Starting at the Very Start

Friday 29th July
70min tempo
8.56km
Km Splits: 9.50, 9.05, 8.45, 8.21, 8.17, 7.54, 7.11, 6.52

Headed out along the canal for this. These runs tend to scare me as fast isn't my thing! Started out very slow and tried to pick up the pace every ten mins. Planned not to look at the watch but didn't work out that way as I found it tough to find a pace and settle at it. The km splits above paint a lovely even picture of a fantastic run, but the reality for each 10 mins was: too fast to start then slowing too much, then picking it up and settling into a pace with about 2mins left, and then the same thing for the next segment! Enjoyable all the same!

Sunday 1st August
2hr LSR
2:04mins, 12.88km

Spent Saturday at a wedding, purposely took it easy so as not to be dying today. After a day wandering around Kilkenny, eating all the wrong foods and a nap in the car landed back in Dublin at 6pm. Decided to give the LSR a go, to try not to ruin the week already!
Headed up to the Phoenix park, struggled at the start, the first 5km were all 9.50's, one or two hit over ten mins/km. Was going up and down different paths to get the distance in, when I got to the top of Chesterfield avenue decided to just go up and back. For some reason that made a huge difference and I began to settle into an ok pace. Started to feel better. Legs hurting a bit, mostly tired muscles that I'm putting down to the high shoes and dancing yesterday! Had to stop to fix my laces at the turn around at the top of the avenue and after that something seemed to click, last few km's were the fastest and most enjoyable of the run.
Got to the gate at 2hrs and decided to keep going to heuston and jump on the Luas. Missed one by 2 seconds, should of ran faster only after I stopped the watch did I realise how close to 13km I was. Felt great and walked home instead of waiting for the next one.
Never had a turn around in how a run was going like that before! Struggled to get any of the first half in, and by the end could have kept going! Brought some water in a bottle I carried which helped a lot compared to last time too.

mel.b wrote: »

I'm sure you won't be the last one to finish FIFA, you'll be able to run faster on the day. And even if you are I saw a facebook thing that made me smile - 'the runner who finishes last...is the one who gets the most value out of their entry fee' :pac::cool: So you could just look at it as value for money Another I like is 'celebrate finish lines, not finish times'. I think this is especially important with your first HM (or marathon). It's such an acheivement you should be proud of all the work you did and not worry about the time.

Haha that made me laugh out loud!!! I definitely get every cent from the fee!
Definitely the big thing for me will be finishing even if it takes me all day. I've a tendency to google finishing times the night before races and get very worried about being last when I'm running and hold all the volunteers up (even thou in reality it probably wouldn't bother me that much if I was happy with the run I had done!)so I want to get my head around the possibility now so that if I am last or close to last, I can still celebrate my achievement. It's one of those things my mind tends to ruminate on for some reason!

Not sure if that makes sense anywhere but in my head!

Monday 15th August
6.7km
60mins

Out and back along the canal. Lovely evening for it. Watch battery was gone so using strava on my phone, which was set in miles. Nothing exciting. Legs felt a lot better after the massage on Sunday though.

Was meant to go out tonight for 80mins ish, before a short one tomorrow, rest Friday and FD 10miles on Saturday. Was very under the weather with some virus or another in work last night so will probably have to leave it because I think the risk of this becoming worse outweighs the benefit of getting it done. Hopefully be ok for tomorrow's run!
Little bit petrified reading the course profile on the novices thread, no idea how to go about aiming for times. Afraid if I just run I'll die a death half way! Will have to come up with some kinda plan

Thanks everyone!

Feeling better but still fairly bunged up and coughing. Hoping it clears up! Major panic there, my plan was to walk down, it takes 10mins to get to the pheonix park, somehow managed to neglect to think about the distance from the island bridge gate to the start line! Taxi booked now, my bank balance won't thank me but hopefully my legs will!

Saturday 20th August
10miles
2hrs14.31
Km splits: 7.47, 8.13, 7.50, 7.54, 8.09, 8.00, 8.24, 8.13, 8.31, 8.45, 8.16, 7.46, 8.15, 8.24, 9.20, 8.35, 6.47 (.3 km)

