nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

To Connemara and Beyond ...

nop98

I really like reading the great training logs and race reports here - have picked up plenty of good tips and inspiration. I had every intention of starting my own some day. Today seems to be as good a day as any to get going.

History:
In case anyone is interested, 42yo, never overly sporty, I started running at lunchtime with two Italian colleagues a couple of years ago. In hindsight, it was hugely entertaining, the two lads exchanging recipes and wine-tips with me panting and sweating after them. Our usual 6.5km loop (which I still run regularly) took typically 40 minutes and I never really enjoyed it very much. When both running-buddies left, I stopped running and did 6 months of strength/condition classes in the company gym. Lo and behold, in summer 2013, I tried my trusted 6.5km loop again, I flew along in 36-7 minutes and loved it. I was hooked, and have been since.

Busy job and family life (2 kids) typically leave little time for running, but I try to get out 3-4 times a week: two short lunch time runs during work, and a long run a the weekend. I also try to get a gym class or two in each week (circuits and/or pilates).

Racing results so far:
5k: never ran 5k in anger, but have self-timed ~23 minutes in training and during a night-time run in Bray in May 2014.
10k: 48m, DLR Bay 10k in Aug 2014, an improvement from 51m in 2013, same race.
10M: 1h29, Frank Duffy 10M during the race series this summer - ran with a nasty cold and 0 training.
HM: I ran 4 HMs in 2014, managed to get to my sub-1h50 goal in Clontarf in November, with a second to spare 1h49m59s

Modest goals for 2015 are to chip away at the PBs, e.g. 10k in 45m and HM in 1h45.

First up is the Connemara Half... I entered a few weeks ago with some friends. What lies beyond, I don't know. I am half-thinking of taking the DCM plunge this year... but I am not brave enough to make that call just yet!

Confession: I'm Dutch living in Ireland for yonks, so forgive my usage of kms instead of miles...

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

annapr

Kennyg71 wrote: »

You can appricate beauty of daffodil, dog only wants to cock leg and p!!s on
Them, it's not to bad being the man, all about prospective, best luck in Wicklow
And enjoy.:)

Here I was enjoying catching up with all the philosophy on this log, then along comes G... With his earthy wisdom :pac: :pac:

Very best of luck in the mountains, Nop, I know you'll relish it ... Not sure if you'll see any daffodils but maybe heather wil do!

nop98

Singer wrote: »

:pac:

Don't forget that there are downhills too :cool: Really interested to hear how you get on!

I'm starting the report already!

annapr wrote: »

Here I was enjoying catching up with all the philosophy on this log, then along comes G... With his earthy wisdom :pac: :pac:

Very best of luck in the mountains, Nop, I know you'll relish it ... Not sure if you'll see any daffodils but maybe heather wil do!

Thanks Anna - see you there, weren't you doing it too?

hillsiderunner

Good luck, nop, and I think the advice to lead-out cautiously is good with the volume being less.

And when you are suffering up one of those hills remember there are many who would love to be out of the trails for 13miles!

nop98

hillsiderunner wrote: »

Good luck, nop, and I think the advice to lead-out cautiously is good with the volume being less.

And when you are suffering up one of those hills remember there are many who would love to be out of the trails for 13miles!

Thank you HSR, I will do so when hillsiderunning - speaking of which, are you back out on the trails yourself?

March 10 4M easy: 6.8km @ 5:45 min/km
Could not resist the lure of the nice weather, went with my "2h coaching project" for a most enjoyable lunchtime stretch.

hillsiderunner

nop98 wrote: »

Thank you HSR, I will do so when hillsiderunning - speaking of which, are you back out on the trails yourself?

Not yet .... doing a bit more, but still watching the posterior tibialis a bit. I'd say a couple more weeks and I should be able to do a 6-7miles though so it might be worth finding a trail for that

.

(anyway enough of that, have some spare time now so will roll the foot with the hockey ball and try to get the stair drops done too)

Neady83

Good luck this weekend Nop, can't wait for the report. Hope it's a good one for you

Dubgal72

Looks like it'll be a lovely day for mountain running this weekend. Enjoy, stay relaxed and dig in....all at the same time

Remember, the Quarry and Puck Castle are now your friends

jake1970

Good luck tomorrow Nop. Enjoy the mountains.

Firedance

How'd it go??! I can't find results on my phone!

nop98

Firedance wrote: »

How'd it go??! I can't find results on my phone!

Lol... ~2h13... Very very tough course, much harder than I thought. Loved it tho! Still in Glendalough with the family, they wanted to go for a "nice walk" afterwards.. Ouch ouch. Report to come.

annapr

nop98 wrote: »

Lol... ~2h13... Very very tough course, much harder than I thought. Loved it tho! Still in Glendalough with the family, they wanted to go for a "nice walk" afterwards.. Ouch ouch. Report to come.

