Over, around and through

7 miles slow down the gym. Next 2 days rest days now.

Went out today for my last run before the weekend. Was meant to do a handy 1 but because of the stomach i decided to do it faster and a bit longer to test it out.
7.35
7.09
7.13
7.13
7.23
7.26
7.28
7.28
7.44
7.41
Average pace 7.27. I felt to bad at the end to have gone on at that pace. Total rest now and take an antibiotic and ill decide on the morning what ill do. Im not afraid to put my body on the line but i want a sporting chance:-)

thanks lads.
Went through half in 1h37m06s and finishing time was 3h14m11s so second half was 1h37m05s.
1h37m06s
1h37m05s

Only back from blackpool:D

Training and build up
After my pb of 3h24m in janaury i decided that i would have a go at 3h15 on a flatter course sometime in 2010. I had decided on Edinburgh in may but my training went so well i changed to have a go in Blackpool. Training went excellent with a 21 mile long run at 7.43 average with 11 pmp miles. 3 runes of 15 miles lower than pmp and feeling good. The last week i had a few problems with my stomach and thought it would derail my plans. I arrived in blackpool with the missus on satuday morning and we had a great day over there. I had to restrict the eating because of my stomach but it was ok.

Raceday
I got up 2 hours before the race. I had put all my gear on a chair so i would forget nothing. I once again could not eat anything in case it upset my stomach. We arrived about 45 mins before the race start. I drank 1 litre of water.
I have 3 important thing i need for any marathon.
1. Ipod had been eaten by my dog 3 days earlier.
2. Fuel belt that i could not wear because it was pressing on my stomach.
3. Most important my Garmin which without i would be fcked
I turned to my wife and asked her for my garmin and she looked at me like i had 2 heads.
Someone up there hates me i thought to myself. No ipod and belt were 1 thing but no garmin was a disaster.
I decided to run the race handy and not kill myself. Things had gone so bad in preperation, what would go wrong next.
Race start and i too off at a comfortable pace. Heard a guy tell another runner 6.55 for the first mile. Pull back a little. Heard the same 2 guys share info after 2nd mile. Spot on 14 mins. Still to fast but i felt good. I had a bog standard stopwatch on which i started to use at this point because the faith was returning and i was feeling realy good. I looked at the stopwatch at every mile marker and from what i could gather the next 3 were spot on 7.30.
Turned back on ourselves going by the pleasure beach and watching the bewildered drunks thinking to themselves wtf is going on. Took a gel at 6 miles at the first water station and exchanged a few words with one of the half marathon runners. i realised at this stage id been in a world of my own for the last 6 miles. We continued down the golden mile back towards the tower and the next 4 miles went by fairly handy and i still had approx 30 secs in hand on my pace and i felt good. I resisted the urge to increase the pace by remembering Dublin 09 were i did this and fell apart at the end. At mile 10 we went past the start point in the oppisite direction into a mildly undulating part of coastline. We mover onto the lower walk way and proceeded back towards the start again and the fininsh for the halfers. Got talking to a chap at halfway which i passed in 1h37m06s. He was runing really erratically by speeding up and slowing down. he done this over the next couple of mile and i was curious what he was doing. He said he was aiming for 3h30m and i informed hi he was miles up on that pace and he replied he needed to bank time because he always fell apart in the last 6 miles. I joked the reason he was falling apart in the last 6 miles was because he was going off to fast. He didnt like this and shot off like a bullet. The next few mile to about 16-17 we returned back down the golden mile towards the pleasure beach and i got talking to a chap called mark. We exchanged names and goal time ect... and he had a lovely garmin. He was feeling rough but i said so was I and we took a bit of strenght from each other. We had great craic and he informed me he wanted to break his father best of 3h24m but also wanted to break 3h15m ideally. We continued on 7.20 pace untill 20 miles and we both felt good and we were passing alot of runners at this stage. We had 3 miles to run on the upper walk way then 3 miles on the lower walk way. My right quad and fingers were killing me. I had taken gels at 11, 16 and 20 miles but was obviously losing to much salt because my fingers were cramping badly.
I knew i had 6 miles in my at this pace and we continued on. The turn at 23 miles was a welcome site and took on the last of the water.
The last 3 miles were dead flat and dead straight but the pain in my quad was getting bad. We were maintaining 7.20ish pace but it was getting harder. 24 miles and i started picking off distance by using the life bouys as markers. I saw mark starting to drop back and i turned and told him to dig deep. I said you have as long as you want to relax later and not to give up so close to the finish line. He regainined parity with my and we passed 25 miles. We were both in a bundle at this stage but both knew we were ok to finish. We closed on 26 and i said with a smile "see you at the finish and took off. He follows me and the race is on:D
Im about 100m from the finishi got a cramp that i run through and i beat him by 3 seconds:D

Aftermath
Crossed the line in 3h14m11s. Splits were 1h37m06, 1h37m05s. Many hugs were exchanged at the end and i met with a few guys i had ran earlier marathons with. Mark turned to me and said he wouldnt have gone under 3h15m without me at the end. Thats what its all about:D

misty floyd wrote: »

I like that, thats brilliant. Well done Oisin, well deserved from all of the hard work.

Picturing you having a go at the wife...."I specifically told you not to forget the watch, on the lampshade on the locker"

"I kept that Garmin..........up my ass......"

Its a pulp fiction reference

Yeah i asked her to bring it but i should not have left it to someone else. I couldnt believe how easy the pace was. It felt about 30 secs slower and felt so easy. If it wasnt for my right quad i would have had a go at 3.10 in the last 10 miles. Just as well not to be greedy. Im like you misty, not quite as fast:-)
We put in the hard work but had our low points were the goal seemed so far away and times were it seemed so easy it was just a formality to run the race.
You have to love the comraderie of marathons also:-)

Thanks bud. Just all fell in place. Im going to enjoy my marathons for the rest of the year. Going for 3.10in berlin maybe:-)

13.1 in 1h56m29s.
Wanted to feel what it was like to run at 9 min mile because im doing 4 hour pacer in Limerick. Found it hard to keep the pace in check. Felt awkward and clumsy. Managed to achive it just about. 8.54 average. Finished and felt like id just done a few miles. Legs are completely recovered from last weeks marathon. 40 next week and taper the week after.

7 miles down the gym. Very very hot. Average pace about 7.55 min miles.