Running with the birds or for the birds?

Marthastew

Ferris B wrote: »

+1. Yourself and Joe looked very comfortable (unlike plenty of others) just after the last hill and before 13m mark.

From a personal viewpoint, it was fantastic to see Joe running a half marathon, 6 months after stent implants. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

there most definitely IS light at the end of that tunnel:D and even though the tunnel isn't exactly the route any of us would have chosen and can be very scary at times it reminds us every day of Nietsche's* well known phrase (and that awful cheesy song;))

That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger

* We can further expand on Nietsche's philosophy after many beers in The Oscar Wilde;)

RayCun

I'll tell the kid there's one less rival to l look out for at the next race ;-) recovery is slow, but I'm in no hurry, this week is all easy. Good luck in Berlin!

pgmcpq

Best of luck this weekend !

DarByrne1980

long time lurker but best of luck

kit3

Best of luck ms

KielyUnusual

Best of luck in Berlin. Have a great time and enjoy the PB beers in the Oscar Wilde

# CruAbú

theboyblunder

Best of luck MS - some great training recently - hope you get the great resukt you deserve.

Duanington

Good luck MS - looking forward to reading about the German bunnies, squirrels, tweeting bluebirds and small deer that bounce around the course after you

RedRunner

The very best of luck MS. Hope it all goes to plan.

SamforMayo

Best of luck, no doubt you will do us proud!

racheljev

Hope you have a great weekend in Berlin, hope the race is amazing and hopefully you get the result you deserve. Looking forward to the report already

RubyK

The very best of luck ms, hope you and mr ms have a lovely weekend!! Looking forward to reading your fab race report on the pb you will run :-)

RacoonQueen

Have a great race / trip

jonny99

Best of legs,and enjoy!

neilc

Best of luck MS, have a great race and weekend!!

ThebitterLemon

Best of luck MS.

Hope you get that PB and enjoy it.

TbL

AuldManKing

looking forward to the epic report, minus the tears
ah no feck it, its not a proper report without the tears!


Enjoy the race and hope everything goes your way.

blockic

Best of luck MS! enjoy it!

eoinín

Viel Erfolg!

Gavlor

eoinín wrote: »

Viel Erfolg!

What he said








(I think!)

Marthastew

:D

Thank you all SO MUCH for your lovely messages of support, I really appreciate it.
Mr Stew and I have arrived safe and sound in our lovely hotel in Berlin and if it weren't for the fact that I'm running a marathon tomorrow it would feel like we were on our honeymoon:)

I'm hoping for a nice shiny new PB and Mr S is going to run half, pop back to the hotel, get changed and be there at the finish line to cheer me home:D

Best of luck to all this weekend with your racing and training

DOCO12

Best of luck

RacoonQueen

Marthastew wrote: »

:D

Thank you all SO MUCH for your lovely messages of support, I really appreciate it.
Mr Stew and I have arrived safe and sound in our lovely hotel in Berlin and if it weren't for the fact that I'm running a marathon tomorrow it would feel like we were on our honeymoon:)

I'm hoping for a nice shiny new PB and Mr S is going to run half, pop back to the hotel, get changed and be there at the finish line to cheer me home:D

Best of luck to all this weekend with your racing and training

Have a great time...Mr S has some discipline!!! PB beers when you get back!

Marthastew

Firstly thanks so much to everyone for all their wonderful messages of support on here, on FB and by text, I really, really appreciated it and it meant a lot to Joe and I to know you were all rooting for us:)

