Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

Swashbuckler

Go get it C . Best of running.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119806364#Comment_119806364

Cheers P, you too. Looking forward to having a pint with you in McG

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119806364#Comment_119806364

Although, I see you're heading up to cheer on and driving home that evening, fair play. Looking forward to meeting ya in person.

tunguska

Well done buddy. I was down by bushy park looking out for you but must've missed you. Paddy said he saw you go by and you looked strong. Seems like you had a pretty much perfect run.

scotindublin

Great effort C and always good to get a high 5 aswell @Laineyfrecks barely got one, you had done more prep on the rendezvous point 🤣🤣

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119811849#Comment_119811849

Ah **** Eoin, I wish I knew you were out there. Was strong at that stage. The elves started loosening the nuts not long after 😃

Delighted with what I did regardless.

I'll stick a race report up soon..

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119812409#Comment_119812409

You can't trust that Lainey wan for a high 5 Craig. The coach didn't even want her posing for pics with me

scotindublin

Ooh very la de dah......is that role of mentor gone to he head 🤣🤣

Swashbuckler

She completely blanked me

scotindublin

Poor form I thought better of her 🤣🤣 and yes she will probably kill me soon 🤣🤣

Laineyfrecks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119814876#Comment_119814876

Eh excuse you I only blanked you once😉🤣

Laineyfrecks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119815530#Comment_119815530

Yep relatively soon😁

Lazare

DCM2022 race report

(gonna preface this by saying that things didn't go to plan, I should be disappointed but I'm not, I'm over the moon, but will be looking for advice as to why it went 'wrong')

Got a welcome text from Elaine on Saturday evening asking me about the morning Luas times and I realised that we'd be heading in there together. In 2017 I met up with a big bunch of fellow novices and it was fantastic to be with them, experiencing it with them. In 2018 I headed in alone, and ran alone and the difference was stark. So E's text gave me a good uplift. I copped also that, given we both were targeting 3:20 we would likely be running it together. People have different race strategies so I didn't strongly suggest it to her, but we kinda just naturally did it.

We got off the Luas and nipped into a cafe on O'Connell St for a toilet visit, which was wise given the queues at the start area.

Got to the bag drop at about 8:25 or so. Had a throwaway jumper over the singlet, thinking on Sat that I'd discard it over the first mile, but it was warm enough to ditch it way before the gun. Maybe that should have been a warning of what was to come, but I didn't think it nor heed it.

Gun went and we were off. E and I both agreed that we would run our own race, we would run together but if one of us wanted to hold back or head off we would do that.

First couple of miles were a touch slower than planned but not by much, it was congested and expected, zero stress about it. There were a fair few people that I felt just didn't belong in that wave, maybe dropping fitness since buying the bib and not having the sense to drop waves.

After all my shenanigans in the DCM thread about the 5k water station I felt I needed to grab a bottle at it. I said to E 'Don't tell anyone I grabbed a bottle here' lol. Another warning sign not heeded. I was very well hydrated, but I was thirsty, at 5k. I could run 20 miles without feeling thirst so this was unusual, but it's only unusual now, on reflection. During it I was just enjoying life, feeling amazing.

Onboard fuel was 3x 27gram tailwind in soft flasks, 6x Enervit Cola gels and a pack of electrolyte chews. Plan was to add 250ml of water to the soft flasks and sip, and to gel up at 5 miles and every 35 mins or so thereafter. The chews were there as a back up. Everything went well to plan on that front. (Although I lost a used soft flask at Milltown. I thought I stuck it into the back of the belt and heard a roar behind me, some lad picked it up off the road. I grabbed it off him and said TYVM then put it into the back of the belt. Only went and did the exact same thing and saw it bounce on the road lol. Thankfully that lad detoured off course for a pee and didn't see that his chivalry was wasted)

Felt the pace a little hot on Chesterfield so I said to E that I planned to do 8 min miles up this stretch and she was welcome to head on. We stuck with each other though. Crowds really injecting energy here, the first real roar at the turn onto it. Got my first shoutout here from @Omeceron, a fellow 2017 novice. I probably lost a ton of yards and energy running wide into crowds with arms in the air, feeding off the energy they gave back. I'd inject it. Was amazing.

