Dublin Marathon 2012 - Mentored Novices Thread

Got there in loads of time, first time experiencing a race atmosphere and it was odd....like a music festival except...sober.

Got a good 1.5 mile warm up done nice and early and made my way to the start line with 25 minutes to spare. Met a guy from my locality and also he warned me not to keep something in the tank for the second half of the race and if I had anything left let it out over the last mile or so.

Miles 1, 2 and 3
Was expecting much worse crowding. Started in the last quarter of wave one as aiming to beat 40 mins. Once I got past the start line there was plenty of room, you just had to keep your eyes peeled. Kept an eye on the watch and held back my pace to 8 min/mile roughly. To be honest i was second guessing myself as everyone was passing me out! Was on time for my goal, but the hills were coming...

Miles 4 and 5.
Felt like I had a bit in the tank so in mile 4 powered up the hills and quickened the pace. Was passing a lot of tired legs at this stage and I was glad I heeded PM's advice! Same for mile 5 - pushed on another bit, prob a bit early but finished strong.

Clock time was 39.4X, I'd say I'll hit 39.2X when the results are out.

Garmin link

Edit:chip time 39:10.

with my foot strapped up like a mummy I ran it in 41.01 on the official time.

Even though in clocks it was 41min dead.

God dam seconds.

Garmin was 41.04 and distance was 8.09km.

Much less crowded than last year. Although maybe being the last person in Wave 1 across the line helped. It was great having nobody passed me for a change.

First 4/5k was great - no uphills, then felt a bit ropey from the waterstation onwards. Plenty of encouragement from other runners, although very few spectators considering the weather. I thought it was well organised, nice t-shirts if a fraction tighter than last years.

Very enjoyable and most important a new PB. This was one of my first ever races last year and I did it in 43mins, but this year managed 38:5x.

Happy days!!

Garmin Link

Younganne wrote: »

great running there people, my report is here if anyone wants to read it, Garmin time 40.09:D, i have no access to FB at the moment so will check it out later....Went to Ryans, it doesn't open till 12. Sorry if anyone went down and found it still locked up.....I went in a 12 and stayed till 12.30 and then had to leave...next time people, we'll get to meet!!!

For the 10 mile and half races, there'll be a major Boards presence in Ryan's, guaranteed.

Just back from my first LSR. I managed to squeeze it in between the heavy showers:) I ran 6.5 miles as it's a loop. I felt great for the first 4 miles and had to force myself to keep to 10.30 mpm but by the time I got to Mile 5 I was lucky to be running within the 10.30.

Delighted to have finished my first official LSR:D. The outside of my left knee was niggling a bit but I know its my illotibial band waring me to stretch well after the run. Yes, I hear you loud and clear. The foam roller will be out tonight.

Well done to everyone who ran today. Ye clocked some fantastic times..fair play!!

Well that was my first ever race and I have to say I really enjoyed it, very good organisation and a relaxed atmosphere. Reminded me of a music festival really

Made the mistake of starting in the middle of the 50min+ wave.. It felt like I was weaving in and out of walkers for the first 2-3 miles.. not fun. My phone crapped out on me too so I had no idea what pace I was going. Managed to finish under 50 mins chip time anyway so I was very happy with that. Am I correct in saying my wave's finish time printed in the paper will be chip time plus 9 minutes or so? Doesn't seem so fair

Hi did 48.33, I took it a bit too easy, I wasn't familiar with the course but a lot of people told me the last two miles were hilly, I took it very handy to keep something in the tank for the hills, got to the 400 metre to go mark and was still thinking where is the hill? Ran flat out for the last bit. It's very hilly where I live, a lot harder than today. So a couple of things learned from my first race experience, 1. Be familiar with course and 2. Don't start too far back, was in the last wave and it was a bit crowded I found it hard to pass around people and there were loads walking to get around, all in all though I had a great morning, am looking forward to the next one already, well done to all the marathon novices who ran it, onwards and upwards! Dee

To be honest guys and gals I can't help but feel slightly disapointed with todays run although overall I am happy - if that makes any sense ! I'm the sort of person who calls a spade a spade as the old expression goes so I'm not going to discard the bad completely.

I had a good start to the day. Up early for breakfast and feeling good. My wife and 6 year old daughter accompanied me to the race - they dropped me off and went in search of parking which they found on the left hand side of the north road just before we turned right to head towards the popes cross. They got a great spot parked facing onto and just beside the road which meant they could sit in the car and see me run by before heading for the finish line. You may have seem my little one with her head sticking up out of the sun roof cheering everyone on.

My unofficial PB for this was 48:19 (but that needs to be reviewed - will get to that later !!) As mentioned in previous posts I wanted to beat this and would be going out as hard and fast as I could.