Berlin Marathon 2014 Sunday September 28th
Third time, but not so lucky:eek:
In last week’s post I had highlighted the pitfalls of my recent block of training and it was obvious to me at the time that my goal was a little lofty. Despite this I also felt that if everything went my way on Sunday I might have gotten lucky and I had a number of reasons for giving it a shot
· As TBL had reminded me recently a 3.12 in Limerick (with no real specific training, and definitely no MP miles in the 8 weeks previous) was surely worth a better time on a much easier course.
· This past year has been an “interesting” one for the Stews to say the very least and having always felt that life is for living we are even more aware of this fact now and Berlin was always going to be a “go hard or go home” run for me.
· For the first time since I started running 6 years ago I didn’t have my next marathon booked heading to the start line and this was also at the back of my mind. While it’s highly unlikely I won’t race another marathon again (since I love them so much!) things are naturally still a bit up the air with Mr Stew and his safe return to running so we’re still taking things one day at a time.
· The T word…. and no, I’m not talking about my disappearing cleavage;) I’m talking about TIME; there a plenty of posters on here who are getting better and faster with age and making huge gains with their training and while I most definitely feel that age is just a number I’m very much aware that the clock is ticking for me; I’ve been running for 6 years now (I seem to remember reading somewhere that after 6 years we slow down?) and I desperately wanted to get my marathon time down before I start to go backwards.
So, with plenty of reasons to give it a shot I headed to Berlin in the hope of bagging myself a PB with 3.09 as my goal.

The week before;
I had paced the Dublin half marathon the week before and really enjoyed it, I finished feeling strong with no niggles but this had been preceded by a fairly hectic week at home with Mr Stew very, very busy in work and the junior Stews taking up lots of my time so I decided very much to err on the side of caution for the week before Berlin. The youngest junior was up with a tummy bug from midnight to 5am on Wednesday night so that sort of put the cat among the pigeons! I did hug him and mind him but all the time I was thinking I hope I don’t get sick, luckily I didn’t get sick but lack of sleep tired me out. I consequently ended up only running on the Wednesday and Friday, easy miles with a few strides thrown in and I felt great on these runs. I had planned a couple of easy miles on Saturday in Berlin but we ended up walking a few miles instead. I took it very easy in the few gym classes I had gone to and also took it easy in yoga. But with plenty of easy swimming thrown in I was rested but not stale and by the time we took off for Berlin I was feeling relaxed and in control and looking forward to the day.
The early flight over on Saturday morning was great fun and we shared a taxi to the expo with Mr and Mrs FBOT and our club-mate Leo and we were all in great form. We didn’t hang around for too long at the expo and Mr S and I were all checked in and relaxing at the pool in our hotel by 1.30pm. We headed out for the afternoon to check out some of the kid’s races and the skating and do a little shopping but after a nice big dinner of baked potato and steak we were back in the hotel relaxing by 7.30pm. I had sipped water all day; approx. 3 litres and I had a bottle beside the bed which I sipped throughout the night whenever I woke up.
Race morning
I slept relatively well but as usual woke early, well before the alarm went off at 6.45, the sun was just starting to shine through the curtains in the hotel window and my first thought was “This will be a great day for running”:D the fact that Mr S wasn’t racing made for a very relaxing start to the day and we were both in great form as we ate our breakfast of ham&cheese roll, coffee and a banana.
As we walked out of the hotel lift in our club vests an older German lady who was waiting in the lobby saw us and she fist-pumped saying “toll, toll, toll”:D, she wasn’t looking for money; the German for super is “toll”, she really cheered me up and when I got someone to take our photo in the reception I was bursting with pride and happiness that Mr S and I were alive and well and heading to the start of the Berlin marathon. We had both run this 2 years ago when I was just back off injury and he was racing so this time the tables were turned; he had planned to only run to half way before stepping off the course and the racing was left to me.
We were staying in the InterContinental just up from the Tiergarten and we had a lovely walk up, passing lots of side roads as cars parked and spilled out lots of anxious runners. The sun was still low in the sky and there was a magical mist over the grass in the park and the colours of the trees along the avenue to the Siegesaule were superb, I love autumn marathons:D
We arrived in time for the countdown to the start of the wheelchair race, the countdown music is the same for all the races and it brought back many happy memories of two years ago when we were there. Mr S was happily taking photos and I was actually very calm and relaxed, every now and again I’d get butterflies and Mr S would reassure me by reminding me I had worked hard for the past few months and I shouldn’t be concerned.
The race started at 8.45 and about 8.15 I was heading for a warm-up along one of the smaller paths near the Elite’s area when I spotted a familiar face…. Shalane Flanagan:D I couldn’t help myself and screamed “Good luck Shalane, we’re cheering for you” , she gave me a bug smile but then returned back to her game face. She was running back up the path I was on so Mr S got a super photo-bomb shot, I like to call this photo “Me and Shalane before Berlin”;) we also saw Kebede as he exited the tent and he is actually smaller in the flesh than you would think!
I had time to pop into the portaloos just before we headed into the back of pen D which wasn’t at all crowded. The introduction of the Elites was so exciting and Mr S and I were jumping up and down with excitement. I love, love, love when they set off all the balloons at the start of Berlin and as we got closer to the start line we were again almost bursting with happiness. The start of any marathon always reminds me of how lucky I am to be alive and I was almost overcome with emotion crossing the start mat hand in hand with Joe after this past year. As soon as we pressed our Garmins he sent me on my way and said “go have a great race”……….

