The -OFFICIAL- Dublin Marathon Pacers - Pacer Race Day Instructions now in

--amadeus--

Well folks it gives me a great deal of pleasure to tell you that (through the efforts of Hard Worker) we have been asked to pull together the Official Dublin Marathon Pace Groups!

This is a huge deal - it's a great way to get some positive publicity for Boards AC and for all of the experienced runners to give something back to the running community. So far HW has been able to secure free entry for all pacers and there are hopefully a few other perks being sorted out as well - details when we have them.

There are some strings:

• Pacers must be running well within themselves; a minimum of 15 and ideally 30 mins below thier proven (and documented) recent performances. If you ran a 3:30 in 2004 and haven't run since that's not enough!
• Pacers must be committed to teh endeavour - please only sign up if you are 100% sure that you'll do this, not if you are thinking about it.
• You must run the pace you commit to - finishing faster than your pace time will have some form of penalty (not sure what but def. forfeiting the free race entry and whatever other stuff we get)

We had some volunteers before but I want to give everyone a chance to properly think about this before committing, so I'm not going to hold anyone to previous comments. And remember, you don't have to be a Boards AC member to do this.

Pace groups are:

Sub 3
Sub 3:30
Sub 3:45
Sub 4:00
Sub 4:15
Sub 4:30

We want 2 runners per group and I would really like it if they were all from here but we may need to open it up to outsiders.

So, the floor is open, what do you all think and who wants to put thier name down?


HW - anything I've missed?

Woddle

I'll still do the 4 hours if thats ok, current pb of 3:37 from Dublin last year and I'll be doing Berlin 5 weeks beforehand, so I'll have the training done.
I reckon there might be quite a few who will want the job as pacer, so I would like to add to the selecting committee, I did 3 sub 4s last year in 9 weeks.

Woddle

And well done Hard worker and Amadeus for seeing it through, I've already paid my entry though

Krusty_Clown

Great idea, very excited about it. I can do either 4 hours, or 3:45. Have already paced for a 3:38. PB is 3:20 3:22, but I reckon I can comfortably beat that time, and hope to, over the next two marathons. Like Woddle, I have also run Dublin before (an advantage!).

Racing Flat

The inclusion of pacers should be a great addition to an already excellent marathon. Well done.

Peckham

That's excellent. Would love to do it myself (and lead some of Peckham's Pacers around the course), and would have the training done from Berlin....however am in UK at a wedding that weekend. Wedding is the Saturday, and in theory I could get back on the Sunday, but would be in no fit state for 26.2!

SUNGOD

im interested..i will also be running berlin 5 weeks previous
not sure what time i would want to pace , im thinking i would like to be very comfortable and run well within myself so 4 hours or over but open to change

Killerz

Well done guys, excellent initiative. unfortunately i'm a few marathons/ years off pacing standard so i'm no use, but will defo be looking out for ye on the day for a bit of pacing action.

hunnymonster

I'm putting myself down for 3:45 but can do anytime higher than that as required by Amadeus/ Hard Worker.

chinguetti

Think its a great idea and well done to all concerned for getting it for Dublin.

Any limit to the number of people that can go for each time? I'm guessing its a work in progress at this early stage.

Sosa

Great idea...well done amadeus and anyone else involved.
Dublin will be my first marathon,so not in a position to pace.

--amadeus--

chinguetti wrote: »

Any limit to the number of people that can go for each time? I'm guessing its a work in progress at this early stage.

Are you asking from the Pacer or Pacee's POV?

We're looking for 12 pacers in total, 2 for each time slot (although we may need to line up more in case of drop outs, not sure how that will work yet )

As Pacee's there is no limit - the Pacers will line up at the right place in the start crowd, probably with a big balloon with thier time target written on it. Anyone and everyone in the crowd who is aiming at that time then hopefully follows the pacer home...

Sosa wrote: »

Great idea...well done amadeus and anyone else involved.
Dublin will be my first marathon,so not in a position to pace.

I'd like to take the credit but HW is the one who had the contacts to make it happen...

christeb

Superb news and well done to those who put in the time anf effort to get this result. I've paid and intend to run it as a race but will no doubt be using the 3:30 group as a guide

chinguetti

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Are you asking from the Pacer or Pacee's POV?

Sorry should have made that clear, i'ld be a pacee. Cork will be my first marathon so i still working out the whole 'pacing oneself over a marathon' thing. Never thought it would be so tricky.

Again, congrats on a great idea. Is it going to widely publicised by the Marathon as i'm sure people who aren't on here would love to be paced?

