Bliain Faoi Thrí

Saturday

I skipped Friday's interval run, as the work done on the abdominal tear left it really tender on Thursday and Friday. I went back to Bjohnson for some more work on Saturday morning, and it's still feeling tender but less sore.

Felt better on Saturday evening, so I headed out for the final LSR, a 10 miler at race pace. It was a bit chilly so I wore a long-sleeve top for the first time in ages (and inevitably pulled up the sleeves after two miles :rolleyes:). The ab tear started to feel sensitive at about four miles, but didn't get any worse. I noticed at the five mile turnaround that I was behind my Garmin's virtual running partner, even though every time I glanced at my pace, I was running at about 7:25 or under .

I finished the run well over race pace, running 7:29 average pace as opposed to 7:25. No idea how I let it slip so much, I'm just glad to hand over pacing duties on the day of the marathon to people who actually know what they're doing!

As preparation, I wore a gel belt for the first time. It felt fine, so I'll do that on the day. I also wore the Saucony Kinvara's but I think they're a bit too light for me for marathon distance, and I will probably wear the Asics Noosa's (gaudy, tri-version of the DS Trainer) on the day.

Route: Home to Ros a Mhíl crossroads and back
Distance: 10 miles
Time: 1:14:48
Target Pace / Achieved Pace: 7:25 / 7:29
Perceived Exertion (out of 10): 6.5
Personal Satisfaction: 7 (nice to complete the last LSR, even if over pace)
Weather: Kind of chilly, no breeze, lovely for a run

Bar the continued treatment of the ab muscle tear, I've been feeling well, and getting psyched up for the big day. For the past few days, however, I've been feeling the onset of a cold and seeing the 7 month old smeared in snot yesterday wasn't particularly reassuring. Anyway, I woke up this morning feeling crap and energyless.

I'm just glad the race is on Monday, with plenty of time to start feeling better. Sleep hasn't been great recently due to the two year old's new habit of crawling into our bed at anytime after midnight, and then proceeding to kick the sh*t out us while he sleeps contentedly! Tomorrow night, I'm sleeping in the spare room!

I'm heading into town to Bjohnson later on today to have a last dig at the ab muscle. After that, it's back to the runner's placebo of vitamin C and echinacea!

I had hoped to put in three short runs this week. I did one run on Tuesday, and if I'm feeling better tomorrow, I'll do another light three miler. I now await Catweazle's comments regarding another drama of mine prior to a big race!


Tuesday

A light three miler at approximate race pace, Garmin playing up so had no real idea of pace while running.

Route: Home to An Sruthán and back
Distance: 3 miles (approx)
Time: 22:07
Target Pace / Achieved Pace: 7:25 / 7:22
Perceived Exertion (out of 10): 7
Personal Satisfaction: 7
Weather: A rare night time run, cold enough to justify long sleeves.

catweazle wrote: »

^^^ I beat you to it ^^^:D

:o:o. Goddamn you, catweazle. What hope do I have next year when my arch nemesis can already read me like a book?!:D

And to think that things were going so well! To be honest, I'm not too concerned. I feel like sh*t at the moment, but there's plenty of time to feel better. Monday has me a combination of curious and scared. I've never "raced" a marathon before, just plodded along best I could. We'll see where it all ends up!

6:30am, and the alarm went off. We were staying in the Schoolhouse Hotel, about five minutes walk from Merrion Square and despite the number of marathon runners staying there, there was no breakfast until 7am. I had a banana, chia seeds in water and a shower, before heading down to the restaurant for a bit of porridge and some coffee.

It had been a few marathons ago since I last ran with my original running buddy, Brendan, and it was nice to share a pre-marathon breakfast again. Bren had put in a big year’s training and it occurred to me that it’s a strange sport at our level that we’re much better runners now that we’re in our mid-thirties than we were when we did our first marathon together in New York in 2002.

For some reason, I felt more relaxed before this marathon than any other I had run previously. Sure, I had the usual anxieties the night before, but the cold I had the week before (real or imaginary) had cleared up the day beforehand, and I knew that the ab muscle tear would be tender but manageable. My plan for the day was to head out with the 3:15 pace group and see how long I could hang on.

At the start, I introduced myself to Krusty_Clown, who was pacing, and met pgmcpq who I recognised from his log photos. Although pgmcpq and I were only two or three people back from the pacers, once the race started, we fell way behind straightaway. I had envisaged a nice calm pacing group making its way around Dublin, but the first mile and a half was like running in a washing machine. Elbows, barging, stepping on people’s toes, and that was just me! (only joking!). It took a fair bit of energy that I didn’t expect to expend at the start of the race just to make my way back to Krusty and village runner, but things settled down again at O’Connell Street.

The ab muscle had me paranoid the night before. I kept feeling a strain up the right side of my torso depending on how I lay in bed, but even though it felt sore at the start of the race, it disappeared as the body warmed up. By Phoenix Park, things had settled down and I was feeling good. At about the seven mile mark, I found myself running beside a fellow Boards AC singlet wearer, foleyalan, another man aiming for 3:15, and we locked into a nice pace together just in front of the pacing group. The first hill at Inchicore didn’t seem as steep as it did last year, but I had forgotten about the other one shortly afterwards! With no balloon in front of me to pace off, and with the Garmin losing GPS signal (this keeps happening to me at big races!), I was a bit nervous that we were going too fast. I think Alan felt the same as he kept glancing back, and reassuring me that the pacers were only a few metres behind. Krusty roaring on the crowds and the runners was probably an indication of his proximity anyway!