0-10Km
I love marathon-running:)
I settled in to a nice rhythm of 7.15 pace pretty much straight away and while it was very obviously busy and crowded (37,000 runners in total) I felt comfortable and took it all in my stride. I got a great shout-out from a Crusader on the side at the Siegessaule monument just before 1K, he was supporting as he was side-lined with injury, I went on to see him 5 more times throughout the course! He is taller than Mr S and must have gone to the same “supporters finishing-school” as Mr S (rumour has it FerrisB also graduated with flying colours from there), his support throughout the day was such a great help and the last time I saw him with about 800M to go I’m pretty sure I told him I loved him:)
During the second kilometre I ran alongside Adam, an American from Miami who lives in the UK and had recently run the Longford marathon, after a while I told him to push on as he was going a little fast for me and I was feeling a little overdressed in his company…. he was wearing a star-spangled-banner jocks and bandana, and a big smile!
I reached the 5K mat bang on schedule at 22.30 and I thought “that was easy”. The water station was bedlam but I managed to grab a cup and sip a small bit before pouring the rest on my head.
The next 5K I trotted along enjoying the crowds and the music on the side and I didn’t really look at my Garmin except when it would beep to tell me I had run a mile. I passed a group of Donore supporters and high-fived a good pal; they were out in full force, proudly flying the tricolour. Donore had some really great results and I had the pleasure of chatting in the pub with one of their female runners who I know from racing, she was extremely modest about her run even though she ran 2.59 and looking up the results I saw she was 39th female overall!
At 9K I took a sip of water and my first gel, Kinetica Cola (the kind that doesn’t need water), I’ve taken these for my past few races and they usually work well for me. Arriving at the 10K mat with 45.38 I saw I was already 40 seconds behind schedule and I was beginning to think today might not be my day…..
10K-20K
Why aren’t I having fun anymore?
I continued on enjoying the crowds, chatting to the odd runner alongside me and only glancing now and again at the pace on my Garmin, each time I’d look I’d think “Oh that’s a little slower than it should be” and I’d start concentrating on the pace again. The effort felt very much like marathon pace but unfortunately the pace wasn’t what it should have been. I knew it was way too early to be pushing things so I just ran as relaxed as I could. The water stations were hectic and I can still hear the crunch, crunch sound of the plastic cups dropping and being stood on. I wasn’t concerned that I didn’t manage to swallow too much from each cup as there were so many stations throughout the course. I passed a female runner who was dressed in a rather fetching girly-pink-flowery ensemble and I was reminded how we can often make assumptions about runners and their appearance.
15K mark in 1.08.45, still behind schedule and I was starting to feel a little nauseous but I hadn’t given up yet as it was too early in the race to be making any rash decisions. 20K in 1.31.59 and although I didn’t feel like it I took a second gel. I was looking forward to the half way mark and hoping things would have settled down by then.
20K-30K
Where has all my energy gone?
I began to think that maybe I was getting a bit dehydrated as I really wasn’t feeling great and it was so warm so at the 20K water/drinks station I slowed to almost a walk and drank the entire cup of water but all it did was make me feel nauseous and by the time I got to half way I already knew that today was going to be a “character building” run. I had been glancing occasionally at my HR, I generally don’t keep an eye on it in races but since I wasn’t feeling so well I was hoping it would tell me that it was all in my mind, it wasn’t my Hr was hovering around 182bpm, my average Hr for Limerick marathon was 175 so when I reached the half-way point (1.37.07) with a chance of a PB well gone I made the decision to slow down and enjoy the race. For a fleeting moment I thought I’d pull over and wait for Mr Stew and try and race another marathon in a few weeks but I knew that wouldn’t make any sense. Besides, I had given up chocolate for the last month and I’ve had a grand total of 10 glasses of wine since the end of July, there was no way I was facing into another few weeks of discipline! 25K at 1.56.38 and I could almost feel all the good wishes coming from the wonderful boards peeps as you checked my splits and thought “oh no!”
I was still feeling nauseous so I decided not to take any more gels and only sip tiny bits of water, my logic was that if I wasn’t racing then I didn’t need to worry, this is where I feel I made a huge error, if I had taken more care I might have enjoyed the race more and not felt so bad. With no pressure on me now 25-30K was very enjoyable and I high-fived and spotted lots of supporters along the way. At one point Avici’s “Wake me up” was playing and I was back in the land of happy running; dancing and singing and smiling. 30K at 2.21.17
30K-40K
Who turned up the heat?
From 30K to 35K I started to suffer with the heat, I was feeling tired, nauseous and my legs were sore; “I’m too bloody old for this” but I knew that feeling would pass and I’d come out the other side and while I still felt rotten my attitude did soon change. 35K in 2.46.28. I began to look forward to seeing Mr S from about 35k and I spotted 2 club mates and then somewhere along this stretch I also saw a group of pals from DSD/Marlay Parkrun, in fact I heard them first, they were so much fun, shouting and cheering and it gave me a great boost. “This isn’t so bad I thought” but then I was overtaken by a runner dressed as a bottle of Body Lotion:eek: I laughed with the runner beside me and said “You know things are bad when the fancy dress costume is overtaking you”, soon after that a guy dressed in a skin coloured Morph suit overtook me:eek:
When I saw Mr S just before 39K of course I started to cry, firstly I was so happy to see him alive and well but also I was so pi**ed off that I was running a sh*te race! He did his best to cheer me up and told me he’d see me at the Finish line and I left him thinking that the finish line couldn’t come soon enough. 40k in 3.12.42 and when I saw the 40K marker I was reminded that if my race had gone to plan I should have been there at 3 hours:o
40K to Finish
Time to stop the pity party….
Obviously I was being passed by lots of runners but I was also passing the odd few who were walking or had really slowed, I patted as many as I could on their backs and told them “not long to go now” and I copped myself on and told myself to enjoy the rest of the race. Lots of twists and turns here but I remembered this part of the course from the last two times I had run it so I knew what to expect. I was trotting along smiling when who should pass me by but my friend in the pink girly-girly gear, “what’s that she’s pushing?”….. a buffet cart with my ass on a plate and also a nice big serving of humble pie;) I actually had a good laugh at this:D
Just before the 41k marker I spotted some ambulances up ahead and as I passed I saw that a man had collapsed and was getting CPR and had a defibrillator on him, my first thought was that I was glad he was being seen to but then I got terribly upset; it was almost like watching a re-enactment of what had happened to Joe; a man had collapsed with cardiac arrest while running. I was so, so worried hoping he would survive. The chances of surviving cardiac arrest are one in ten and I really, really hoped that like Joe he would be the one in ten. There were a good few runners around me but it was on a very quiet part of the course with high-buildings so it was eerily quiet, I’m sure we were all worried. A young English guy who had passed me must have heard how upset I was and came back and put his arm around me and ran alongside me and told me that the man would be fine since the paramedics were with him. Marathon running often brings out the best in people and I was so very grateful to him for coming back to me, it was only natural for me to be upset but the fact that it was so late in the marathon and I was already feeling so bad can’t have helped, without him there I’m not sure how long it would have taken for me to pull myself together.
I sent my young English friend on his way and told him to pick it up to the end and before long I had finally reached Unter den Linden, a great big shout-out from my omni-present clubmate and I tried my best to enjoy the last stretch of the race. I knew Mr S would be somewhere along this stretch so I spent most of the time looking from side to side but I never spotted him, before I knew it I was through the Brandenburg gate and smiling for the cameras and finally I reached the finish Line, clock time 3.25.43, chip time 3.24.29.
Looking at my finish line video I see that I actually passed Mr Morph just before the finish line, but that’s cos he had stopped to pick up his child who he carried across the line!
Relief and then nausea hit me with a bang so I took a minute to lean on a railing for a bit and spoke to a really nice volunteer who told me that the World Record was broken and I started to feel a lot better and headed off to find Mr S. I was surrounded by lots of happy runners and some who, like me, had obviously had a bad day. That’s one of the things I really love about running, it’s such a personal thing and you’re mostly only ever racing yourself and while I wasn’t happy with my time I was really delighted for those around me that had a good run.
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/602342829
36th in W45 AG
274th female finsiher

