DCM 2015: Mentored Novices Thread

Gavlor wrote: »

Lol at this race reportless post getting the most thanks...... I wonder why?!!

I'm assuming it's because I was doing a different race to the other novices we all thought I might die, they must have been so ecstatic to see my alive face

Race Report - Warriors Run

My goal for this race was to finish this without injury, and without creasing myself. My trainer had told me to ignore the garmin, to ignore any sort of goal finishing time, to run by feel and to get off the mountain in one piece. That was all I was allowed to do and it suited me just fine. I would have liked to beat last year's time on top of that.

My stomach was extremely sick all morning, I assumed it was only nerves and it would pass. Unfortunately it didn't, and I felt quite nauseous for most of the race and the rest of the evening.

I did a decent warm up, and was ready at the start line with 2 minutes to go.

*******

Mile 1
This is where I am told most people ruin their entire race, it's a steep uphill out of the village and people tend to get caught up in the crowd and run beyond their abilities. I wasn't going to make that mistake, so I shuffled along, people passing me out all over the place but I didn't let that get into my head. I was soon passing out some of these people already as they stopped to walk on the steepest part. My pace felt good here I was happy that it felt steady and once over the peak of the hill I settled nicely into it.

Miles 2-3
This begins with a nice little downhill, then straight into rolling hills, with little descent for your ascent. I was happy here, enough pressure that I knew I could keep going for a good while. I made a friend here and was able to talk, this kept me in check, as I could speak, but not so easily that I wasn't putting enough effort in.

Mile 4
This road - The infamous Glen Road, is at an almost 90 degree angle and leads to the foot of the mountain. When I ran the route a few weeks ago, this is where my sciatica flared up, so I had already made the decision to walk the worst part of this, I walked fast enough that I was passing joggers, and others who had stopped to walk.

Mile 5-6
THE MOUNTAIN >.<
There are only a small number of runners who will actually run the mountain, it's very technical, and very difficult to comprehend the terrain until you're on it. There are very few opportunities to overtake others here, so you are at the mercy of those ahead of you, and as I had taken it handy earlier on, I was stuck behind some slower runners here. I overtook whenever there was a chance, and I ran at every opportunity, I was the only one at that stage doing so. I still lost a lot of time up here, much more time that I would have liked.
I tried taking smaller steps to keep my quads from doing too much work, I knew that I had a steep and technical ascent ahead, as well as a undulating roads once off the mountain. My runners were slipping sideways on my feet the entire time which was difficult to deal with, a lighter show would have been better I think.

The ascent is difficult, but it's downhill right? I ran this as quickly as I could, but it started to rain and the stones got slippy, at one point I felt my ankle twinge and thought feck this, I'm walking. So this was a mixed effort, running anywhere I felt safe, walking elsewhere.

Mile 7-8
Once off the mountain, it's straight into another hill, steep enough and tough on the legs, the reward is a little downhill but it doesn't last long!! I felt my sciatica in my hip niggle here so I moved over to the other side of the road where the camber gave relief. The rolling hills for the next while are tough enough on the legs, I got a sudden cramp right up into my calf which stopped me right in my tracks with a yelp. It sorted itself pretty quickly and I was back at a jog again. I took a walking break after the next water station and did a quick body scan to make sure everything was feeling ok. I had niggles in a few places, but nothing to worry about. At the top of the final peak, I could see the sea and knew I was nearly home with little over a mile to go, straight into a steep downhill which just feels lovely, you get a nice recovery here.

Mile 9 - finish
A long drag back out the main road here, I didn't have much left in my legs to push hard but I was feeling happy that I had gotten this far without hurting anything. This brings you into another hill but you know once you get to the top, you're downhill all the way to the finish.

The entire way since I came off the mountain, people were cheering for Maria, I turned to her on the final hill and laughed "I wish my name was Maria" She told me not to stop that she was following my footsteps. So on I went. The finish line seemed to be in sight forever, and about 200 metres from the line I heard people cheering for Maria again, I was fecked if she was beating me now so I booted it over the line. I was grinning big as I did so - stark contrast to my sobs of relief last year. I did almost puke however (sorry!).

*******

I didn't beat my time from last year, which really was such a pity, because I did so much better than last year, but I think it was purely down to losing time on the mountain moreso this year than last.

I had a good chat with myself just as I came to the top of the mountain, that I wasn't doing this race next year. But of course afterward I thought that maybe if I have it as my goal race net year, and specifically train for it, it might be nice. Reminding myself that sure I was only back running hills a few weeks ago since injury!!!!

Post race pints turned into one pint and a couple of vodkas and soda water, my tummy was very sick all evening and still is. Body is tired today. My hips are very very stiff and my quads and calves are tired.

30 minute recovery run to be done later.

My car is parked 10 miles away, I actually took a notion earlier to jog out and get it There's something actually wrong with us lads, we're all fcuked in the head!