At about 11.5 miles, I felt a stitch in my chest, and this got me irrationally anxious, as (a) last year, I had to walk a stitch off at about mile 17, and (b) this is how the abdominal muscle tear manifested itself at first during the run at Loughrea Triathlon. There was no need to worry though, as it had passed by half-way. I think it was brought on by the combination of the extra exertion of that long drag by Crumlin and of trying to stay in touch with the pacers at a narrow section of the route. I encountered elbows here again! Bloody dangerous!

At about mile 15, I think, there was a mad scramble at the water station and I fell back a good bit from the pacers. I looked around for foleyalan and I could see no sign of him either, and it took a fair bit of work over the guts of a mile to get back in touch with the 3:15 balloon. No sign of Alan, though. I sidled up beside Krusty at about mile 17 and when he asked me how I was, I told him that I had never felt as good, running at that pace for that many miles (of course, I never had run that far at that pace!). Shortly afterwards, pqmcpq pops up from nowhere! “I’m back”, he says, and bounces off, looking very comfortable, to latch onto village runner who was pacing a few metres ahead.

Up the hill at Milltown, again feeling better than last year, and a surprise at mile 18 to see my wife and Brendan’s wife cheering at the side of road! It’s a brilliant feeling to see people you know during a race like this, and especially so when you’re not expecting to see them at that point. Mile 19, and I had completely erased from memory the hill at Clonskeagh. No recollection at all of this from last year. Running on my own, I know I would have suffered and slowed badly at this stage, but the work Krusty put in to bring the pack up the hill was epic. I’m not sure where he drew a breath while shouting encouragement. Another short, sharpish hill near Stillorgan (I think?), and then the downhill to get to the dual-carriageway.

I was beginning to feel the pain at this stage. The hills that I had forgotten had taken their toll and I could see the orange balloon moving further and further ahead. Just before the UCD flyover, I found myself beside pgmcpq again, who let off a godawful roar of pain after catching a kerb at the top of the flyover. I asked him if he was ok, he explained his pain, and I headed down the ramp trying to keep sight of the balloon. At this stage, the pacers weren’t that far away from me, but my efforts to up my pace was only matching, at best, their pace, so the gap never closed. Onto Merrion Road, and I was breaking down the distance into the short runs at home. “From my house to Loch an Mhuilinn and back, and I’m done” I thought. With no GPS signal to give me my pace, and with the pacers going on ahead, the only way I could stop myself from falling into a slow pound of self-pity was to try and overtake people. psychozeb must have had the same idea, passing comment on the Boards singlet as he casually breezed by at mile 24!

With two miles to go, I kept looking at the stopwatch and at the pace band, wondering if I’d get under the 3:15 mark. Coming around College Green, I picked up the pace. On Nassau Street, a nice surprise as a friend from college recognised me and gave a cheer! A big spurt at the end, and across the line in 3:15:08. My first reaction was elation, my second was vomit. I reckon every ounce of my carefully-considered gel strategy was heaved over the barrier in the finish area! T-shirt, medal, goodie bag that felt at the time like it contained a bag of cement!

I met my wife around the corner and hobbled back to the hotel, where I had a quick bath, and we walked back to McGrattan’s. There, I met Aimman and robinph, who had put in a fantastic time, before heading to the front of the bar where I had arranged to meet some other people. Brendan arrived in, having run 3:43, almost an hour better than his previous PB, and a much stronger run than he had expected.

Looking back at the race, I am delighted and over the moon. This year, I’ve been disappointed with missing a sub 1:30 half marathon by 17 seconds, and by missing out on a top 100 place in Gaelforce West. I am nothing but overjoyed with 3:15:08 however. It knocks 40 minutes and 32 seconds off last year’s PB, and is way ahead of where I imagined I would be at the beginning of the year, when I posted on this log that 3:40 would be the target (and even that was an optimistic target at the time).

I’m very grateful to Krusty, Village Runner and Rory for their pacing and the hard work they selflessly put in to get us around. As it was last year, this year’s marathon was extremely well-organised (barring some water station chaos on occasion), and the spirit in which it was run, and supported, was fantastic. I plan to take a break from marathons next year, and try my hand at triathlons, but might give it a shot again in 2012.

Thanks to everyone for their messages of encouragement. It all culminated in what was a great day!

Thursday

My wife was in town doing a course last night, so I packed the running bag and brought the boys for a visit to the in-laws, where I promptly abandoned them and ran off into the night (that sounds harsher than it actually was!!).

The wind and rain had eased off by the time I headed out last night, and being at a bit of a loss these days due to not having a training plan to follow, I decided to go out on the main road, run west to as far as the footpath finished, and then turn around. That left me at about 3.5 miles so a little extra stretch down to the beach and back finished the four miles for me.

No niggles for the first time post-marathon, so I pushed it on a little bit. I think I'll dig out the Furman 10k plan, count back from 26 December to see where in the plan I start, and start preparing to improve a 47 minute PB for that distance!

Oh, and I really need to get a stronger light for these nights...

Route: Na Minna to An Tulaigh to Trá na Minna and back
Distance: 4.1 miles
Time: 28:26
Pace: 6:56
Perceived Exertion (out of 10): 8
Personal Satisfaction: 7 (nice to not feel any little pains)
Weather: Blustery but dry