10k went by in a blip and on target. Loving life right now. Super strong, high fiving kids, endorphins on both ends of my body. Mile splits were bang on, some of them literally bang on to the second. That's some confidence boost.

Mile 6 - 9 were pretty uneventful other than everything was perfect. My worries leading up to it about whether Covid had taken a bite were unfounded and tossed aside. I figured I'd know by 10k whether the lungs were impacted and they weren't. I had never felt fitter.

In and around mile 9 E and I got separated. I pushed on a little. Not sure whether it was mile 9 or 10 but I noticed I was about 30 secs behind the split on the band. This concerned me a little, it probably shouldn't have. I had planned to go through halfway in 1:41:x, and this was my main focus at this point, in no small way because I had told people that were tracking me. So I injected a bit of pace. Still all in line with the pace strat.

Went through halfway in 1:41:38, bang on target. Now the plan was a 1:38:x second half.

Sailed up Crumlin road, yeah it was breezy but nothing too difficult I felt. There's always a big line of unfortunate cars here that timed things shitly. I shouted at one lad sitting in his idling car 'ye wanna swap with me?' and got a good belly laugh from him. Said it again to some wan a few cars back and she just gave me daggers lol. That was the end of that joke. I suppose the point here is I was in great form, still strong, still loving it.

Great buzz running through Walkinstown rbout, again running the wide line getting the crowd going, the ultimate buzz. Another shoutout from a friend here. My wife said she would be at Borza on Crommelsfort rd if she managed to get down. Ran by there and didn't see her, but no biggie. Was only half expecting her anyway. Spotted my best friend then at the Sub and got a massive boost from that. 200m later there's my wife and 8 year old. Another injection of positivity. It's really amazing what those encounters do for you. I was on fire right now, so so strong.

Saw another pal at KCR and gave him the bicep curl to let him know I was feeling strong.

I was feeling so good and so fresh here, I was running at 4:27 - 4:30 kms and it felt effortless. My breathing was perfect. Felt so in control. I started doing some maths and realised I was heading for about a 3:18 for a target smash. Everything was visualised. Couldn't wait to update Strava with the BQ.

Then, during mile 18, coming towards Rathgar and out of the blue I got a couple of sharp jolts of cramp pain in the quads. I instantly knew the BQ was gone. The mood change was instant too. Fook.

Dropped the pace back to about 5:10km to see if the pain eased off. Thoughts of DNF at the forefront. 8 miles to go. If I seize up here it's game over.

Thankfully the eased off pace did the trick. I attempted a few times to get the pace back up but the legs were having none of it. As soon as I picked it up I got little electric shocks of pain, now throughout the legs, not just the quads. Bollox anyway I thought.

It's a horrible feeling, as I'm sure all of you reading are familiar with. You've a fooking long way home, suffering for it's entirety is puke enducing. The shooting pain got more and more frequent, even with the reduced pace. At mile 21, at what must be some convent I felt I got hit by a sniper. Both legs just gave up, shooting pain in every area. I had to stop. Two nuns came over to me to help, shouting across the road to some other guy, something about getting a medic. I looked over the road and saw this man trying to make his way over to me and I panicked thinking they were gonna put me in a wheelchair or something. Game over if that happens. Fook the fook out of that I thought, although it did feel like my credits were rolling. I said 'No No, thank you, I'm grand, thank you, it's just a cramp'. I stretched it out for what felt like about 40 secs or so and thankfully was able to get back running. It must have only been about 20 secs though looking at the splits later.