Post-race
Reunited with Mr S I was once again very upset, but this time my main concern was the man who had collapsed and I honestly wasn’t really thinking about my race. Someone on the Berlin thread posted that they couldn’t find anything in the news about the man so that must surely mean good news for him and his family.
We wandered back to our hotel and despite my abysmal performance I was now in a good mood, and quite honestly, why wouldn’t I be? Mr S and I were together, I had just finished another marathon in one piece and the sun was shining. (Number 18 for me if you don’t count 50Ks and Conn Ultra). Mr S was in great form, he had had a great time, ran nice and easy to half way, high-fiving and enjoying himself. In fact his record for most high-5s in a row was 6 kids! he also got to see lots of our pals running and was his usual vocal self in the cheering department.
It’s amazing what some food, drink and a shower can do and before long we collected belcarra and R and jumped in a taxi to The Oscar Wilde where everyone was in great spirits. Amazing performances by so many runners and the drink was flowing. It was great to spend time with all our Crusader clubmates (including Leo who had been taken out by a bottle of Erdinger at 29K! he was tripped by a runner in an Erdinger suit, he went on to the medics got cleaned up and finished in one piece), Yaboya, Ferris&MrsF, Fbot&MrsF, Murph&Anna, Withcheeseplease and many others. True to his word yaboya bought PB drinks for all and then it all gets a bit blurry as it seems we all bought PB drinks for all!!
What went wrong and where to now?
I’m still not sure what happened; was I undertrained, over-trained, dehydrated? Did I take it too easy the week before? Should I have worked harder on the day? I’d gladly welcome any thoughts on the matter.
I’m still trying to figure it out but I also feel that sometimes, as in all life, races don’t exactly go to plan and while it’s very important to learn from our mistakes it’s also important to move on and not overthink things too much.
Next up for me is DCM pacing the 4 hour group and I’m really looking forward to it, it’ll keep me honest over the next few weeks but I plan to also take things easy, enjoy a few glasses of wine and eat a lot of chocolate.

