Dublin Marathon 2016 - Mentored Novices Thread

The Black Oil wrote: »

Right, goals for me.

A ~ 4:05
B ~ 4:25
C ~ 4:35 - this is assuming A and B have gone to pot, soak it up and enjoy the craic, treat it like a LSR
D Know kung fu

Hahaha! Woke the woman beside me on the train laughing!!!

We have definitely been prepared well on this forum....thank you so much Nop, Firedance, and all others, including all fellow novices, who have contributed to this being an amazing journey. My PMA starts now .....if I could stop all my body parts aching

Just wanna get my 'good luck' in before you are all too nervous to read this thread later in the week. Yous are all so well prepared and you'll fly it. Ill be in on Sunday, keeping an eye on you all - not sure where yet but I'll be sure to look out for everyone in the numbers table.

Good luck!

Hi all,

Hope the tapering went well and everyone is set to go. I'm in for my rubdown in the morning after a gentle 5km and then thinking maybe 4.5miles on Thursday. Have been an emotional wreck the last 10 days or so....missing the 3/4 has really knocked my confidence but I'm going regardless....finishing while enjoying it is now the focus. If i don't come down in a heap maybe I'll think about next year and finishing times.

Wondering if anyone could advise on parking. Plans have been scuppered so we'll be travelling in from Navan Co. Meath on the Sunday morning. Just trying to figure where's good to park that's close by but not too far for the walk back!!!!! Is anyone going from that direction and have you any advice please?

I'm also going in wave 4 so is being there for 8.30 - 8.45ish the right time??? Just conscious of waiting around for an hour?

faithmc wrote: »

Hi all,

Hope the tapering went well and everyone is set to go. I'm in for my rubdown in the morning after a gentle 5km and then thinking maybe 4.5miles on Thursday. Have been an emotional wreck the last 10 days or so....missing the 3/4 has really knocked my confidence but I'm going regardless....finishing while enjoying it is now the focus. If i don't come down in a heap maybe I'll think about next year and finishing times.

Wondering if anyone could advise on parking. Plans have been scuppered so we'll be travelling in from Navan Co. Meath on the Sunday morning. Just trying to figure where's good to park that's close by but not too far for the walk back!!!!! Is anyone going from that direction and have you any advice please?

I'm also going in wave 4 so is being there for 8.30 - 8.45ish the right time??? Just conscious of waiting around for an hour?

I was also wondering about parking and what time to be there. I'm staying with the in laws out in Clontarf so I'll get a taxi in. What time would I want to be leaving at to be in for Wave 3 at 9:20? I was going to leave at 8am. Where then would my fiancée park when she comes in around 10am.

bucketybuck wrote: »

If anybody has been at the marathon before I have a question about pre-race!

I'm in wave 3 which according to the map will gather on Herbert place, then filter onto lower Baggot street and then to the start line. But before that I'm going to call into a friends beside the Burlington hotel on Sunday morning and use that as a base for toilets and such.

If I was to leave my friends house at 9am can I cross over the canal onto Baggot street and join the wave, or will there be barriers and I have to go all the way around to Merrion square to join the back of the wave? Hopefully this map illustrates things...



I might wander over earlier to soak up the atmosphere, but if its lashing down I might stay inside as long as I can so it would be good to know how long it will take me to get over there.

You have to go to Merrion square. that's the only way into the pens

Oh dear All or Nothing...fingers crossed it's just a bad Monday!!!

My last week was similar enough.
Mon: Rest
Tues: 4.5
Weds: Rest
Thurs: 3.75
Fri: Rest
Sat: Rest
Sun: 7

I ran the 7 yesterday at race pace which is slower than my usual pace and i found it weird...really weird. Often ran ahead of pace but I've never run with a pacer and do all my long runs on my own as I work every Saturday when my running mates run so find it hard to run consciously at a consistent slower pace. I know i'll really have to fight the urge to break away from the pacer on Sunday!!!

My planner for the week advised 3 miles tomorrow. 4.5 Thursday and 3 Friday but I'm thinking of skipping Friday.

Top Top post Nop.. Well done! The end of/start of week long posts from you have been worth waiting for and reading every week. Thanks so much.. some good info in there:D


But.. we are the minority that have planned and trained well for this event so should know it already..:p:D;);)

Well done nop, a fine post to get the blood flowing nicely at the start of the week.

You mentioned the 10/10/10 approach to the race - it's an excellent strategy, for any race of 10k or longer in my opinion, but especially the marathon, where (as has been mentioned many times here, this year and all years) you tend to pay with a penal rate of interest for starting too fast.

The approach breaks the distance down into more manageable parts, and is all about (1) starting solidly but within yourself for the first 10m, (2) pushing on solidly for the second 10 miles, and (3) getting to the 20 mile mark in good enough shape to finish strongly through the last 10k. It sounds easy enough, but it's probably not possible to get to stage 3 in the right shape if you've overcooked 1 or 2.

So easy does it through the Park and out to Chapelizod; that's the time to get out the cattle prod (as DG put it) and push through the deep South, arriving at Milltown with enough left to tackle the Clonskeagh/Roebuck drag and then keep it going down to Montrose and in to the finish.

When you start to flag, feed off the crowds. They'll keep you going more than you know.

Good luck!

Novices! You've all done a great job making it this far, and I'm sure you'll all have an very painful but ultimately satisfying day on Sunday. I have two pieces of very important advice to add to the ever growing list of things to remember on the day (it's actually more a marathon of remembering things to do than a running marathon).

1. Drop out now!!! That way you'll be able to tag along to next year's novices thread!

2. For the first time ever, the Dublin Marathon has actually been extended in distance. Scurrilously, there'll be a fake finish line setup to look just like an actual marathon finish line, full of people pretending to have just finished a marathon in some sort of weird Truman-show kind of way. The real map of the finishing line looks like this:



As you can see from the expertly drawn map, you need to continue past the so-called "Finish", and continue running past the area where you'll be offered medals, t-shirts etc. - don't bother stopping, it's all part of the cunning mindgames that have inexplicably been added as part of DCM 2016. Don't forget to get a few strides in before the bag collection area and jog on the spot as you wait for your bag to be collected! From there you accelerate up to 5k pace around Merrion Square and up a dingy looking laneway, ending up just outside the real finishing line which looks like this:



Best of luck, and hopefully see you at the REAL finish line :cool: :pac:

I never buy anything from gift shops but I fully expect this will be me when I see DCM merchandise at the expo:



It'll be payday too! I'm going to look like an employee!

ToriV wrote: »

I am beyond useless at work today! OMG i could have put my dog in my place today and he would have gotten more done!

Productivity very low my side too, I think I am addicted to this thread , refreshing it every minute or two for an update desperately hoping to read more positive news and encouragement.

A DCM marathon novices thread junkie has been born !