Often becomes easy when the easy is often..

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.

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.

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.

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 😄

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

Ah the belt was grand in fairness, it did it's job for the most part, the stuff I dropped didn't have a detrimental effect.

I will check out those shorts though P, cheers.

Sorry E, for some reason I missed your post until now.

Likewise, your company that morning and for a good chunk of the course made things so much easier.

19:37 chip btw, for accuracy. For actual PB.

Watch read 19:36:9. Bloody rounding 😀

Thanks so much D.

A real pity you weren't there. We'll get to race together at Raheny.

Thanks very much guys.

@AuldManKing so true A, putting ourselves out there certainly adds to the nerves. Can also drive you too. I remember when I first broke 20 this thread really helped me on the last 500m or so, wanting so bad to come on and say I did it.

Thanks so much E 😊

Lovely comments, thank you all so much, and thanks for all the amazing support and encouragement this year. You guys are great 😊

Thanks so much folks, lovely popping in and seeing these comments.

Ah I don't know about that S, selling yourself way short there.