I usually finish my race reports with a quote and I read one the other day which seemed particularly apt……..

But in the big scheme of things I am thankful that I could stand on the start line, cross the finish line, give it a good lash in between and enjoy it all with family and friends afterwards.

FBOT01

BeepBeep67

Epic as always, now where's my tissues I've something in my eye

yaboya1

I've been looking forward to this and it didn't disappoint.
Great report

Not sure I believe you're getting slower though? Just a bad day at the office imo.

AuldManKing

Amazing how you churn out these performances and epic reports - despite it not going too well for you (by your own high standards) its an amazing performance given the year you have had.

There's plenty of juice left in that tank - with just the normal life distractions in '15, your training will be super.

Love that last quote - seems very apt.

RayCun

AuldManKing wrote: »

There's plenty of juice left in that tank - with just the normal life distractions in '15, your training will be super.

+ 1000
your focus has been elsewhere this year, but you're nowhere near your peak yet. Next year will see the return of the iron fist in the fluffy sparkly glove

ultraman1

great report and run.............. ur t's are emblazzoned my mind now

career move

Congrats MS. Not the race you had planned but still the usual tough performance. I don't think you should ponder too much on the 'what when wrongs'. It was a challenging target but on another day you would have nailed it. When you've done a lot of marathons and run a lot of PB's it's easy to forget how difficult it can be to run the best marathon you possibly can. Training for a marathon puts a lot of stress on the body and it doesn't take a whole pile to upset the balance. You needed to be 100% on Sunday and whether it was the weather or the travel or that your immune system wasn't quite right or what knocked you off balance who knows. It doesn't matter much though. You'll be back and you'll get your PB. Never mind that 6 year rubbish