SSE Airtricity Dublin City Marathon 2014 - Race Recap

So as I mentioned before the last few days before the marathon were not ideal. Our flight was cancelled and we spent Sunday morning trying to get through to the airline. Thank god for the youngest and her twitter account as we wouldn't have gotten to talk to anyone until the lines opened at 1pm if it wasn't for her! Anyway our rebooked flight wasn't going to leave London until 6 so I tried to rest up, hydrate and basically make up for spending the whole of Saturday on my feet.

The flight itself went fine and we were in the car within about 15 minutes of landing. From there I drove straight into the city to pick up my race number from my friend and then back on the M7 to be home for about 9pm. Not great but could have been a lot worse. Ominously it was still quite warm and very breezy at this stage but I tried to forget about this and concentrated on getting my race number pinned on and laid out the rest of my gear for the morning. I was so wrecked at this stage that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke at about 5am and knew there was no point trying to get back to sleep at that stage. It was marathon day finally! Despite a total lack of interest in food I managed to force down two cinnimon raisin bagels with butter and honey along with a couple of pints of water and a strong black coffee. I felt ok. Not buzzing but fine. At this point I was still mad early so decided to throw on some BB cream, some blusher and a bit of mascara which is more than I usually manage on a work morning but what can I say......I was bored! Anyway it was worthwhile as my "glamorous" look was commented on by some club members who were out supporting. This possibly has more to do with the state they usually see me in than anything else!

Leaving the house was a bit of a drama as my parents had stayed the previous night to be close to the airport as they were heading off to the USA for 5 weeks. I did have to pretend I wasn't totally focussed on hustling out the door asap. I'm not positive I fooled anyone! As soon as I started my car I noticed the temperature gauge was reading 15 degrees and the sun wasn't even up yet. It was also quite blustery. Oh no!! The two things I had specifically said I would hate!

The trip up to Stillorgan Park-and-Ride was uneventful, as was the Luas journey in. Although I did feel for the poor souls who normally have the tram to themselves in the morning and were now cheek to jowl with a load of runners. At least we were clean and fresh smelling at that stage!

As soon as I arrived at the bag drop I knew that a final loo stop wasn't going to happen at the portaloos. The lines in the baggage area were huge and I remembered from last year that the lines in the wave holding areas were even worse so I hadn't a chance of getting there on time. Luckily I have a friend G who lives on Upper Mount Street which meant I was able to pop into her place for a proper loo. Heaven! I chilled out there until about 15 minutes before the start time and then made my way to the start area. A bit of bobbing and weaving later and I was up near the 3:50 pacers and just as I got there the gun went for the start of the first wave so I knew we only had ten minutes to go. I had my first gel and tried to relax.

The early miles - Start to the PP
The advantage of being in the first pace group at the start of a wave is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of congestion in the first few miles. I'm not the best at running in groups but I never felt boxed in at the start. I did feel that the pace was a bit fast right from the off and I was conscious that this should feel really easy at this stage and it never did.
In fact I was quite relieved anytime there was a bit of congestion and I got to back off the pace a bit. I didn't have the urge to chat to anyone around me either and usually I'd be quite talkative in the first few miles. It does usually take me a while to settle into a run and start to feel comfortable though so I decided to be conservative and see if my legs felt a bit springier later.
Most of this section was around the city on the way to the park gates so there was plenty to look at to keep the mind occupied and I tried to do this and let myself relax a bit. I was keeping the same distance from the pacers at this stage but was being passed constantly.

The PP to Chapelizod
Between the wind and the long incline I had decided before the race to take the park very easy. I tried to not expend any extra energy going up the hills and allowed my pace to slow fractionally here. I did try to find a group to block the wind for me a bit but as I mentioned earlier it wasn't that congested. Maybe if I had been right up beside the pacers I could have done that but I certainly wasn't wasting energy trying to catch them. At this point I was getting a bit concerned that the pace still felt quite challenging. During training runs I had had to hold myself back or my pace would drift towards 8 minute miles. I don't think I could have run an 8 minute mile yesterday at any time! I took my first gel on schedule at 5 miles. At this stage I had been through two water stations and was already starting to douse myself with water to cool down. This would continue all the way to the end!
Halfway through the park I was spotted by a group of supporters from the AC included the two girls I did my long runs with until they got injured. It was great to see them and they made me feel like a total rockstar shouting my name and generally making a spectacle of themselves. It was great!
The section where we exited the park briefly was downhill and I let myself speed up on these sections. I wasn't particularly worried about frying my quads on the downhills as I train on hills so I should be used to them by now. The crowds around the hills at Chapelizod really took the sting out of them although again I was being passed like mad on the uphills. Every time I felt like pushing on a hill I kept repeating to myself "Think of mile 22!"