Well done Nop! Looking forward to the report.

Firedance

annapr wrote: »

Well done Nop! Looking forward to the report.

Well done!! That's about right based on fletchs prediction! Good on you & well done on the cool down walk too

can't wait for the report

Mrs Mc

Well done Nop looking forward to the report.

Kennyg71

Well done Nop, good run, hope walk but flatter than the run:)

Dubgal72

Great time, well done! The winner (hard-core seasoned mountain runner :eek: ) ran 1:34 so 2:13 is definitely a very healthy time. Sounds mental, just saw aoboa's post: 15 min miles down to 7 min miles. Ye goddesses, they were some hills!

Hope you're able to walk this week

nop98

DEBRA Wicklow Mountains Half Marathon - 2h1325s; 152nd / 379 participants.

Undoubtedly the most challenging run and most beautiful scenery for a race I have done.

First things first. Let me not forget that this was a fundraiser for a charity called DEBRA Ireland. This charity provides support for families and patients that suffer a truely awful skin-disease called EB (https://debraireland.org/about/what-is-eb/), for which no cure exists. Not sure what's worse, the pain for the kids or the heartbreak for the parents. I will sheepishly admit never having even heard of this condition and I just signed up for an epic half marathon. But having read some (awful) stories about over the past couple of months, I am once again reminded of how lucky I am with two healthy, energetic, smart kids - we really have nothing to worry about. I hope they raised a lot of much needed funds and I'm glad to have contributed what must be just a menial amount, and running a HM, finishing times, etc, is all supremely unimportant.

Having said that, there was a half marathon to deal with and from the above posts, and the benefit of hindsight, it was clear I had no idea what I was in for. I had readjusted my goals to be [HM PB] + 20%, which works out about 2h12 based on CNM15.

The village of Laragh was full of activity when I arrived well in time for the start. I had finally settled on a long sleeved base-layer and my trusted orange t-shirt of DCM fame. The race FAQ insisted everyone would bring a wind-jacket on the run, and I also had a hat with me. The garmin was charged (deafening yawn from someone?) and I was really looking forward, the usual pre-race nerves and all.

The mileage has dropped since DCM but I had trained well over the past few weeks. The weekly miles were trending up again, out at least 4x /week and more importantly, enjoying it again. I might improve a little on the sleep/alcohol part of the discipline, but I was cautiously optimistic. Little did I know what I was in for.

We were bussed to the start and I had a nice chat with a lady from near where I live. At some point, we noticed runners from the 10k event (started a good bit earlier), crossing the road and galloping (well, walking) up a trail onto Brockagh. I knew from studying the race-route that this was shared between the HM and the 10k, and it looked frighteningly steep. It would come late in the day for us, and if I wasn't nervous up to that point, I sure was now.

We were dropped in, well, the middle of effing nowhere and waited around for a good bit. There were some speeches, some cheering and clapping, and suddenly we were off. I had lined up about halfway and I was overtaken a lot in the first 2km. I was determined to start really slow (based on the advice here) and I was sure that I would see most of those folks at some point again (and I was right). We crested the first hill soon enough (2k in) and 2 lovely downhill kilometers followed. I seem to run easy downhill these days and I overtook loads withouth upping the effort. I was actually getting a little confident here thinking that it all wasn't going to be so bad. I hadn't quite realized that these were about the best paths/trails we'd get (apart from the bits on the 'real' road).

Once we went uphill for the second long incline (about 5km uphill towards the Wicklow Gap), I realized the terrain was going to be very difficult. This was muddy, mucky, puddly, single-file kinda work. We slowed down considerably. Oh, and there were stiles to deal with.

The first one caused a massive queue and we had to wait for about 2 minutes (yep :mad:) while everybody made their way over. Annoying, but what can you do. After the initial wait, the field had spread out and subsequent waits were less, but still we had to conquer about 10 or so.

We crossed the main Wicklow Gap provincial road and continued to climb, a lot of it was over wooden elevated paths. We were warned not to run on these but everybody did anyway. It was fine. Some of the normal, mucky trails were too steep to run and I regularly slowed to a walk like everyone else.

I was really looking forward to get over the Wicklow Gap (just before 10k) - there'd be a water station and it was all downhill from there, or so I thought. I knew I was far off target (not really sure which target) when my trusty watch informed me only 9.2km had passed for the first hour.

We got ourselves onto the main road over the Gap again, for a while, and bizarrely I was impatient and overtaking loads there. I did actually feel really strong. As it was very windy, I settled briefly behind 2 lads and a girl was just behind me. The lads made some joke about "being used" (in good spirits) so I took my turn in the wind (and never saw them again, :cool: LOL). A spectator called to the girl she was 7th lady and I was pleased for her. We soon overtook another female runner so she was 6th. I was glad here for the extra clothing as we ran full in the wind and it was quite cold.

