What I log about when I log about running

OOnegative wrote: »

All the very best on Sunday, you have had a great training cycle. Enjoy the day and soak it all in, run the best race you can and there is no doubt you’ll be sipping PB pints Sunday afternoon.

Thanks - when in Rome, pre PB beers and post PB beers a definite requirement. I see you're throwing your hat in the ring for next year. Fingers crossed the lotto goes your way.

chickey2 wrote: »

Best of luck! You've done a great block of training, I'm well impressed with your milage (or is it kilometrage?!) Hopefully the conditions will allow you to get the results you deserve.

Spose I can't say much about the weather conditions given the world record fell in such spectacular fashion but it was a weency bit hot at points As my EU law lecturer used to stay, "we're all European here." I'll be sticking to kilometrage - I don't feel as slow!

Kellygirl wrote: »

Safe flight tomorrow and I hope you have a ball over the next few days. Your training has been so consistent that you are going to be just fine on the day. Soak up the atmosphere and remember all the details for your report when you get back. Will be tracking you!

Best of luck!

Thanks and thanks for all your mentoring. I really wanted an experience like you and E had in Dublin last year and I think I achieved that.

Wubble Wubble wrote: »

Best of luck with everything this weekend. Your training has been brilliant and no doubt you will have a great trip

Thanks - it really was a fun trip. Berlin is a fab city. I must go back and see it properly at some stage.

gypsylee wrote: »

Good luck with your run. Enjoy every step. Looking forward to reading your race report. Have a great trip.

Thanks, J. Not long for you now. I'm jealous!

ReeReeG wrote: »

Have a safe trip to Berlin, and hope you have a blast running the marathon! Best of luck :D

Thanks - I never thought I'd say I had a blast running a marathon but I really had.

Pomplamousse wrote: »

Best of luck on Sunday! I hope everything goes to plan on the day and that all your hard work pays off. Most of all, enjoy it! Looking forward to your race report

Thanks - the report will get done at some point. I'm struggling to remember the run in any great detail.

eyrie wrote: »

Safe travels tomorrow Huzzah! I'll be thinking of you setting off. Hope you have fun doing all the lead up bits and soaking up the atmosphere, and most of all I hope you have an amazing first marathon on Sunday!! (Feels unreal even saying that.) You absolutely deserve it, and I hope all goes well for you on the day so you get the just rewards of all that incredible training. Dying to hear all about it x

Thanks, C - I really appreciate it and all your kind words along the way.

Singer wrote: »

Enjoy Berlin! Eat some nice currywursts, check out the wall and the amazing museums... oh and have a great marathon!

I'd a really nice Currywurst in the Hofbrauhaus. I actually think this post is what made me order it

Murph_D wrote: »

All the best, run well.

Thanks - I read through your Hansons training quite a bit during this block and your great DCM 2017 report gave me confidence whenever I had the nervous wobbles.

ariana` wrote: »

Have a great time H. Soak it up and enjoy every second - the training is done, Ts crossed and Is dotted, you couldn't have done any more - give it socks but mostly just enjoy it!

Thanks so much for all your help. You're doing an ace job at this mentoring business. You've gone over and above. I really appreciate it.

skyblue46 wrote: »

Have a great time while you're away and soak up the day itself. Best of luck ::-):

Thanks - I think you're going to attempt some GFAs next year? If so, I'd recommend Berlin as a place to do it.

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

Best of luck - enjoy every moment of it!

Thanks - I really did.

The Black Oil wrote: »

Best of luck. You've trained well.

Thanks. I'm enjoying following your quest for the sub-4.

juke wrote: »

You can add me to the cheering squad, I'll be shouting 'Viel Spas' and 'Schnell'
and 'just a parkrun to go' at the tracker as you go around.

More than anything, enjoy the atmosphere.

I missed this in my responses and it was the post that gave me a good laugh. Despite doing German to Junior Cert level and "schnell" being a fairly basic word, I fully thought it meant "slow". It sounds slow, right? I read your post and thought, "no worries, slow is all I know!" Not sure what made me look up the correct meaning.