I joined wave 2 - 40-50 min expected time which is where I should have been. However there were clearly people in this wave who shouldn't have been anywhere near it. I was navigating around walkers before we got to the mile 1 marker and I found the congestion all the way to the bottom of the kyber to have cost me time. Now that said I was still running at a pace that was pushing myself so I can't blame the crowd too much on losing time.

Being familiar with the route I knew I would be hitting the hills in the second half of the race. I actually needed to walk a bit on the second big hill which was a bit disappointing but any time lost there was made up for in the quicker starting pace. Endomondo gave me a PB for the first 5K of 26:55 - a 1:29 improvement on previously tracked runs. I was well ahead of my previous personal best splits on the route and very happy to be. However there was a bit of a kick in the teeth to come.

My Endomondo app hit 8K / 5 Miles well before the finish line I knew something was up when I saw the 400 metres to go sign in the distance even though I felt like I had ran 800-900 metres since the last buzz in my ear told me 7K had passed. I threw off my headphones at that stage and went for the finish line with everything I had left not wanting to rely on Endomondos timing if it was off. I wasn't sure of my actual time until I checked the results later on and it wasn't as good as I thought.

My official time for the race was 47:10 which is still a 1 minute 9 second shaving off my PB.

However this PB was based on Endomondos tracking of the same course and appears to have been short. I know apps like this can be off especially when zig zagging aorund crowds etc giving you distance that you haven't acutally covered but it was still a shock to see how far off it was for this race (and indeed in training) I was half expecting to see a few posts about course length but in the absence of them have to accept my app was wrong.

Endomondo clocked me at 45:49 for 8K which was a 2:15 improvement on the same 8k it tracked in 48:04 for my previous PB. (I don't have exact 5 mile figures but can't imagine I would have lost too much on the few metres over 8k making 5 miles)

So my bottom line is this:

Officially a 1:09 improvement which is where the disappointment comes in. I ran a fast for me pace which deserved more than 1 minutes improvement. Realisically though the improvement was more like 2:15 - the issue being my previous PB was not accurate. If I had come on here with a 2:15 improvement off my old PB I'd have been very happy so I am taking it on the chin that I wasn't as fast as I had previously thought and keeping myself happy with the realistic improvement.

Interestingly enough I noticed an anamoly in the results according to TDL. I apparently placed in the top half of men (1435 of 3619) yet in the bottom half overall (2618 of 4046 on chip time and 2185 of 4046 on gun time) That makes no sense. If there were 3619 men that would have left only 427 women in the field which I'm fairly certain there was a lot more. Even if every woman out there beat me home (which a lot did to be fair ) that could still only drop me back to 1872nd place at worst so something is wrong with the results.

In summary I've had a good day. My little one saw Daddy out running (and even made me a special medal too ) No matter what way I look at it I've had an improvement time wise - and compared to 6 months ago I'm light years ahead. Attention now turns to marathon training for October but I will definitley be back for another crack at my sub 40 5 mile.

rasher_m wrote: »

I ran 43mins
i havnt actually improved since the great ireland run which when calculated out works out the same time as today to the very second which is coincidental. im wondering why i havnt improved when ive increased my training days.

Just wasn't your day maybe. It can happen. You cross the line and you're left scratching your head wondering how in the name of Jesus you couldn't run faster.:) There's always next time.

By the sounds of it i might have enjoyed today. It was ridiculously overcrowded last year so gave it a miss. Got my 10 mile LSR in without being pissed on which was nice.

Ran 45m02sec, slightly slower (40 secs) than a 5 mile I did 2 weeks ago, but that was flat , so happy enough with time today.

Great breakdown of results here http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/index.php - use drop down box on left hand side. This will give you category breakdowns too. I keep all my race info in an excel spreadsheet (nerd ) - race date, distance, chip time, place overall, place by gender, place by age bracket. Will be great comparing same races next year to see the differences.

sassyj wrote: »

Ran 45m02sec, slightly slower (40 secs) than a 5 mile I did 2 weeks ago, but that was flat , so happy enough with time today.

Great breakdown of results here http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/index.php - use drop down box on left hand side. This will give you category breakdowns too. I keep all my race info in an excel spreadsheet (nerd ) - race date, distance, chip time, place overall, place by gender, place by age bracket. Will be great comparing same races next year to see the differences.

Somethings off with the results.

Total results 4046

Any mens result has a gender position xxx of 3610
Any ladies result has a gender position xxx of 2632

Thats 6242 people.

sassyj wrote: »

Ran 45m02sec, slightly slower (40 secs) than a 5 mile I did 2 weeks ago, but that was flat , so happy enough with time today.

Great breakdown of results here http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/index.php - use drop down box on left hand side. This will give you category breakdowns too. I keep all my race info in an excel spreadsheet (nerd ) - race date, distance, chip time, place overall, place by gender, place by age bracket. Will be great comparing same races next year to see the differences.

Cool link, thanks. 304 overall position for me :D