Running in the Real World

Cork Half Marathon Report, Monday June 1st

I half expected this to be a report where I record how I battled the weather, pain, self-doubt and eventually dug deep to come through and narrowly get my PB, a triumph of spirit over the elements... But yesterday that was not to be...

I had a great day, enjoyed the race almost from start to finish, beat my target by about 2 mins and felt strong all the way. WTF?!?! How did that happen!?  

Pre-race
I had hardly looked at the course, booked a city centre hotel, not realising that it was across the road from City hall and registration, 5 mins walk from the start of the marathon and 5 mins from the start of the half in the other direction... great choice of location, even if a bit accidental.  

I didn't do any thinking about the course or analysis, just had a quick look at the map. The weather forecasts were apocalyptic, that was the main concern.  I was pretty confident that I would break the 2 hours... pb from last year was 2:01:37 and just based on doing more training (and even losing a few pounds since then), barring a complete disaster that should be do-able.  

Very little sleep as usual the night before, D got up for his pre-marathon porridge at 5:45 (aaargh), so no hope of more sleep after that.  

My target pace was 5:30/km, roughly 9 min/mile which would get me 1:57ish... But as the weather rolled in from the southwest, and the wind started to get stronger, I decided I would be fine with anything between 5:30-5:40/km, that would be enough to get me there.  One thing I learned from DCM... adjust to suit the conditions! 

After a leisurely breakfast (porridge, what else?), walked over to the start of the Marathon with D, then cheered them round the first corner from South Mall.  The Raheny guy who won was already up front after 500m. They started at 9, we didn't start til 10:45 so had plenty of time.  Put my feet up for a while, watching the weather get worser and worser, feeling really tired — it did cross my mind that I could just go back to bed, I didn’t actually have to run 13.1 miles in this weather. So I left it until the last minute to head over to the start line, wrapped up in a black plastic bag. Jogged over, did about 10 mins warm up.  The marathon was passing close to the start so we got to clap the leaders, Raheny guy still at the front, looking comfortable with about 10 miles to go.  

The Race
Lined up a bit behind the 1:45 pacers, with no intention of getting near them in the race, but didn't want to see the 2 hour pacers either. The start was very congested, took us a while to get over the line, hit start on the garmin right at the line and we were off.  

I got caught up in the usual frenzy — congestion, people weaving to get past… I was starting to get worked up, but I know enough by now not to worry about that, as someone on here said, don’t waste effort and run further weaving around people. I kept an eye on the pace, knowing that I usually go too fast at the beginning and trying not to.. the first Km was 5:21, not bad I told myself, not too fast. The second was 5:24, still quite crowded.

Then we went into some sort of park with narrow path and water in the lead up to the merge with the marathon… there was a hill out of there to the merge and it really slowed down here, there were too many people to do anything about it. The third Km clocked in at a worrying 5:48. Shortly after we merged with the marathon field, I spotted the 2 mile marker, looked at my watch: 18 mins, spot on. The second mile turned out to be my slowest one of the day.

We were now running along the river back towards the city and where we started, I was feeling comfortable. There were knots of supporters huddled in the rain. There was a relay changeover near the start of the Half and that brought a buzz of energy and people, then round the quays there were great crowds too. I took my first gel between 4 and 5 miles and it went down fine.

The mile markers were great (dividing by 9 is very handy!)… at each successive one, I had banked more time… 30 seconds, a minute by 5 miles. I had to keep telling myself slow down, slow down, save something for the end, you'll need it. By about 5 miles in, I knew I was in good shape... Then I started to wonder if I was getting cocky or complacent... you could blow up at the end if you overdo it now, so slow down! (in fairness, it’s not as if I’m fast ). Each mile marker became a mini victory — a new 10 mile pb… by about 3 minutes.

I’m crap at remembering all the details of a race in chronological order and also I hadn’t a clue where I was for most of it… so random standout moments follow…

We were running on a dual carriageway and people lined the bridges shouting down encouragement. I looked up at a bridge and oh sh!t, there were runners on it… we’re going up there?! That was a steep, short climb at about 8 miles. I think I said 2 sentences out loud in the whole race.  The first was... "Fcuk, THAT’s a hill" as we rounded a corner into a housing estate and looked ahead at, well, a big hill. I said this to a girl beside me — peach top, designer gear, she looked at me blankly, earphones blaring! I’m leaving her behind, I told myself and took the hill in style . I had Bungy and Hillside Runner in my head going up this one — I tried to emulate BG’s form on hills and thought of Hilly’s seven hills of Edinburgh, this one is nothing!

Second thing I said, to myself, was 'it is WINDY' as a bit of a tree blew into the road ahead of us. Come to think of it, I also scolded some teenage youth challenge relay runners who were walking, told them they were too young to stop.  I doubt that was motivational for them! 

