which is easiest marathon to run in ireland?

ann_doyle

have completed four half marathons, (all completed three years ago), averaging two hours, achill, dublin, dundalk and cooley legends.

loved running but gave it up and have done next to no running since. my new years resolution is to take it up again, hoping to do a marathon this year, aiming to be ready in august, onwards, see there is a longford, dublin and a dingle marathon, is any route easier than the other???? or any recommendations??

Ceepo

ann_doyle wrote: »

have completed four half marathons, (all completed three years ago), averaging two hours, achill, dublin, dundalk and cooley legends.

loved running but gave it up and have done next to no running since. my new years resolution is to take it up again, hoping to do a marathon this year, aiming to be ready in august, onwards, see there is a longford, dublin and a dingle marathon, is any route easier than the other???? or any recommendations??

Maybe not the same but might be some ideas here,


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056795925,

Best of luck

dev123

ann_doyle wrote: »

have completed four half marathons, (all completed three years ago), averaging two hours, achill, dublin, dundalk and cooley legends.

loved running but gave it up and have done next to no running since. my new years resolution is to take it up again, hoping to do a marathon this year, aiming to be ready in august, onwards, see there is a longford, dublin and a dingle marathon, is any route easier than the other???? or any recommendations??

I have not run dingle but the general consensus would be that it is the toughest of the three you listed. Dublin would have the most support which may make it easier compared to longford. Of the three I have done in ireland (dublin, limerick and portumna) portumna would be the easiest though is before august. For a first marathon in ireland you won't be dublin for the support. Hope this helps.

grasscutter

Hi

best of luck with your training for the year. Best marathon would be Dublin since you would get the crowd support and its mainly flat all the way round. It is also one of the latest in the year so gives you the most time to prep. Dingle is tough and the worst hill is at mile 18 so I wouldn't recommend that as your first one.

You should follow a 18 week program such as Hal Higdon(http://www.halhigdon.com/) starting in June for Dublin and probably have a base of running 4x times a week prior to that There is a load of good advice on that site for the first timer so i would recommend looking at that. A note of caution though a marathon is a totally different ballgame compared to a 1/2 and preparation/proper training is key to make sure you have a positive experience on the day On a positive note the buzz of completing your 1st marathon is amazing and is worth all the training you will have to put in to get to the start line

Best of luck

grasscutter

rom

Join a club, wear the singlet and run Dublin and it will be the best one having people from your county cheering you on. btw if you are just looking to tick done a marathon box you are probably in the wrong place because most people could complete a marathon without any training.

RoyMcC

rom wrote: »

most people could complete a marathon without any training.

I don't think you mean that, unless you count walking half the way. To run a marathon to anything like your potential requires serious training.

Pisco Sour

RoyMcC wrote: »

I don't think you mean that, unless you count walking half the way. To run a marathon to anything like your potential requires serious training.

He didn't say run, or compete though, he said complete a marathon. He's right. Literally anybody can finish a marathon. How fast is a different story.

To answer the OP, the mini-marathon would be the easiest.

RoyMcC

Yes, I'm sure that what rom meant. But I don't think the OP has the intention of going down that road, or of taking up your mini-marathon suggestion

Itziger

Pisco Sour wrote: »

He didn't say run, or compete though, he said complete a marathon. He's right. Literally anybody can finish a marathon. How fast is a different story.

To answer the OP, the mini-marathon would be the easiest.

Pisco, you can be a bit of a pr!ck from time to time. The OP asked about marathons and I think most on here have an idea of what that means. Especially if the person also mentioned that they'd done a few Half maras.

Pisco Sour

Itziger wrote: »

Pisco, you can be a bit of a pr!ck from time to time. The OP asked about marathons and I think most on here have an idea of what that means. Especially if the person also mentioned that they'd done a few Half maras.

Tongue in cheek. No matter what marathon you pick you still have to run 42.2km. There's no getting away from that.

RayCun

Marathons aren't run as loops of a track (except the ones that are!) so they're very different.
The only one I've run is Dublin, which is pretty flat, has lots of support all the way around, and all the extras - finishers shirt and medal, big expo, gels and energy drinks on route, etc.
Longford, as far as I know, is flatter, but is very small, very little support on route.
Dingle has more hills, Cork has the relay runners, Kildare (IIRC) has a mix of surfaces...

OP - do Dublin. Big occasion for your first, more time to train, a group training thread on here through the summer for advice.

Mad Benny

I ran my first marathon in September in Sligo. There was a small number doing it but I had all the support I needed. There was good company from the two pacers and there were plenty of water stations with energy drinks.

I haven't run Dublin yet but I plan to in 2013. One benefit of a less busy one like Longford is that you won't be stuck behind crowds of people for the first few miles. I have heard other complaining about that.

I plan to run Longford myself.

Itziger

Pisco Sour wrote: »

Tongue in cheek. No matter what marathon you pick you still have to run 42.2km. There's no getting away from that.

