Ultramarathon Advice for Dingle

Aimman

Despite all my promises to myself to do one and only one ultramarathon, I thouroughly enjoyed the Connemara Ultra this weekend, even though I thought I took the wrong turn and ended up in the marathon Des Sables with the heat.

The runners haven't even cooled down yet and I'm eyeing up the Dingle 50M in September. My only problem is that the race is close to the Addidas 10M in the park and the Longford marathon as in

21st August - Frank Duffy 10M
29th August - Longford Marathon
4th September - Dingle 50M

Has anyone got experience of running a long race like Longford the weekend before an Ultra? Or is it just sheer madness to try it? I had my heart set to running the Adidas and Longford, but Dingle might throw a spanner in the works.

Incidently, When I was running on Sunday, two guys overtook me chatting away and one lad (red curley hair and a back pack) mentioned that he had run a Marathon distance the day before the Ultra. I didnt see him again, which means he either finished ahead of me, or carried off in an ambulance.

If I'm not going for record breaking time in Dingle, (Have up to 11 hours to finish) would I be mad to try Longford, or could there be a possibility of recovering within a week to do it in a reasonable attempt?

RacoonQueen

You'll probably get a variety of different answers but I reckon you can easily do both. Take into account though that last year the weather in Dingle was very similar to what we had in Connemara on Sunday.

TFBubendorfer

It's a sign how deranged some peeps can be when it falls to me of all people to be the voice of reason!:D

I'd be weary even about the 10 miler. It would be no problem at easy pace, but if you race it you will pay the price in Dingle.

As for Longford, fuggetaboutit. Those guys you saw on Sunday might have been closing in on the 100 marathon mark. They can pull that off. No offence meant whatsoever, but I don't think you can (and neither could I).

jeffontour

There's a bunch of people who regularly run the Conn marathon course the day before the event and then do the race the next day. It takes all sort of loonball to make the world go round.

Aimman

Cheers. I'll probably keep the 10M in mind, cos I wanted to get the series and DCM on discount by booking them all in one go. Might have to forgo Longford and do Donegal instead afterwards. I was looking forward to Longford to try for a pb, but I suppose I cant do it all. Maybe a light jog for half longford, if its a nice day.

Magnet

I "raced" the Streets of Galway 8k one week before the Connemara100 mile race and although I didn`t run in between I was grand for that Ultra, as long as theres no injury you should be ok.

Aimman

Magnet wrote: »

I "raced" the Streets of Galway 8k one week before the Connemara100 mile race and although I didn`t run in between I was grand for that Ultra, as long as theres no injury you should be ok.

Cheers Magnet. Good to see you at the start of the race on Sunday. Hope you had a good run.:D

I'm not planning any long races before Dingle now. Maybe if Galway have a back to back marathon weekend like last year, and I can work it into my training schedule, I'll do that. Otherwise I'll try to concentrate on bringing up my pace between now and September.