Berlin Q or Bust: Road to sub 2:45

Yeah he materialised just past Milltown when the die had already been cast! It's not easy on the bike and this year more than ever. It was just unfortunate that it happened during the only section of the course that I catually needed him and then I had my own snafu at the station.

Nothing too exciting, although I am going to pivot away from a Spring marathon. Bones of a plan will see me doing Trim/Bohermeen and then some 5k/10k stuff in May/June before giving an Autumn marathon a good lash. All my attention is still geared towards the marathon, but I need to get a bit of speed back in the legs before the next marathon block I think. No PB's on the horizon this Spring, but will hopefully sharpen up a bit. I've a half decent base to build off anyway. Will probably just end up doing DCM on a GFA entry, but after two cancelllations in the past, I'd still like to give Amsterdam a rattle.

Best of luck in Valencia, will be tracking :)

Seeing as Boards is buzzing again with chat and reasoned debates about some of the major topics in the running world, like traffic management on the Northside and the optimum length of underage football teams' warm ups, I decided to dust off the old log and post an update.

In a nut shell, November good, December/January not good. Had a couple of bad doses which put the kibosh on December, and then my Dad was in hospital over the Christmas and into New Year and then another bad dose in January saw me in pretty terrible shape all things considered.

I've had a few decent weeks since around the middle of February, and I'm starting to get the ball rolling a bit. Have a good bit of weight to shed, but that's already starting to take shape. I've taken on a coach, a guy from the club and that's working very well so far. I need accountability and a fresh approach at the moment, and he has provided both. I must again give thanks to AMK who got me to DCM in 23 & 24 in something resembling half decent shape and if it wasn't for a blister would have pulled off the lesser seen back to back Sub 3 marathon races!

On that note, obviously a major flaw in my running year last year was the complete lack of races. I've been in much worse shape over the last couple of years but last Sunday was the worst shape I've ever been in toeing the line of a race. I've hidden the lead there haven't I? So I didn't line up for either Trim or Bohermeen but I did manage to snaffle a much sought after entry to the Dublin City Half Marathon. This gave me a bit of a target over the last few weeks, but I wasn't exactly focusing on it. I'm trusting the process and just operating week to week here, so I genuinely didn't think about what sort of HM shape I was in until late last week!

I was pretty sceptical about my fitness levels and didn't feel like a sub 90 was realistic. The coach felt differently to that and gave me a bit of a boost but it was with a high amount of trepidation that I headed for O'Connell St on Sunday morning. Actually, trepidation is the wrong word. I was the most relaxed man on the start line I'd say, I just didn't know what I had in the tank. I hadn't raced a race that wasn't DCM since Frank Duffy in '23 so it was a great buzz to be heading back to a race environment.

Dublin City Half Marathon Race Report

Pre Race: The office on Merrion Square that has been my pre Dublin Marathon base for the last few years was once again at my disposal. We changed and chilled out for a while until, when heading out the door we realised that my mate's bib was for Wave 3. Briefly went about trying to photocopy my bib to stick it over his so he could get into the startin pen, but he didn't know the code for the copier so we just left it to chance. Less than a mile jog down to O'Connell Street and then headed towards the access point for the Orange Wave on Cathedral St.

My mate just walked past the not exactly hectic first set of stewards, but then we got to a very hectic couple of security guards, who had the access points closed and weren't letting any runners onto an already jammers-looking O'Connell Street. I know runners can get a little antsy pre race but a couple of people were properly losing their sh1t here. I just said to my mate, if we have to run from the front of wave 2, so be it. There's maybe about 50 people at the barrier now and in the end, people just pushed the temporary barriers open and in we went. Hopped the fence into the starting pen and we were about 10 mins from the off. I'd set up my watch in 3x5k and then 6x1k. Just for a change and to allow me to check on effort levels. Actually didn't find it much of a help so probably won't do it again! Anyway, that will explain the weird splits I'll be dealing in.

1-5k (21:29)

The start was predictably slow and bananas. If I was going for a time I would have made more of an effort to get further up the start pen, but I wasn't so I was happy enough to navigate whatever came in the first km and then hopefully kick on from there. We were about 10 seconds back on the 90 min balloons for reference. I'd say the first km was somewhere in the 4:25/4:30 zone and I saw some wild attempts at undertaking, overtaking, bulldozing etc. I managed to avoid any spills and just took advantage of any little pockets of space that opened up. A 6:59 mile was followed by a 6:43 mile. Passing Croke Park was pretty cool and it turned out to be my best experience in Croker that day as I returned later on that day for Kildare to put in their usual Croke Park no-show. The drag up through Drumcondra and down the Swords road fairly put manners on me. A 7 min mile followed and I felt like I was crawling here. I’ve always struggled on hills when I’m not fit, and Sunday was no different. Wasn’t feeling overly fantastic and was glad to swing off and enjoy the generous profile of the next few miles. 

6-10k (20:52)

Felt decent here and wasn’t working too hard. The pacers were probably about 20/25 seconds in the distance and definitely were also banking a few seconds here. I'll spare the mile splits from here actually, as it was a fairly straightforward morning on the roads.

11-15k (20:33)

We turned on to the Howth Rd at around halfway, and I said to my buddy who was still with me at this point that he could push on if he fancied it as I wasn’t feeling amazing. However I’d taken a caffeine gel at around 10k and this possibly gave me a bit of a second wind. The pace was still decent and I reminded myself that I had just forgotten how to race and how to go to the well. I knew the coast road would be windy so I made the decision to push on and catch the 90 min group. By 15k I had tailed on to the back of the group and just decided to sit in along the coast until we turned onto the Alfie Byrne Road. 

16k-20k (21:03)

Killerz, formerly of this parish, was one of the pacers and he was doing a great job. I could have pushed on ahead of the group, but I wanted to ensure that I had a positive race and was content to sit and just get pulled along. I was feeling very comfortable here.

The rest of the race was straightforward enough. A couple of sneaky little bridges towards the end gave my tiring legs a bit of a jolt. Crossed the line in 1:29:15 and I was content with my day’s work. Definitely felt like a route that you post a good time on, so will hopefully come back again and post a time.

As regards Sunday, you are where you are. Gonna hopefully build on this and get a few consistent months of work under my belt and we’ll see where I can get to. I’ve had a few resets over the last couple of years, so hoping this one can keep some momentum going. Have entered the Race Series and will probably do a couple of shorter races over the next couple of months. Plan is still to enter Dublin on a GFA entry.