The downhills turned out to be a HUGE disappointment. The views (such as I managed to see them, my eyes were glued at the 2-5 meters in front of me only), were amazing but the terrain was either rocky and very steep, or flatter and one big mudfest. At some point, I sunk knee-deep into the muck and almost lost a shoe. I was having existential thoughts at this point - along the famous "WTF am I doing here". To illustrate, Strava informs me the 14th km had an impressive 104m drop. I had worked hard to gain those bad elevation boys, however, I only managed 7:06 min for it [11.25 min/mi], due to the rocks, steep little stoney stairs, other runners, etc. I am a bit of a wuzz tho, running on stoney paths so that might explain it too :rolleyes:

However, that said, I loved it

and per HSR's instructions, considered myself delighted being out here on the trails (not for long as I had to concentrate so hard). Joking aside, it was fabulous but brutal. And all thoughts about finish times were out of the window.

I want to clarify something with BG here. Bungy Girl, I know there wasn't any cowsh1te on this route (on account that no cows live in these parts). There might have been some sheepsh1te, I don't know for sure. But surely this qualifies for cross-country, Irish style?

You should see my runners! :pac:

We continued to descent into the Glendasan valley all the way to Glendalough. There were a couple of kms on decent road and I sped up a little, and enjoyed the scenery. Then the road took a sharp turn onto Brockagh Mountain - the trail we had seen earlier. This was brutally steep and everybody walked for almost 2km here (little bits of running). I had caught up with another girl who was running very strongly and I told her she must be fifth.

When we got to the top of the very-steep bit we happened to be in a group of about 10-12 folks with nobody in front or behind. A single-file formed again for the last bit of cross-country and I happened to be last. A volunteer was on duty in the middle of nowhere and said "3km to go" just about when my watched beeped for 2 hours. I decided that if I wanted to stay on the good side of 2h15 I had better get working. And as it turned out, I still have some DCM reserves because I hammered past the runners in front of me - first, awkwardly, on the trail. Then, the last bit turned out to be a decent path, downhill. Another volunteer there said that it was about 5 minutes to home, and I really ran as hard as I could. All the folks in my little group were dispatched and I caught a few other straggles after that. I must have overtaken about 15 people in the last 2km - which pleases me! :pac::pac:

There were a few supporters during the last stretch (runners that had finished, primarily) and they were brilliant. The finishline was buzzing and my family were there. My daughter said, in her naive enthusiasm, "wow daddy you got a medal", my boy was mostly interested in the nice spread (mars-bars and jellies), and my better half said something like, "you don't even look that tired" - as I was struggling not to faint.

The final time was 2h13-something and I had not an inch left to spare. Given that I lost a good bit of time at the stiles, I think I more or less met my PB+20% target, so I am pleased enough. Absolutely wrecked at the moment - this seems to be a different ballgame compared to road-racing - you seem to use more body-parts as, for example, my lower back is really sore. Also, you can't switch off one moment or you're falling, submerging into muck, or breaking a leg.

Anyway - that's me done.

A few days of rest are needed as I have an important running date on Saturday!

nop98

annapr wrote: »

Well done Nop! Looking forward to the report.

Firedance wrote: »

Well done!! That's about right based on fletchs prediction! Good on you & well done on the cool down walk too can't wait for the report

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Well done Nop looking forward to the report.

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Well done Nop, good run, hope walk but flatter than the run:)

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Great time, well done! The winner (hard-core seasoned mountain runner :eek: ) ran 1:34 so 2:13 is definitely a very healthy time. Sounds mental, just saw aoboa's post: 15 min miles down to 7 min miles. Ye goddesses, they were some hills!

Hope you're able to walk this week

Thank you all for your usual kind words and encouragement

I did notice the winning time alright... Sighs. 1h34 on a fast road course is far out of my league, let alone on a course like this... Oh well, can't beat them all.

Kennyg71

Well done Nop, great report, sounds pretty gruling, have vaguely though
Mountain running look interesting, I know a lad that does it reguarly and
Raves about it, but reading your account think no thanks:)

This Fat Girl Runs

Well done on a great race, nop! Loved your race report

diego_b

Sounds like a pretty epic race that N, well done on the run. Your next road race will no doubt feel that bit easier after that experience!
Your splits on strava looked interesting so was curious to see the report as to what you endured!

annapr

Chuckling away here at your report, Nop, especially your existential thoughts... My existential thought reading it is Thank f**k I didn't attempt it!!! :eek:

Seriously, well done, you were well on target! Would you do it again?

Singer

Great writeup as usual nop

It sounds like you ran a really strong race. What's your target for next year?

denis b

Cheers for the report Nop. A grueling race indeed, with the additional psychological pressures of avoiding bodily injury or just disappearing altogether :eek:

Not surprised at your strong finish and that was a super time for a hard and technical course. Congrats.

jake1970

Well done nop, great report as usual. How are the legs today?

hillsiderunner

Great report. Very well done on passing all those other runners.