--amadeus--

There will be publicity around it I'm sure - it would be great if we could get something on the official Dublin marathon website sooner rather than later to try and get people to register as pacers and I would hope to get something on there again as we get closer to the day.

wizwill

hi,

congrats to organising pacers, i am not a member of Boards AC but i think it shows great initiative on your behalf to get this organised, its something that has been missing officially from the DM. I attended a HM in the UK recently and got speaking to the guys from Runners World who do the pacing over there, they had to carry a small wooden placard around the whole course and the usual t-shirt, i have seen pacers using balloons in the past and i think it much better than a placard, far more visible. The guys who do it for runners world in the UK are staff members who work in sales etc. good luck with it!

village runner

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Are you asking from the Pacer or Pacee's POV?

We're looking for 12 pacers in total, 2 for each time slot (although we may need to line up more in case of drop outs, not sure how that will work yet )

As Pacee's there is no limit - the Pacers will line up at the right place in the start crowd, probably with a big balloon with thier time target written on it. Anyone and everyone in the crowd who is aiming at that time then hopefully follows the pacer home...



I'd like to take the credit but HW is the one who had the contacts to make it happen...

3.04 in Rotterdam is PB and would love to lead the 3.30 group.
Planned to run in 3.30 anyway.

ZiggyStardust

Great news for Dublin I think as most big city marathons now have pacers and have found them useful myself.
I'd love to help out, so you can put me down for the 3:30 or 3:45, or which ever you need.

Well done to you and hard worker.

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Well folks it gives me a great deal of pleasure to tell you that (through the efforts of Hard Worker) we have been asked to pull together the Official Lifestyle Sports addidas Dublin Marathon Pace Groups!

This is a huge deal - it's a great way to get some positive publicity for Boards AC and for all of the experienced runners to give something back to the running community. So far HW has been able to secure free entry for all pacers and there are hopefully a few other perks being sorted out as well - details when we have them.

There are some strings:

• Pacers must be running well within themselves; a minimum of 15 and ideally 30 mins below thier proven (and documented) recent performances. If you ran a 3:30 in 2004 and haven't run since that's not enough!
• Pacers must be committed to teh endeavour - please only sign up if you are 100% sure that you'll do this, not if you are thinking about it.
• You must run the pace you commit to - finishing faster than your pace time will have some form of penalty (not sure what but def. forfeiting the free race entry and whatever other stuff we get)

We had some volunteers before but I want to give everyone a chance to properly think about this before committing, so I'm not going to hold anyone to previous comments. And remember, you don't have to be a Boards AC member to do this.

Pace groups are:

Sub 3
Sub 3:30
Sub 3:45
Sub 4:00
Sub 4:15
Sub 4:30

We want 2 runners per group and I would really like it if they were all from here but we may need to open it up to outsiders.

So, the floor is open, what do you all think and who wants to put thier name down?


HW - anything I've missed?

hunnymonster

Thanks Ziggystardust and village runner.

--amadeus--

Seconded - a huge thank you to everyone who has stepped up so far!

I'm up to my oxters at work but I'll do a table later with names and pacing bands so we can see where we have coverage and where we have gaps.

Remember that pacers don't have to be BAC affiliated (though it would be great if they were!) so if you know someone in the real world who would be suitable then don't be afraid to rope them in. Likewise once we have everything finalised we may need to open this up to other websites & groups so anyone who has any clout or sway and wants to help publacise please either post here or PM

Thanks!

gingerfurball

*waves*

Hello amadeus and Hunnymonster!!

Just saying hello and looking forward to the pacing at the marathon....I'll (optimistically!!) be going in the Last group!!

--amadeus--

Hey there - how's about ye!

You took your time turning up here, belated congrats on Belfast by the way, brave run. Not that you'll have much time for that in teh not so distant future...

Wally Runs

I would be very happy to do 4.30/4.15 (PB 3.59 in 2008 but plan to improve). I will have (hope to) run two more before October. Mind you a long way to go before Dublin.
It is a fair way off and I have no doubt that injuries will come and go before then. Might it be better to aim for three per group to allow for one an understudy etc.

It might be a good idea to try out the pace groups in the race series half, just to see what is involved in keeping a group together etc,

Best of luck.

Daithi BC

It looks like there's a good crew already down for 3:30, so can I put my name down as first reserve? I'm aiming for 2:50 in Berlin five weeks before Dublin, so I would hope to be recovered in time.

lecheile

Given that there appears to be plenty of interest in a 3:30 group - is there a chance that we can fit in a 3:15 group as I'm sure it is an important milestone for more than me

village runner

lecheile wrote: »

Given that there appears to be plenty of interest in a 3:30 group - is there a chance that we can fit in a 3:15 group as I'm sure it is an important milestone for more than me

It would be great but the volunteers arent coming in a plenty. You would have to be a sub 3 runner to do this and not many of them out there based on Dublins results last year. Volunteers for the 3 would have to be swerious runners out for a jog.
Maybe if lads knew they there was tshirts etc there would be more volunteers.
For me getting one person accross the line in sub 3.30 is enough and the main reason is to stop me smoking after running berlin. Carrying a balloon for 26.2 miles might be as hard as running in.