Ooops, my irony detector is on the blink.

Anyway, I've done 4 and none so far in Ireland so I can't comment.

BrokenMan

From my experience
Dublin 3 times relatively flat couple of hills at bad points great crowd support.
Connemara 2 times not flat big hills small crowds but a great experience
Kildare once flattish except for a couple of nasty hills around half way. Very exposed and you can run on your own a lot. Not huge support.
Portumna once. Did the 50k but it's on same day and same loop. Almost pancake flat. 5k loops, great day out with small friendly field.
Taking all that I would say that the easiest overall is dublin with the course profile support and the feel good factor from the other runners or pacers if you are in a group.
In saying all of that no marathon is easy if you are pushing as hard as you can

Pisco Sour

My bad. From reading the OP I thought that the OP was talking about course profile with regards to hills, flat, that kind of thing. That's why I said what I did because if you are just looking to finish it in under 5 hours then a marathon which is about 3 minutes slower than another marathon is not going to make much difference, and it is 42.2km no matter which way you look at it.

But I didn't consider crowd support, how well organised a marathon is etc. Looking at those factors then yes Dublin probably is the way to go.

RoyMcC

RayCun wrote: »

Longford, as far as I know, is flatter, but is very small, very little support on route.

You're not kidding. There are long bits where you don't see a soul, fellow runner or spectator. Then someone will pop out of a gateway and offer you a Jammie Dodger I loved it, but you gotta be happy in your own company.

Mint Sauce

I ran Belfast this year (2012) as my fist one. Good support most of the way, although a little lonely around the 17/18 miles along the tow path with the irish sea on one side of you, and the motorway on the other side.

Good support at most points apart from that, loads of water/drinks/gel stations. Quite flat for most of it, although there can be a few pinch points when you are going through some of the relay areas, as not all are segregated from them doing the whole distance.

Considering again for 2013 as was a little disappointed with my time this time around.

Cut off time for finish is 7 hours.

breffni blue

Waterford viking marathon would be a great 1st marathon, good numbers running, plenty of support, pacers and really flat.
Portumna is another one but the laps can become repetative, (both these are in june so maybe it's to early)
Dublin is definetly the best marathon in ireland, so it's the one i'd recommend..;)

JohnnyBingo

breffni blue wrote: »

Waterford viking marathon would be a great 1st marathon, good numbers running, plenty of support, pacers and really flat.
Portumna is another one but the laps can become repetative, (both these are in june so maybe it's to early)
Dublin is definetly the best marathon in ireland, so it's the one i'd recommend..;)

I ran my first marathon in Waterford last summer. If its the same route as last year and it doesn't seem to have been finalised yet then I wouldn't describe it as really flat. There a certainly a few challenging climbs at various stages of the first half - the second half by comparison though is flatter with a few climbs rather than hills and then Robin Hill at mile 21ish is tough going. Flat all the way from there. It was my local marathon and had done all my long runs on various sections of the route - still not sure if that's a pro or a con !! I enjoyed the experience immensely even though I did struggle badly over the last 7 miles and i plan to dun it again this year. Had no fault with the organisation of it. Well marshalled, lots of water, gels & sports drinks. Some lonely sections in the rural areas with just the odd spectator here and there but always knew that was going to be the case. I guess it amplified the effect when you did come to areas where there were lots of spectators. Time 4:42:56.
I decided a few days later that I would run the Dublin marathon last October and all I can say is wow. Tremendous experience. The crowds line virtually every part of the route and they really know how to support you - very very vocal
I ran it alone in that I didn't know anyone around me and was simply focussing on keeping going so I wasn't making conversation with fellow runners. I knew from Waterford that the first time I stopped would make it easier to keep stopping and this contributed to my blow up in the final 7 miles of WVM so I guess I put myself in the zone which suited me fine although it may not be everyone's cup of tea. I loved every minute of Dublin even the last 5 or so miles from heartbreak hill onwards which were gruelling. The crowds though as I say were amazing and I put down my performance on the day in no small part to their applause, funny signs, screaming at you like they knew you, hand outs of everything from fruit to jelly beans to cans of red bill even though I didn't avail of any, a ukelele duo who popped up at several locations around the course. So many memories from a great day. Time 3:59:36.
Do what am I saying?? Don't be put off by a smaller event for your first, it certainly didn't make me not want to do another. I can certainly see the appeal of a big event for first time too. Pros and cons to each option I guess and ultimately it will come down to your personal preferences and what it is about different sized events that appeal to you as a runner.
I plan running both events again this year and will be happy to better my time in each individually as they are very different races (obviously 3:45 in WVM followed by 3:30 in DCM would be glorious and ill probably aim for that. Just gotta recover from having appendix removed this morning first
BTW I followed Hal Higdon's Novice 1 plan for Waterford and his Intermediate Plan 2 for Dublin.