Terenure College, into Rathgar were roads I'd run on many times, but not with thousands of people lining the sides of the road.

Around Milltown was were it started to get tough. I never hit a wall - and I never found it really easy, even at the beginning my calves felt kind of tight - but up to that point I might have a pain in my thighs, which would go away after a while to be replaced by sore feet. Around mile 18/19/20, the pains stopped going away. My feet felt hot and swollen, my thighs were stiff, my calves were sore, and I was tired, and every mile seemed to be a little longer and a little more painful.

I was lucky in my training though - I work in Clonskeagh, right beside the river, so I've run up that hill to Foster's Avenue a few times. There were lots of people slowing down and walking at that point, but I knew I'd done it before and I could handle it again. There was a great crowd right at the top of the hill too.

After that it was all unknown territory for me. I only vaguely knew what the route was, and I'd never run around there. And it was further than I'd ever run before. After the UCD flyover I just started shutting down mentally. I stopped paying attention to the route, the crowds, the other runners and just kept my legs turning over, and kept checking the Garmin to make sure I wasn't slowing down. I remember checking it about five times in a row in mile 23 and getting 9.07 every time. I was wearing the Oxfam singlet and had gotten a few cheers for that on the way around, but by then I couldn't respond any more - by the time it filtered through that someone had cheered me I was long past.

The last couple of miles are just a blur of crowds and narrow streets. I was a little annoyed actually, because sometimes I wanted to speed up and just couldn't because the running lane was too narrow. On the other hand, I don't know if I could have gone much faster. But by then I was just thinking "the faster I finish, the sooner I can stop" - maybe that would have pushed me to a sprint! Or maybe if the clock had shown 3.59 as I approached instead of 4.01 - but I knew my chip time was safe even I wouldn't get the photo.

4.5 miles in 43.08 (average 9.33)

First run out since the marathon...
Calves have been tight and sore all week, and were again this morning, but felt better at the end than the beginning. I've had a bit of post-marathon comedown since getting back from holidays, so it was nice to be out again. I think it will be another week or so of easy running before I can start doing any speed work, but at least I'm back running.

Month|Miles
January|38.8|
February|35.5|
March|53.2|
April|72|
May|75.9|
June|90.2|
July|118.1|
August|124.4|
September|154|
October|108.7|

The pacers were about 10 metres (?) ahead of me before the race started. It was too packed to get any closer, and I was happy enough that I could keep the balloons in sight anyway. Once we started running it got even more packed, especially with some of the tight turns onto Leeson Street, Dawson Street, and around there, so the pacers opened up more of a gap. Maybe 30/40 metres at most? I could look up and see the balloons without any trouble.
More or less the same thing happened at the half marathon - I started right beside the pacers but I was crowded out in the first mile or so and a gap opened up between us, but I was still able to keep an eye on the balloons. In both races I caught up with the pacers about 6/7 miles, and then passed them out.

I liked having the pacers in front of me for the first few miles. When I was still settling in to my pace it was good to be able to look up every now and again and confirm that I was going at around the right speed. But I found the space right behind the pacers to be very crowded. And in both races, because I'd slowly caught up with the pacers, I was running a little faster than them when I did catch up. It made more sense to me to keep going at that slightly faster pace, and run in more open space in front of the group. But I only did that because I was comfortable with the idea of being responsible for my own pace.

I'd recommend starting behind the pacers, because if you're going to use them at all you have to be able to see the balloons. Whether you try to stick with them, or keep your distance behind them is a trade-off between having space to run and getting the encouragement from the pacers. I suppose if you kept your distance until around 15-20 miles, the group would have thinned out and you'd be getting the encouragement when you need it most?

If you run ahead of them, the only feedback you'll get from them is negative - "oh ****, they've caught up with me". If you started right beside them and went ahead on the downhills while expecting to be reeeled back in on the uphills, that would be okay. But I think if you're expecting to be hanging on towards the end, you're better off being behind them all the way rather than being passed out and having to up your pace to stay with the group.

Next targets are faster times. For the last few months, in all my runs I've been making sure I had stuff in reserve. First ten mile, first half marathon, first marathon, I wanted to do the last mile as fast as the first. The downside is that maybe I left too much in reserve. So for the Jingle Bells 5k, I want to go out fast and hang on...

This time last year I was getting to the end of the couch to 5k programme, looking forward (nervously) to my first race. It took a few months before I started my training log, but I think that's run its course now. All through the last year I was building up to new distances, new races, new challenges. Over the coming year I'll be doing more or less the same thing again - but a little faster this time.

(edited to add - decided to just merge the old and new logs together)


Last year's races
Month|Race|Time
December |Jingle Bells 5k|29.39*|
January |Raheny 5|46.34|
March|MSB 5k|25.12|
April|Great Ireland Run|53.45|
May|Sportsworld 5|39.59|
July|Irish Runner 5|38.14:rolleyes:|
August|Frank Duffy 10|80.55|
September|Dublin Half|1.48.34|
September|Rathfarnham 5k|22.40|
October|Dublin Marathon|3.58.06|

* official time. I didn't have a watch and there was no chip timing, actual time was probably a minute or two faster



I was happy with the set of races I did last year, so I'll be sticking with the same ones again this year. If I was going to drop one it would be the Great Ireland Run, but I've been roped into a charity team in work. The others are all cheap, well-run, and handy for me - apart from the trek over to de northside in January.

Anyone have suggestions for February and June? I'm trying to be good and only run one race a month, preferably club-run. I'm thinking of the Strawberry Half in June, but I'm not sure about travelling so far for a half, and was put off by reports of bad traffic management this year.


Targets

5k - sub 20
This is a big step up. My PB is soft, because I was deep into marathon training when I ran Rathfarnham, but not 3 minutes soft! I do want to focus more on shorter, faster stuff in training, and racing closer to my limit now that I know I can finish. The plan is to go out very fast in December, learn a lot from it (possibly by blowing up!), and then use that knowledge in March
5 mile - sub 35
Another big step, but I have three good races to progress in
Half Marathon - sub 1.40
To set me up for
Marathon - sub 3.30
I'm not even going to think about this until May/June, but I have my copy of P&D ready to go...

10k and 10 mile... sub 45 and 75, I suppose. But that's just to keep them in line with the others, they're not really targets. The ones I'm really concerned about are the 5k, the shortest, fastest distance I'm likely to run*, and the marathon.

* I'll probably do a mile at christmas too, but that's just for curiousity really

I have another week of recovery runs to go, but then I'll start the speed training - and maybe start revising all those goals upwards

menoscemo wrote: »

R.E. the Enniscrthy Half, i don't rememeber any traffic issues

I meant cars on the course, seemed to be a bit of a problem but maybe I'm overestimating it.
The big problem with Enniscorthy really, is that it's outside the M50.

Except next year I'll be ahead

additional goal - reach 1000 by (counts fingers)... end of September