Well the day arrived and i was very relaxed as i felt unusually confident as i did all the training so i got up at 6:30am and had a large bowl of porridge. i didn't sleep great, but i wasn't expecting too.
So after breakfast i relaxed in bed until before 8 and got ready. Put on my normal running gear which i was slightly concerned about because the weather was a bit hotter than i am used too, but i stuck with it. Got photo's with my family and headed to meat Cathal Daly in Debanhams. I could sense the excitement around the street and i was still fairly relaxed, which was very unusual for me. We went for a run to stretch the legs and then took our place in the starting line.
I decided the night before hand that i would go with the 3:30 pacers as i based my training on that pace. As the race started i felt comfortable and gradually made my way up to the pacers. I stuck with them and felt fairly comfortable and was enjoying the run through my local streets.
my first few miles went as follows
m1 7:46, m2 7:45,m3 7:56, m4 7:48, m5 7:51
m6 7:51; m7 8:08 m8 8:16 m9 7:55 m10 7:42
this was just under 1h 19 min for 10 miles.
which was probably a bit too fast and with the weather getting hotter it proved to my downfall.
the second ten miles went as follows, with 2 miles over 11 minutes proved disastrous
m11 7:54 m12 8:04, m13 7:56, m14 8:18, m15 8:13,
m16 11:12, m17 8:00, m18 8:40, m19 12:42, m20 9:04
the remainder of the race was a blur, just wanted to get to the finish line and lie down and cry!!
m21 9:53 m22 11:19, m23 9:11, m24 8:41, m25 8:47, m26 10:13
last 400, 3:33 minutes
total 3:50:30
The original plan should have been thrown out the window in the morning of the race and i should have removed half my clothing and gone with the 3;45 pacers or even gone on my own. It was a hard way to learn how to run a marathon , given the amount of training i did. During the race i was thinking to myself that only a month before it i did 22 miles in 2 hours 53 minutes and the first 20 in 2hours 38, so to hit the wall at mile 16 was a big dissappointment. However i struggled to the finishing line. At mile 19, i broke a toe nail fairly badly and the foot was sore, but i new if i took off the shoe it wasn't going to go back on.
So a lot more negatives from my first marathon than positives, the one big positive is that i crossed the line and finishefd in a sub 4 hour mark, given the heat and humidity it was a good result. But the main negative for me is hitting the wall at mile 16 and struggling and stopping on so many occasions!
This will fire me on for Dublin in october where i will go with 3:45 pacers or myself, and hopefully the weather will be better for me
Tuesday 11 June 2013
Monday 10 June 2013
Well since a lot of people are doing it and blogging seems to be the new form of writing. i decided to put my experiences from running down on the Internet for anyone to read!!!
I ran for leevale a long time ago but gave up as everyone was so much better than me, i decided Golf was better and more interesting. I wasn't a bad runner, i just wasn't in the same league as the others , especially my brother who was one of the best in the country and made it look easy, while i was always finishing well down the leader board. For 5 mile races, James would be sub 25 minutes, while i would be 30 minutes plus. I never ran any distances higher. I was fit, did the same training as everyone else, enjoyed the crack, but when it came to races, i just wasn't in the same league. Especially on the track or cross country where it i failed miserably. Although one success I had was winning the 1500 metres, in my final year in CBC, Cork.
So i gave it up and played golf. then as the years went on, I always watched the Dublin marathon with a keen interest of doing it. Would start running again and then give up, because it required commitment and i wasn't giving.
I married Emer Bergin and have 3 boys, Declan, Colm and Brendan and a dog named Daisy and that took up most of my time.
Cathal Daly started it all of and he got everyone else running and then he pestered me for a long while(and rightly so!) and eventually i gave in, and decided that i would like to run a marathon before i turned 40! which unfortuately didn't happen
It was my answer to the mid life crisis , as i don't have the money for a fancy sports car, however running seemed like the obviouse substitute. and i thought it would be cheaper.
So off i went bought an expensive pair of shoes and the correct clothes for running, and started off slowly and gradually built up my mileage and was feeling great. At the start it was tough but i stuck with it and ran my first race in Clonikilty in December 2011, i did it in under 45 minutes and came 49th, not too bad for a first race. After that everything went south!
I built up my mileage to 10 miles fairly soon after and ran 10 miles in 72 minutes and felt i could have gone on for another few miles. The following week i went for a 12 mile run and with a few miles to go, my calf muscle went. This was the start of the injuries and it was just one injury after another and became a long list of injuries and periods of rest from running. I struggled with the IT band on my left leg, and ran the cork half marathon in 2012 in 1:37, and this was with a couple of stops due to a pain in my leg. This resulted in me being out of running for a longer period of time. I went to a few physios and eventually one physio suggested i wear an IT ban around both legs which i though was daft, but i though well at least it will get me running again.
Thanks to Cathal Daly who did a marathon plan for me which i kept as close as possible to. My mileage went up correctly and all my running seemed to be going in the right direction. However all the running seemed to done in cold, wet and windy conditions, so i had no opportunity of running in hot conditions for any lenght of time.
That's me until the the marathon!
I ran for leevale a long time ago but gave up as everyone was so much better than me, i decided Golf was better and more interesting. I wasn't a bad runner, i just wasn't in the same league as the others , especially my brother who was one of the best in the country and made it look easy, while i was always finishing well down the leader board. For 5 mile races, James would be sub 25 minutes, while i would be 30 minutes plus. I never ran any distances higher. I was fit, did the same training as everyone else, enjoyed the crack, but when it came to races, i just wasn't in the same league. Especially on the track or cross country where it i failed miserably. Although one success I had was winning the 1500 metres, in my final year in CBC, Cork.
So i gave it up and played golf. then as the years went on, I always watched the Dublin marathon with a keen interest of doing it. Would start running again and then give up, because it required commitment and i wasn't giving.
I married Emer Bergin and have 3 boys, Declan, Colm and Brendan and a dog named Daisy and that took up most of my time.
Cathal Daly started it all of and he got everyone else running and then he pestered me for a long while(and rightly so!) and eventually i gave in, and decided that i would like to run a marathon before i turned 40! which unfortuately didn't happen
It was my answer to the mid life crisis , as i don't have the money for a fancy sports car, however running seemed like the obviouse substitute. and i thought it would be cheaper.
So off i went bought an expensive pair of shoes and the correct clothes for running, and started off slowly and gradually built up my mileage and was feeling great. At the start it was tough but i stuck with it and ran my first race in Clonikilty in December 2011, i did it in under 45 minutes and came 49th, not too bad for a first race. After that everything went south!
I built up my mileage to 10 miles fairly soon after and ran 10 miles in 72 minutes and felt i could have gone on for another few miles. The following week i went for a 12 mile run and with a few miles to go, my calf muscle went. This was the start of the injuries and it was just one injury after another and became a long list of injuries and periods of rest from running. I struggled with the IT band on my left leg, and ran the cork half marathon in 2012 in 1:37, and this was with a couple of stops due to a pain in my leg. This resulted in me being out of running for a longer period of time. I went to a few physios and eventually one physio suggested i wear an IT ban around both legs which i though was daft, but i though well at least it will get me running again.
Thanks to Cathal Daly who did a marathon plan for me which i kept as close as possible to. My mileage went up correctly and all my running seemed to be going in the right direction. However all the running seemed to done in cold, wet and windy conditions, so i had no opportunity of running in hot conditions for any lenght of time.
That's me until the the marathon!
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