Got up heartbreak running, but didn't have the confidence to barrel back down Fosters. At UCD I got a bit of confidence back, knowing it was just a parkrun. Did some maths and figured some sub 5 min kms from this point would get me a sub 3:25. Didn't factor in the extra 200m plus the poor race line form (but good crowd control) I'd shown. Still though, it was a good thing to focus on.

Turning left at the end of Nutley was fantastic, in terms of positivity. I'd had thoughts of DNF that were banished now. Just grind this thing out. One foot in front of the other. 2k to go and I found something in me, managed to ignore the pain and pick things up again. Was suffering but the end is nigh.

Ran through the purple mile and did what I did at Myos, pumping the arms for the crowd, and they roared back and filled my veins. Ran onto the mat with my hands up in the air and fist pumped.

3:26:24 chip.

Six minutes and 25 seconds outside my target, outside a BQ. I'm so far from unhappy though. I'm wide open to advice and critique as to how things went a little south, I'm no shrinking violet and will always take critique as constructive, so please don't hold back.

I just know I've not peaked. This block has filled me with such amazing confidence. I've loved every minute of it, even the gritty Monday morning runs. I nailed every session and missed a total of four runs, three of them because of Covid and one because of travel. Didn't miss one out of lethargy.

More to come I feel.

AuldManKing

Super report - captured it really well.

Seemed like a very tough day for so many -I wouldn't put too much thought into a critique - a lot of people suffered and suffered early due to the conditions.

Couple the conditions with a covid recovery and theres your 6 mins.

There's always little things you can change/progress in training - not too sure what I would have changed without taking a very close look at your training. (which I wont do!)

Lazare

Thank you very much A. I really hope you're doing alright. Was absolutely gutted to read your update last week.

Maybe you're right, I can't find much to fault in the things I had control over.

Kellygirl

Great report C. You ran such a good race. Everybody is talking about the heat and the humidity so most likely down to that and some people have a tendency to cramp more than others. That’s something that would be very interesting to learn more about alright. Precision Hydration were the crowd I was talking about that could be worth checking out as I know they do testing in the UK and prescribe the exact amount of salts needed on an individual basis then but I could be totally off too and might be something else. I don’t think it was your training. I’d bet if if it had been 10 degrees and way less humid then it wouldn’t have happened.

You were super and your positivity was brilliant.

Murph_D

Great report C - you’re a very positive guy and it comes through in the way you think about and write about your running.

I said it in McGrattan’s and it’s boring to be a covid nag but I think it very possibly contributed to the endurance difficulties on the day, even if you felt you had recovered (miraculously?) immediately.

The other thing I’d say, and it relates again to your positive nature, is that you might have wasted a lot of energy with those high fives and other crowd interactions. I really enjoy doing that too (did lots of it on Sunday, and plenty of it back in 2019 too) but not when racing, and definitely not while PB attempting. It just distracts too much from the concentration required, for me anyway. When conditions are tough, as they appear to have been on Sunday, this is even more important.

Great to see you after and it was obvious you’d had a great day regardless of the result. You’ll get there - the training has been really good, I feel, and that aerobic base is still developing and will be there for you next time.

Recover well!

Swashbuckler

Ita funny. I was going to post something and thought to myself, if Murph gets in there ahead of me then I might not need to...and he did! But I'll still post

By no means would I even start to guess why the cramps happened as it could be a number of things but........and I'm just rehashing what Murph said, you need to stack the deck in your favour. When running 26.2 miles on the edge of your capability you need to conserve as much energy as possible. You're wonderfully positive and it's a joy to see people doing what they love but you have to be so methodical and selfish when going for a pb in the marathon. Maybe that's not in your nature and it could take the joy our of it completely but I doubt many of the high fivers and cheerers I saw on Sunday were planning on running at the edge.

Great report and race and I can't really complain as I was one of the many happy folks that benefited from one of your high fives 🙂

Lazare

Thanks so much both of you. K, I've said it already but your result gave me such joy. You're a legend.