--amadeus--

Well speaking personally my PB is 3:06 (hopefully going lower in Amsterdam!) and I wouldn't feel confident pacing anything under 3:45. So on that basis a 3:15 pacer would want to be a pretty handy 2:45 man - but we'll rule nothing out!

I know it seems like we are treading water at this stage but we are just waiting for the committee to meet and sign off on a few bits and we'll go from there. I have been talking to a few people by PM as well and through publicity and real world contacts I'm confident we'll get there.

spb100

I would be pleased to be a pacer, either 4hrs, or slower. I am usually around 3.30, amd have run 160 marathons to date. Hope I can help.
Regards SPB

RICHIE-RICH

spb100 - is that 160 marathons, or a typo??

If correct then wow! and there may be LOTS of questions coming your way shortly!!!!

--amadeus--

A huge thank you again to all the people who have signed up so far!

The latest news is that HW has secured some free goodies for the pacers. In addition to free entry all official pacers will now get technical t-shirts, singlet and shorts (no details on how they look at this stage )

We're actually doing ok on teh recruitment front - I think we might be juggling some pleople around rather than having everyone run in exactly thier prefered time spot but some good runners lining up.

I'm planning on opening this up a bit more over teh next week or so to fill out the last spaces and feel free to spread the word in real life - if you know someone who might be able for this but they aren't (yet) on here then they can mail pacer@flexability.ie and I'll count them in.

Talk to you all soon!

Highway_To_Hell

spb100 wrote: »

I would be pleased to be a pacer, either 4hrs, or slower. I am usually around 3.30, amd have run 160 marathons to date. Hope I can help.
Regards SPB

Wow, how many years to complete 160 Marathons?

RICHIE-RICH

Suggestion - get in touch with John Desmond of the running in cork website, and he will publicise it for you for sure.
He is getting thousands of hits per month on his website and (dunno about this) but would assume that most are Cork/Munster based runners. Bound to get a few pacers there.
http://corkrunning.blogspot.com/

spb100

I ran my first marathon in 1989 and for quite a few years ran just between 1 and 3 a year, I steadily built it up to around 10 or so each year, completing my 100th in 2004. I must add there are many people out there who have run far more than me!!

hunnymonster

spb100 wrote: »

I must add there are many people out there who have run far more than me!!

but it's safe to say, most people fall into the have run less category. Well done and welcome aborad.

Sosa

I see that plenty of people are offering there services for the 3:30...4:00 groups.
I did not see anyone yet for the 3:00 slot ( and there is no 3:15 correct ? )...do ye have people lined up from outside boards ?

I would imagine it would be harder to get people to pace 3:00 ...realistically they would have to be 2:30 marathoners or less.

--amadeus--

Yeah the sub 3 slot is a bit of a headache alright. Lots of people both from within Boards and teh broader running community have stepped up and (from a rough count) I think we have all of teh other time slots covered - with a proper tally coming later today I hope.

But nothing doing yet on sub 3, so if anyone knows any quick and consistent runners please spread the word! Likewise just because we have names down for the slots doesn't mean that you should be shy about stepping up and volunteering. We need lots of names to cover drop outs and injury. I'm going to be getting a "running CV" off applicants as well so that we can match people to the best time so just because we have a lot of cover at a certain time slot now doesn't mean we'll have it when we look at all the details.

--amadeus--

Pace groups so far:

Pace Band|Name|Details Submitted?|Boardsie?
Sub 3|"Skinny Jim"|Yes|No
Sub 3:30|Village Runner|No|Yes
Sub 3:30|Ziggy Stardust|No|Yes
Sub 3:30|Daithi BC|No|Yes
Sub 3:45|Sungod|No|Yes
Sub 3:45|HM|Yes|Yes
Sub 4|Krusty Clown|No|Yes
Sub 4|spb100|No|Yes
Sub 4:30|Wally Runs|No|Yes
Sub 4:30|"Iron Tractor Boy"|Yes|No
Sub 4 or 4:30|Woddle|No|Yes


Woddle I have floating a little at the moment (I hope that's ok?) he is def running a group but it will depend on numbers exactly where he fits (he's my strategic reserve ) Likewise I haven't put myself in - my own plan is to race Amsterdam which is a week before this. If we get let down by anyone for whatever reason then I should be able to step in to any of the slots from 3:30 down, which gives us some wriggle room in case of disaster.

As you can see there are 2 "non-boardsies" listed.