Hope the ankles are feeling better. Looking forward to cheering you on at DCM!

“Let’s just have a beautiful race” – Eliud Kipchoge.

Preamble

This is going to be a(nother) long one, I am a drama lama after all, but the TL;DR version is above. I’ve been running just over three years at this point and pretty early in my running career, I put any thought of running a marathon out of my head. The more I ran, the more I realised that if I was to run a marathon, I’d like to have a decent base first. Last year, my other half signed up for DCM and I realised we were running pretty similar mileage. The idea of maybe entering a marathon in 2018 began to take shape and I realised that by DCM 2018, I’d have trained for and raced four halfs. I started to feel ready to take on the challenge.

Training

D trained properly and well for DCM 2017 but he got struck down by the dreaded ITB syndrome just as his taper started. I was gutted for him and I entered us both one winter’s evening as a team for Berlin and was delighted to win us places in the lottery. I’m not sure he was too delighted initially but he eventually warmed to the idea. I ran Wexford and it was my most comfortable raced half ever. I used the Hanson plan and D remarked that he was surprised that I’d ruled out following the equivalent plan for the marathon. I felt more confident about the shorter long runs in HMM after the half and so I decided to go for it. I know people say that any decent plan will work and I agree with that but I do think it’s important to find a plan that is a challenge without overstretching you and HMM fitted my experience perfectly. I ran nearly every run but missed two sessions due to life and knee-gate.

Goal

I trained to current fitness using my half time of 2:08 in the HMM calculator. This was the most optimistic calculator I could find and it gave me a projected marathon time of 4.27. I never really believed this was possible and while I completed all of the tempo/pmp runs on target, I wasn’t confident about the target. Testosterscone had said to SB, I think, that PMP would come to him in the course of training and I thought this applied more for people who’d run a marathon before. I ran all my long runs, which are slightly faster than easy runs on the plan, at about 7:00/km but I’d run a couple at the top end of the pace range at 6:40/km. More and more, I was coming to the conclusion that this was a more appropriate pmp for me and between running that pace at the FD 10 mile, my last unpleasant tempo run and kneegate, I was happy to settle for that pace and a 4:40ish finish and was hopeful that it would mean avoiding a blow up. FWIW, McMillan gave me a projected finish time of about 4.30; the Berlin marathon calculator was most accurate with a prediction of 4:33-4:43; and the one that was linked in the Guardian article gave me 4:55 or so.

Berlin

We arrived at the race in what I thought was plenty of time but someone mentioned that the bag drop had closed and I got so nervous, I couldn’t speak, which D would say is highly unusual. I’d slept well the night before and woke up feeling ready but this kicked the nerves off big style. Turns out, it was fake news and I dropped my bag with little fuss. We then queued for over half an hour for a portaloo and finally left the finishers’ area to make my way to the start about five minutes from the off. The nerves were clanging at this point and D ran on ahead to get a better spot. I walked as far as I could and tried to take it all in, reminding myself what a privilege it was to be in that position.

I started on the left as I’d read it would be less crowded and I noted some 5-pacers behind me on the right. The theme of my run is 5-hour pacers. There must’ve been about five pace groups for that time. I was wearing one of the pace bands recommended by Kellygirl. I wasn’t too fixated on a goal but I wanted to be sure not to run too quickly at the beginning. I’d selected a conservative start so I wouldn’t panic if the crowds meant it was hard to get moving but I was able to hit pace straightaway. I know a world record was broken in spectacular style in conditions classed as perfect by many but I was already feeling hot and my HR was up quite quickly. I didn’t panic because it reminded me of how I felt at the start of the Wexford half. My legs didn’t feel supremely fresh, either, but again, I didn’t let it worry me. I did use both these factors as a reason to play it a bit safer in the first half. I caught up with the first 5-hour bus pretty quickly. I could see the pacer off in the distance and I reeled him in very slowly. Their pace didn’t seem too different to my own and it took a few kilometres to catch them up, run through the crowd and pop out the other side. I was sticking to the blue line as best I could but I soon gave this up as it meant having to run around a lot of walkers or people running a slower pace to me, which defeated the purpose.