I was going to type that I'd love to have done that half but ... hmmm, not sure really...

Where did they get all the muck from I wonder? I was out on the muddy/waterlogged terrain of December and January yesterday and it was lovely and dry. And weather will have been similar in Dublin. You'd think they'd done research to get the muckiest route possible for the Wicklow half

Firedance

super report nop, I spoke to a club mate of mine this morning (not the one who came 6th) it was his first hill race too, he has already signed up here go on, you know you want to

well done again!

Mrs Mc

Great report NOP it sounds awful so well done on the time considering all the climbing and getting stuck in muck BG would have loved it.

tailgunner

Well done, great report as always.

Neady83

Great running Nop, well done on digging deep and pulling it out of the bag at the end. There's no better feeling than leaving it all out there

It sounds like a tough race and very different. I can't believe there's so many stiles in it, it must really disrupt the flow of the race and are a killer on the legs. How's the body today?

You did a great time on that course. Any chance of you talking up XC, fell running or some IMRA races?

nop98

Kennyg71 wrote: »

Well done Nop, great report, sounds pretty gruling, have vaguely though
Mountain running look interesting, I know a lad that does it reguarly and
Raves about it, but reading your account think no thanks

No, no, it was hard but it was really good fun! It's just knowing what to expect. I think with a bit of practice and improved technique (and less fear) one can quickly improve. The views were AMAZING, those one or two glimpses I got

This Fat Girl Runs wrote: »

Well done on a great race, nop! Loved your race report

Thank you!

diego_b wrote: »

Sounds like a pretty epic race that N, well done on the run. Your next road race will no doubt feel that bit easier after that experience!
Your splits on strava looked interesting so was curious to see the report as to what you endured!

Yep - the 5th km was skewed because of the long wait at the first stile. Other than that, it was too hard, either going up or going down!

annapr wrote: »

Chuckling away here at your report, Nop, especially your existential thoughts... My existential thought reading it is Thank f**k I didn't attempt it!!! :eek:

Seriously, well done, you were well on target! Would you do it again?

Yes - I'll do it again next year and I'll line up my Dutch buddies. And there'll be no excuses for you next time around!

Singer wrote: »

Great writeup as usual nop

It sounds like you ran a really strong race. What's your target for next year?

Thanks B! 2h05 or so

denis b wrote: »

Cheers for the report Nop. A grueling race indeed, with the additional psychological pressures of avoiding bodily injury or just disappearing altogether :eek:

Not surprised at your strong finish and that was a super time for a hard and technical course. Congrats.

Thanks D! I really loved it - a totally different sport almost.

jake1970 wrote: »

Well done nop, great report as usual. How are the legs today?

Thanks J - sore! These things typically hit me the 2nd day, so tomorrow will be fun!

hillsiderunner wrote: »

Great report. Very well done on passing all those other runners.

I was going to type that I'd love to have done that half but ... hmmm, not sure really...

Where did they get all the muck from I wonder? I was out on the muddy/waterlogged terrain of December and January yesterday and it was lovely and dry. And weather will have been similar in Dublin. You'd think they'd done research to get the muckiest route possible for the Wicklow half .

Thanks, HSR - you'd love it! How about doing it next year and we'll get Anna out too?

The route was the same as last year but thankfully, some new wooden paths had been constructed. These parts of the way would have been impassible I think. TBH I think some of these parts never really dry out. It had been dry for almost a week - which I am sure helped, but there was still a good bit of muck left.

Firedance wrote: »

super report nop, I spoke to a club mate of mine this morning (not the one who came 6th) it was his first hill race too, he has already signed up here go on, you know you want to well done again!

Thanks A

I'll wait a few days before I decide!

Mrs Mc wrote: »

Great report NOP it sounds awful so well done on the time considering all the climbing and getting stuck in muck BG would have loved it.

Thanks A - it was great (but tough). Really enjoyed it (apart from the nearly losing a shoe) and a great sense of achievement afterwards.

tailgunner wrote: »

Well done, great report as always.

Thanks TG

Neady83 wrote: »

Great running Nop, well done on digging deep and pulling it out of the bag at the end. There's no better feeling than leaving it all out there

It sounds like a tough race and very different. I can't believe there's so many stiles in it, it must really disrupt the flow of the race and are a killer on the legs. How's the body today?

You did a great time on that course. Any chance of you talking up XC, fell running or some IMRA races?

Thanks Neady - I really enjoyed the last bit and was not leaving anything out there. At one of the final stretches I noticed a dude ahead who had been starting almost at the first line and looked like a very impressive runner. It was just the inspiration I needed! :pac:

I'll do some more of this stuff, I loved it.