"Iron Tractor Boy" some of you may have met after DCM last year. He has run multiple marathons and is a seasoned Ironman triathlete and will be competing in teh Eireman event this year. A solid performer who can predict his finishing time with great accuracy and is also a qualified football referee (indeed he's teh fitness co-ordinator for teh local area of teh Hampshire FA so you can blame him for all teh decisions taht went against your team this year!) He's also an avid cake fan and should be good comapny on teh run.

At the other end of teh scale we have "skinny Jim". Someone HM and I know and probably the fastest runner I have had teh pleasure to argue about cars with! Ran his first DCM at age 13 (no that's not a typo, back then U-16s could run with parental permission and he did it with his Dad). He returned in 2005 finishing 15th overall and 3rd Irishman in a not at all shabby 2:23. Winner of multiple races and a very nice fella he'll be dragging the sub 3 people home.

So now what? Well I'd still like some more names so if you haven't yet stepped up don't be shy! And I could still really do with additional heads on teh sub 3 team - if SJ gets injured we're sunk so please spread the word. HM, I think you have additional names as well for a sub 5 group?

Lastly if your name is listed there could you please send the following by PM:

• Boards Nick
• Real name (for online results verification)
• Total number of marathons / ultras run
• Location of last 3 marathons
• Results of last 3 marathons
• Anything else you feel is relevant!

Likewise if you are listed and would like to pull out just drop me a line - no-one should feel coerced into this.

Thanks!

hunnymonster

you not on the list yourself Amadeus?

--amadeus--

*sigh*

--amadeus-- wrote: »

Likewise I haven't put myself in - my own plan is to race Amsterdam which is a week before this. If we get let down by anyone for whatever reason then I should be able to step in to any of the slots from 3:30 down, which gives us some wriggle room in case of disaster.

With only a week between Amsterdam and Dublin it might be cutting it fine. Besides with things like this I'd rather have a couple of heads I can juggle around and slot in if needed so it makes sense for me to act as a reserve.

hunnymonster

oops sorry missed that but I don't buy the excuse. We're doing an ultra the Sunday before (need a last point for the UTduMB and it's the only one that suits)

village runner

--amadeus-- wrote: »

*sigh*





With only a week between Amsterdam and Dublin it might be cutting it fine. Besides with things like this I'd rather have a couple of heads I can juggle around and slot in if needed so it makes sense for me to act as a reserve.

Dont know how to send a pm. Can you send me a pm with your email address and I will email all the details to you. I am definitely up for it.
Will stop me smoking after Berlin. Would be a good idea if we all booked the same hotel ?

--amadeus--

The email address for this is pacer@flexability.ie, it's checked every couple of days.

robinph

village runner wrote: »

Dont know how to send a pm.

OT, but I'll throw it in here anyway until they decide to delete it ... click on the user name beside any of that persons posts and a little menu will popup. Select the "Send a private message to XXXXX" option and then just type away the same as you would for normal posts. If you recive a PM then you will get a popup from the broswer to let you know, or click the link in the top right of any page tp take you to your inbox.

Zuppy

Robinph - thanks but you forgot to sign up for a pacer slot. :D:D

robinph

I don't think I'd qualify on account of being a rubbish judge of pacing, and that's quite apart from the fact I'll probably have a broken leg by October.

Zuppy

Well I am starting a Sub 5hr group. thats 11:27/mile. So make sure you get a lightweight cast.

I will promise you babes (I won't post a link to the most viewed photo on the Cork marathon thread)

IronTractorBoy

I have just joined up on here and thought I would post a quick intro.

About 7 years ago I was a 18 1/2 stone (117 Kg) lazy bloke, gradually lost weight did a fun run 5km in 40+ minutes and got the running bug. Then lost more weight at my lowest I was over 5 1/2 stone lighter. I just kept gradually increasing the distance upto a marathon then I started doing triathlons and gradually increased that to Ironman.

Amadeus's intro for me had Connemara Ultra marathon missing which I did earlier in the year which is my first ultra. It was great scenery but a lot more hills than expecting.
At the moment I only referee at the local county level but some of the games do have cake and other food afterwards. In addition to cake I also find Chips and Guinness also fit into my pre and post race nutrition.

shels4ever

Well I won't be pacing any of the groups as I just havent the ability to do so, but will be available to do some support en route. Maybe act as a stand by in the event of problem with any of the slower groups if needed.

Woddle

shels4ever wrote: »

Well I won't be pacing any of the groups as I just havent the ability to do so, but will be available to do some support en route. Maybe act as a stand by in the event of problem with any of the slower groups if needed.

Or photographer?

robinph

Woddle wrote: »

Or photographer?

Thats what I plan on being for the day, might have to run between various locations on the course though.

Woddle

Excellent. I reckon on a bike you could get pics at the start, make your way to bushy park for a while for more pics before you make your way back to the finish.