Mountain Marathons

Alan Long

My friend and I just signed up for the Wicklow Mountains half Marathon 4 DEBRA.I've done loads of road marathons but this will be my first off road,does neone have any advice?

RacoonQueen

There's a lot of mountain runners on here. I have no advice but I'm dead jealous, I'd love to do mountain running but as I don't drive(too lazy/too cheap to learn) I'm ruling it out for now.

Slogger Jogger

I'm jealous too as I'd love to do it but the timing is not good for me.. Another time. If you've done similar or longer distances on the road then your stamina is up to spec. Just enjoy it. You won't have experienced running on hills like this before. You'll have to slow your pace appreciably on the climbs and maybe walk in parts but thats okay, you'll make it up on the downhill. I'd recommend you recce the route in advance. Perhaps as 2 shorter runs, so that you're familiar with the terrain. Be prepared on the day for all weathers too. You can always peel off an extra layer, but if you're cold and you didn't layer up to begin with then you're not in a good place.

donothoponpop

Alan Long wrote: »

My friend and I just signed up for the Wicklow Mountains half Marathon 4 DEBRA.I've done loads of road marathons but this will be my first off road,does neone have any advice?

At such short notice there's not a lot of mountain specific training you can do. Best advice I can give is that you get out and do a run of some or all of the course, there's a map here http://www.imra.ie/events/view/tab/maps/id/682/

You'll most likely be fine in your regular runners too, so no real need to break in a new pair of offroads.

mp1972 wrote: »

There's a lot of mountain runners on here. I have no advice but I'm dead jealous, I'd love to do mountain running but as I don't drive(too lazy/too cheap to learn) I'm ruling it out for now.

If you venture further South than Dundrum, and enter where it says "Heyre Be Monstyrs" on the uncharted areas of the map;) , you will have access to plenty of trails and great open mountain runs, easily got to on foot or public transport from Dublin city, so get out there and indulge yourself.

Additionally, the great imra website has a carpool section for those who want to get to races but don't have a car.

Enduro

mp1972 wrote: »

There's a lot of mountain runners on here. I have no advice but I'm dead jealous, I'd love to do mountain running but as I don't drive(too lazy/too cheap to learn) I'm ruling it out for now.

Cycle to the hills then. Jeeze, young folk today are so damn lazy

Alan Long

Ok decided to go out and do a recce of the route this Sunday and see how I cope. I'm not worried about the fitness aspect just more the terrain. Sure I'll be grand as long as I come in before my mate i'm happy

RacoonQueen

donothoponpop wrote: »

Additionally, the great imra website has a carpool section for those who want to get to races but don't have a car.

Oh I know, but I'd like to try it a couple of times before I join others so I don't make a complete tit of myself.





















OK I'd be making a tit of myself anyway but yeah, you know.

donothoponpop

mp1972 wrote: »

Oh I know, but I'd like to try it a couple of times before I join others so I don't make a complete tit of myself.

Running round the mountains isn't something you gradually get into, you just go for it!

Put it like this, in the imra races, there's actually a few different battles going on. At the front, there's the race for first place, ah sweet jesus, someday:) Then down the field there's a multitude of other races where you're trying to beat those who beat you last race, or those of a similar "% of winning time", which you can lookup on the results pages of imra.ie. Of course there's the team races, so you try your hardest to get a good score for your team. None of this is especially unusual, and you could imagine the same on a track or road race. But where mountain running really comes into its own is that every runner is running their own race, the important one, where its just you against the mountain. This is why you find so much talk about elevations, terrain, footwear choices, etc, and what makes every mountain race so unique.

So don't even worry about looking like a tit, no-one on the mountains cares for anything but that you enjoy yourself and do your best. Get a bus, or cycle, to Ticknock this weekend and run up around Three Rock; you'll not regret it.

RacoonQueen

Ta...I'm running the Connemara Ultra next weekend so I think I'll give Three Rock a miss until at least the week after.


Plus, stop ruining my excuses for being a wus. :pac:

Slogger Jogger

donothoponpop wrote: »

Running round the mountains isn't something you gradually get into, you just go for it!

Put it like this, in the imra races, there's actually a few different battles going on. At the front, there's the race for first place, ah sweet jesus, someday:) Then down the field there's a multitude of other races where you're trying to beat those who beat you last race, or those of a similar "% of winning time", which you can lookup on the results pages of imra.ie. Of course there's the team races, so you try your hardest to get a good score for your team. None of this is especially unusual, and you could imagine the same on a track or road race. But where mountain running really comes into its own is that every runner is running their own race, the important one, where its just you against the mountain. This is why you find so much talk about elevations, terrain, footwear choices, etc, and what makes every mountain race so unique.

So don't even worry about looking like a tit, no-one on the mountains cares for anything but that you enjoy yourself and do your best. Get a bus, or cycle, to Ticknock this weekend and run up around Three Rock; you'll not regret it.

Theres the age category races too which is where a lot of the close battles are fought - oldie vs oldie

donothoponpop

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Theres the age category races too which is where a lot of the close battles are fought - oldie vs oldie

Sorry, I should have mentioned this too, as many of these old guys would use their free bus pass on public transport to the mountains, right SJ?;)

Alan Long

Just going to give it my best shot. Think I'm going to look like a tit either way but I have to start somewhere.