You're dead right D about the crowd thing, I for sure used up a fair bit of energy and distance doing it. It's such a tremendous buzz to do though, but for sure I'll have to be a bit more sensible next time.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119818509#Comment_119818509

Yeah, bang on P. I said to A upthread that I couldn't find fault in anything I had control over, but that is definitely something I should have managed better. Thinking back now I rarely paid much attention to the optimal race line either which is quite foolish.

Was amazing to see you out there, a real nice surprise. Hearing 'Go on Lazare' in that Limerick accent and immediately connecting it was you was gas.

ReeReeG

You were also far too conversational when you saw me just before halfway 🤣 although I took that as a positive sign that you were so relaxed. Some grit shown to finish in that time though! Well done! Sorry I didn't get to chat to you in McGrattans. Recover well now.

ariana`

Super report C. You really captured your experience of the day so well. I don't want to repeat what others have said but as I was reading it, I was thinking the same as D & P, that all that 'fun' you were having had to be using up valuable energy. You are one of the most positive people I know, the joy you take from running and from life is just so admirable, that pure joy has come across in absolutely every interaction we've had over the last 5+ years over various platforms and in person. You are also gutsy; you go after big goals - a 40 min PB was always going to be a big ask but by golly you weren't awfully far off! You did super and should be so proud of yourself and absolutely no doubt you will be back for the 7 mins you left behind.

Mr. Guappa

Well done again C, and that's a cracking report.

My immediate thought reading the report is much like the others - this lad is enjoying himself way too much. You definitely seemed to be absolutely loving live when you passed me up Chesterfield. Nothing at all wrong with that of course, and you seemed to draw great energy from immersing yourself into the occasion, but maybe there's a balance to be struck there between enjoying the occasion while also keeping focus on the task at hand.

Can't fault anything you did in the training block itself which was excellent, but there's probably scope for more consistency year-round? I know family and life have to be accounted for, but it's just the one thing that strikes me. I'd have to think there is massive scope for further improvement with a bit more week-in/week-out consistency.

Don't mean to focus on the negatives - the positives are far greater - a massive PB for one, and I'm glad that you are focussing on those positives. Always good to analyse what went right as well. Think I'm right in saying that you used one of the Decathlon belts? All good with that?

Great to meet you again - I'll wear a name tag next time!

Lazare

Ah such lovely words, thank you both so much.

V, I got a good laugh at your reply to me when I shouted 'Hey V, how you doing?' 😄

E, that feeling is 100% mutual, you're always so supportive, to everyone, thank you.

Lambay island

Well done, great report. Nice to meet ya, albeit briefly in McGrattons.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119818743#Comment_119818743

Thanks so much for that A, and for the support. That's very solid critique, you're bang on. I have a tendency to get lazy around December and the volume drops off a cliff. I do plan on keeping things going. I think the block I did could have benefitted me more had I been putting in more volume Jan to April.

On the belt, yeah, had a couple of issues with it. It was comfortable though which is a big positive. Struggled to get stuff back into it, found it too fiddly. Lost the flask, my pack of chews, my baby wipes and a bunch of tissues. Haha.

None of that had a detrimental effect though.

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119818755#Comment_119818755

Thanks a mill D, and likewise it was great to meet you too. McG's is such a great buzz, I'll forgive them for not stocking my poncey beers 😄

Dubh Geannain

Great report. Congrats again. I'd a nice chuckle at a few things and imagines of Robbie Coltrane (RIP) when you mentioned your encounter with Nuns on the run 😀

Lazare

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119819378#Comment_119819378

Haha, Nuns on the Run, hadn't even thought of that, brilliant. They were big roundy Nuns and all 😄 RIP to the big man.

Cheers N, fair play

Laineyfrecks

Great report C, delighted for you taking such a chunk off your time, amazing PB😀 Thanks so much for the lift & the chats & the kindness in general, you are a gent, took a lot of nerves from me travelling in on my own! I hope you are still buzzing from the day😊