It’s hard to recollect the race exactly as I’m unfamiliar with Berlin, but I’ll do the best I can. I was taking a Clif Shot Blok every 3k and the water stations were every 5k, which helped the time go by really quickly – there was always something to look forward to. I’d my own water bottles, which after bouncing around annoyingly at the beginning, settled nicely. We were given a sponge in our packs at the expo and from reading other Boardsies’ reports, I knew there were buckets to dunk these in at each station. This was my favourite thing, I’d douse myself at each station before tucking the sponge back down the front of my top – the chafe is unreal now but it was worth it. The water stops were well organised but difficult to run through. Everyone stopped to walk and in the more narrow spots, it was hard to get by, so I started taking on water at the stops myself: if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. At some stops, I poured water over my calfs and always either a cup or sponge over my head. The slower ks on my Strava are down to the water stop walk through and I’m really chuffed that these were the only points I walked at. My first target was the 10k marker, mainly because it was beside the hotel and I couldn’t believe how quickly we got there. I passed a group of Sloggers to Joggers early on and I was tempted to stick with them but I didn’t want to slow down.

I soon caught up with a second 5-hour pacer and his crew. He was English and I overheard him saying that he was right on target. He mentioned there was a third 5-hour pacer a bit ahead. I knew from my paceband that I was off target but at this point, I was just happy to keep doing what I was doing. Again, he seemed to be running my pace and I possibly stuck with this crew a bit too long. Kilometres 5-15 were my slowest – nothing hugely off target but enough to know that 4:40 wasn’t going to happen. Once I passed through this group, I wasn’t long in catching up with the third and, so I thought, final 5-hour pacer. I didn’t feel the need to hang in with this group and pushed on past. I think I was actually happier out of the pace groups. There was a bit more room and I could stop concentrating quite so much. I feel like I spent much of the race passing people but it’s hard to know.

I didn’t really start to feel comfortable until the halfway mark and I think it got a bit cloudier around that time. I was also just nervous of the distance which made it hard to relax. The halfway point came so quickly that I started to grow a bit in confidence. The atmosphere was incredible. It was a proper rock and roll marathon with bands and DJs fairly frequently on the route. There were lots number of drumming bands and I loved these. I didn’t realise the tracker wasn’t working properly and I thought of you guys every time I passed over a mat.

I really began to have fun it at this point and maybe started to believe that enjoying it was possible. The roads became more suburban and quieter and I worked out different targets to look forward to. After the halfway mark, my next target was 16 miles and passing the furthest I’d ever run. This came and went without incident and I looked forward to switching to Tailwind at the 30k mark – my next goalpost. 26k to 30k was one of the longest feeling stretches. Somewhere here, there was a man out with a cardboard sign shouting that the record had been broken. He’d the time on the sign and I knew it was broken significantly. I’d a moment of emotion here – delighted for the gentleman that is Kipchoge that he managed to do it and, again, feeling privileged to have participated in the same race.

The Tailwind I have is rotten stuff and it sickened my stomach almost immediately. It might have been better to stick to the Bloks but I was looking forward to the caffeine boost and a change of texture. Anyway, I decided to take a sip of TW every KM or so but that didn’t last long. My next goal in my mind was the 32k mark and I was delighted to be still feeling good at this point. In fact, I was feeling better than I had at the start. Thank you, caffeine. I started the countdown in my head, feeling great to hit single digits and 9k to go. I’d a brain wobble around the 8k-to-go mark, getting stuck on the idea of this being an hour left to run, which is what it would be in training. We were back in the city here and despite my wobbles, time was moving quickly again. I was surprised to see another 5-hour pacer up ahead and I think this was me catching up with the wave that started ahead of me. I didn’t stick with these guys for long and stuck in behind a woman wearing a tricolour on her head. She was incredibly steady and was able to drink from the water cups without breaking her stride #lifegoals.