So today was d-day! After the fuelling disaster of the 10km I set an alarm for 7am, ate a nutrigrain bar and had some water without getting up and slept for another hr. Could hear the rain and knew it would be a challenging day! Got up at 8ish and had some musli with milk, bit easier to stomach than overnight oats or porridge. Felt a bit quesy and couldn't stomach the coffee but no committing thank god! Nose was still blocked and I was coughing worse than ever, on a different day there's no way I would have ran today! Taxi came, and I was in the pheonix park by 9, I was a bit over cautious with the times! This is where my trouble started! I had a hoody on and a black bag in my bag, but walking from the gate to the bag drop I got soaked and then couldn't get the bag on when I finally took it out. Eejit!!!! Gonna invest in a poncho for next time. Was much too early and had to wait around. At this point it was lashing like I haven't seen in ages, sheltering under the trees didn't help much. Dropped my bag, did a 5 min warm up run and waited for a toilet. There was definitely people sheltering in them from rain, what else could u be doing in there for 15mins. No one was too impressed with those people! By the time the start came I was soaked through. Tied my hoodie to a fence and lined up at the back.

And off we went. By this stage the weather was improving a bit but I was so wet it made no real odds. Up Chesterfield avenue, feeling ok. Legs were good. Km 1 beeped and was happy ish but starting to struggle. Started coughing again at the mile marker but had a small bottle of water which helped. The paces were well off what I had been hoping for. Spotted tfgr ahead and decided to try stick with her. I probably took it too fast on the down hills but needed the confidence boost that I could do this! At about 2km a left toe started hurting a fair bit, tried to ignore it and keep going and eventually after a while didn't feel it. By the 3mile mark i was a lot happier with how things were going.

A lot of the rest is a blur. On the first trip down Chesterfield avenue my hat blew off, decided not to go back for it, cuz it was annoying me a bit, but a lovely lady picked it up and chased me with it! Had to turn around and run back 10-20m to get it, felt I lost a bit of momentum here. Kept going around the back of the zoo, took my second gel at 7km (first was before starting) and just kept going. Wasn't feeling great but not bad. At 8km started to see people who had finished which was a bit disheartening (apart from the ones who clapped and supported... Thanks!!!). At this point the wind was very strong against us and I could see most people ahead slowing a bit. Stayed like that til close to 10km and the times suffered a bit.

Back to Chesterfield avenue, the crowds finished by now was huge and most of them were walking the same way. Some were lovely but others not so much. It's not much to ask to not have to dodge people who are done cuz they're walking a few people abreast and paying no attention to the people still running. Had serious thoughts about not coming back for the half because of this bit. The marshals were great at picking out the runners and making sure we went the right way but there was too many people there for them to keep finishers with no manners (a minority, loads were cheering and supportive) out of the way. Was glad to get off Chesterfield road even if it meant running into the wind again. Got offered some jelly beans here too. Kept going and felt like I could actually do this for the first time. Tfgr was still about 100m ahead even though I had passed her at least once before; still looking really strong.

Could feel the end coming by 13km but the hills and the wind and the tired legs were making it tough. Toe started to hurt again, made the mistake of looking down. Not sure what I was expecting to see but not what I got - the whole front half of my shoe was red with blood! Seeing that made it hurt all the more but just kept going. By 14km I figured there was 1 uphill left, one flat again. My lungs decided to stop helping and again I was coughing up stuff, felt a bit better after banging my chest a few times and getting rid of it!
15km and I really wanted it to be over. 16km and I could see the finish! Loads of support here, people pointing out what was left and how far we had come. Tfgr was only 30m ahead with 2 or 3 others so I made a push with about 300m to go, got by her (can't remember if I passed the others or not!) with about 15m left. She got even with about 5m to go and I think she pipped me at the post by a few seconds. Quick hug and congratulations, hadn't the breath to tell her I knew who she was from boards! So so happy to have survived. Got my bag and tee shirt but by this stage my toe was really sore.

Went over to asked a St. John's ambulance man for a plaster. He had a look and cleaned it up. Basically the toe nail on my second last toe had separated quite a bit and the blood was from rubbing. Yuck!!!!! Got a plaster and started walking without thinking. Rung me mum and by the time I realised I was too far Into the 5km walk home to turn around and get a taxi as planned. Took an absolute age in a fair bit of pain to get home! Not the first stupid thing I did today.

Got the text with my official result as I got it, first time I had thought about it. 2:14:31. Really wanted 2.10 and I'm a bit disappointed. Bit given the conditions and a tough route and being under the weather this week, along with leaving half a lung and half a toe on the course (not exaggerating at all I promise!) really I can't ask for too much more turns out that was only 500m shorter than my longest run, thank god I didn't know that before I started!

So sorry for the essay, I never could keep things short when I got going!!!

Thanks so so much to everyone who was marshalling in those conditions, all the scouts for the water and support, and everyone that had finished racing that tried to help, it really makes all the difference when things are tough at the end