The last 4 miles
There’s only 4 miles to go… I never thought I would get to a point where I would think ‘only’ with 4 miles left to go … I had clocked up about 1:19 at this point… if I did 10 minute miles from here on, I’d just about come in under 2… it’s so liberating to realise that. Then I thought, sub 1:55 is a possibility here, should I pick it up a bit? but I didn’t, still a bit fearful of blowing up. I took a second gel around the 9 mile mark for the last push.

There was a lovely steep downhill, where I worried a bit that it might lead to the equivalent uphill but it didn’t, it brought us to a lovely lush green valley (Carrigrohane rd, I figured out later), water seemed to appear every time we turned a corner, then along the Mardyke and across the pedestrian bridge… looks like a lovely place to run. From there, I could feel myself starting to flag a bit — there’s something about knowing you’re in the last couple of miles of any race, it starts to feel endless.

We were all mixed up with relay runners (far too fresh looking!) and youth challenge runners (burned out after a mile and walking) and marathon finishers (glazed eyes by this stage). Compared to DCM, I saw very few people walking and they were mostly relay people. There were bands and music and hardy spectators… shouting encouragement to the marathoners who had their names on their numbers… handing out jelly beans, orange segments (I gratefully took an orange segment at about 6 miles and nearly choked on it, not doing that again!).

Then we were on the quays and the wind was fierce again. I hadn’t seen Peachy for a while and then she sped past me, with about a mile to go. No way, I picked it up a bit and went past her, triumphantly. A bit premature because as we turned on to the bridge over to Patrick St, about 400 m to go, she went past me again. Now if this was a Career Move or Dubgal report, Peachy would have been crushed… unfortunately, I was hemmed in by the crowd on the bridge and hadn’t enough left at that stage to go around the guys hemming me in to go after her… so she sailed off, earphones still intact

I did the last .2 of a mile at 7:27 pace… thanks Peachy! Crossed the finish line with the clock showing 1:56:xx, stopped the garmin at 1:55:18, absolutely delighted. Chip time, once they finally put it up today was 1:55:16.

What about the weather? It was wet, it was windy — sometimes at our backs, but often strong gusts sideways or in our faces. But it really didn’t bother me that much. For me, the temperature was perfect (about 9C, I think), I’ll take wind and rain over heat and sun for running, any day.

The hills… were grand, a few steep ones but not too long, a few lovely downhills where I let loose… all my Donegal/Fairview hill training stood to me.

Splits:
8:43, 9:22, 8:26, 8:41, 8:49, 8:55, 8:44, 8:47, 8:45, 8:36, 8:32, 8:33, 8:37, (7:27)
Fastest km was the 5th (5:09)… second fastest was the 21st (5:11)…
21:3km/13.24 mi @ avg pace: 5:25/km; 8:42/mi;

The aftermath
Walking from the finish line back to the hotel, I realised how cold and wet I was… dripping in the lift, an American tourist looked at me in horror, she had just arrived from the airport and couldn't believe people were running in this weather

I had the best hot shower ever, heard about D’s sub 3:30 and then we headed off to celebrate. The Sextant pub was offering free bbq burgers to anyone with a medal, never tasted a better burger. Met Yaboya, heard all about his current rigorous training plan and can testify that he was very dedicated to his S&C session yesterday afternoon. Dinner last night in Market Lane (lovely) with a Cork friend and some of her relay team, who all had a great day… think I need more recovery from the aftermath today than from the race

Reflections
I know everyone says the training pays off… I really think the sessions make all the difference… as much for mental strength as physical. At no point yesterday did I think, I can’t maintain this pace.

Race practice pays off too… I know much better now where my psychological danger points are in a race, usually right before midway, whatever the distance… now that I know that, I don’t listen to myself any more.

And I suppose the base of steady training just increases endurance too.

Well, duh… or as D would say, well I did tell you all this

In September 2014, I did 5:45/km for the Dublin half and felt that I had nothing more to give on the day. Yesterday, my average pace was 5:25/km (8:42/mi)… and I’m a bit annoyed with myself for holding back and not going for the sub-1:55. Maybe I should be feeling more pain in these races. Maybe next time

Now for the Race Series, and hmmm… must take a look at some marathon plans so I can try to exorcise the DCM 14 demons.

Thanks everyone for the support here… It really does help and reading about everyone’s training and racing exploits adds nuggets of wisdom that surface when you need them… sometimes!

Verdict on Cork: Lovely city (except for the fact that there are rivers in every direction and the streets go at all angles causing confusion for addled runners), really well organised enjoyable race, great support in that weather… and nice t-shirt too. Happy days

yaboya1 wrote: »

Well done anna.
Those easy pb's are very satisfying.



I'm pretty sure sub 55 would be a new world record.
Don't want to be putting a dampener on it, but is your training really going THAT well??

:pac::pac: hey it's late, and I'm in recovery mode, leave me alone... :P