The caffeine must’ve hit my system because I ran my fastest splits from 34 to 39. I remember the Hanson feeling taking hold at 7 to go and me pulling back a bit because I knew there was a fair bit left yet and I was nervous. A parkrun to go was my next target and it was around here that I started to feel sick. I stopped drinking the TW. I’d also stopped walking through the water stops as I’d enough with me, I thought, to keep me going til the end. I threw away my sponge here and started to dig in. I’d read enough reports to know that in the last couple of k, the broad and long boulevards would give way to more twists and turns and this became my next target. I was getting a bit thirsty and I was delighted to see a band up ahead with a table of drinks set up in front but as I got closer, I saw the signs which essentially said the drinks weren’t for runners. Meaners. I needn’t have worried and there was one more stop where I slowed to a walk to take some water on board. This was my slowest kilometre and I found it so hard to get going again but get going I did and I chatted briefly to two Irish girls here before running on. The sick tummy was reaching its crescendo and I was not burping with confidence here. I was breathing slow and had to burp a couple of times to see if it helped. My legs were tired and the tiredness was coming in waves but the nausea was my biggest issue. I was determined to keep running, excited to get to the end and to see how D had gotten on. I was looking forward to seeing the Brandenburg Gate and knew the finish wouldn’t be long in coming after that. Once I turned and finally saw it, I started to cry and had to catch myself on as it was interfering with my breathing. I looked at the blue line and started thinking about how it was weird they could draw this on a monument – oh the places our minds go. Once through the gate, I was able to pick it up. This was surprising beyond belief as I expected this part to be really tough mentally with the false finish of the gate. Through the timing mats and more tears. I was delighted with myself! Once I picked up my medal, the long walk to the pick up began and my feet started to hurt. The nausea was coming in waves and I was sorry that D and I had concocted such a convoluted plan for meeting up. I just wanted to get home. I drank more water and limped to the bag pick up where D was unexpectedly waiting to meet me. He was a sight for sore eyes and I bawled again. Once I sat down and took off my shoes, I started to feel better. I felt even better after a pint of beer – the fizz helped settle my stomach.

The aftermath

I ran almost 400 metres over the distance, although probably not quite as much as wonky GPS will account for some of this. Strava gives me 4:41 for the marathon distance and the reality is that if I was really targeting a sub 4:40, I should’ve taken the fact that I’d run longer and the water stop walkthroughs into account in my pacing plan. It’s a lesson for the future for sure but I wasn’t really chasing a time goal beyond keeping a 6:40/km average which I very nearly achieved. I also ran almost a 3-minute negative split which I realise is a touch excessive on a course like Berlin, but I’m really chuffed with it. It allowed me finish somewhat strongly and avoid what I was dreading the most: a painful last 10 or so kilometres.

I felt no pain during the race a part from general tired limbs but I have the biggest blister I’ve ever seen on my left big toe and my right foot feels pretty banjaxed. It was very sore whenever I put weight on it but it’s already improving after a day of RICE. In general, I actually feel much the same as I would after a raced half – quads screaming any time I sit or stand and a general kind of hungover feeling but that’s all already starting to fade.
Overall, I’m just really pleased with how the race went. I know I put in a relatively large amount of mileage for a not very impressive time but that’s just the reality of my fitness. It takes a lot of work for me and I enjoy putting the effort in, so why not? 4:40 will be there another day and no doubt a 4:30 is achievable with a bit more work. I’m delighted to have run a major and the opportunity might not present itself again, if ever. The highlight of the whole thing was D saying that it made up for last year’s disappointment.

Splits
Split |Diff|min/km |
5km | 33:33|6:43|
10km | 34:13| 6:51 |
15km| 34:52| 6:59 |
20km |33:54 | 6:47 |
Half | 07:15 | 6:36 |
25km | 26:23 |6:46 |
30km | 33:39 | 6:44 |
35km | 33:17 | 6:40 |
40km | 33:10 | 6:38 |
Finish | 14:27 | 6:35 |

First half: 2:23:44
Second half: 2:20:55