The long stretch of death (Crumlin Road)
I hated the next section of the race last year when it came earlier in the race so I didn't have any illusions about the area from the park out the Crumlin road and up to Fortfield. I knew it was going to hurt so I just tried to do damage limitation. The wind was straight into our faces for most of this stage. The pacers were still in sight but I hadn't seen any signs from my legs so far that there was going to be any picking up of the tempo so I just concentrated on not messing up. The marathon tide was starting to come back the other way here so even though I wasn't speeding up I was passing people constantly which was encouraging for me but probably a sign that it was a hard day out there! I was delighted to see a club member with her 3 month old at mile 17. It gave me a real boost and at least made me try to look up instead of at my feet!

Regroup at Bushy Park
The section from Bushy Park to Milltown is a lovely part of the course. If only I hadn't been running a marathon I could have really enjoyed it! This bit was all about making sure I had enough energy for the hills. The legs were really starting to ache now but a respectable finish was starting to feel doable despite my lack of energy. I had let go of the pacers and was concentrating on running my own race with the legs I had on the day.

Milltown and UCD
I think I spent so long dreading the hills and the flyover that when they did arrive it was a bit of an anticlimax. What did I think was going to happen? Big boulders being rolled down the hill to crush me?
I used the same strategy of slowing down to conserve energy but it felt like I was flat out sprinting on both of these due to the amount of people walking. I honestly think it was about 4:1 ratio of walkers to runners. Walking was not the problem..........walking in a long line of five abreast is a problem if nobody can get past you! Got a great cheer from club members again here and T jumped in and ran with me for a bit although I don't think I was very good company. I apologised later!
I was so relieved to get past UCD I thought I was going to cry!

The last bit
The last part of the course is lovely and would be a delight if your body wasn't screaming at you to stop and walk. This was where the real countdown started and I had to use every trick in the book to convince my body to keep going. Again I can see by my splits that I slowed a bit here but runners were few and far between at this stage. I've never seen anything like it......but then again I was practically an extra on The Walking Dead last year so I can't remember much! When I got to 25 I was surprised by our AC coach out on the road shouting for me so that was a nice boost, although I was incapable of giddying up even for him. I must say I love the new finish. I loved being able to see it from quite a way out. The roar of the crowd really lifted me up in that last mile and I managed to get my head up and pick up my stride a bit. And after the longest 400m of my life I was finally on the finishing stretch, capable of soaking it all in and look around and together enough to put my arms up in victory crossing the finish line. A year later I finally got the marathon finish line I wanted!

Chip time 3:54:19
A 15 minute PB and quite honestly all that was in my legs yesterday. There is nowhere when I look back through my splits where I feel I could have gone any faster so this is absolutely the best I could do. It's not what I aimed for but there will be other days and I'm happier with this time than I thought possible. For now!

Dublin City Marathon Training: Taper week 1

I was quite relieved to hit the taper last weekend.........and so was understandably on the back foot when I figured out this week still had more than 50 miles in it. Feck! 

Oh well! I haven't followed the plan thus far just to throw it out the window when I'm near the end. 

The week went well after the initial shock and I must say even the small step down in miles has given me a fair bit of extra pep in my step. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, as I'm so accustomed to being on the go all the time I've used this extra energy to do pointless stuff like cleaning. I did all the usual bits and pieces but with a few added extras. 

I ironed. (Not a regular occurrence.) My freezer was even defrosted. I think this is the first time I've done this on purpose ever. Any other time it's been a consequence of either the door being left open overnight or an electrical outage. Both scenarios resulting in me throwing away large amounts of frozen food. This time I planned it and virtually no throwing away ensued (apart from the breaded calamari I was never going to eat.) I feel very grown up. Maybe I'll start making jam or something next? 

Today I had a grand total of 4 miles on my schedule. I can't remember the last time I ran that few miles. It was a glorious day too so I decided to go on a bit of an excursion with younger child to make the best of the good weather. 

Howth was the destination and it was glorious once we got out of the car. Next time I'll be getting the train as parking was an absolute nightmare. 

As I'm a tad on the financially embarrassed side just at the moment due to the glories of paying both a mortgage and rent (thanks Celtic Tiger!) and various school related expenses, we packed a lunch and had that on a bench in the lovely sunshine right beside three of the most gorgeous huskies I've ever seen. I wish I could have gotten a picture but they were with their humans so it probably would have looked strange!

After that we had a walk out to the lighthouse where younger did her best teenager impression hiding behind her hair as you can see. 

Then we had a rummage around a second-hand book place and went to the weekend market where we spent a combined total of about ten euro and that includes veggies for the week. Pretty happy with that! Nice to know you can have a day out in Dublin without spending a fortune. 

Tomorrow I have 12 miles at PMP planned so I hope to get that done relatively early. I hope the weather is like today, it's absolutely glorious running weather. Fingers crossed for this at the end of the month! 

The rest of tomorrow involves replenishing the aforementioned freezer and then babysitting for a friend. What I'm going to do with my time when the miles really drop I don't know!

Dublin Marathon Training: Taper time!!!

I'm sooooo excited to be tapering! This was the first week of training when I just felt "I'm ready to be done."
Despite that I had a solid rest of week's training.

Thursday was a 7 miler with a friend a bit faster than it should have been (8:30 average) but happened by accident as we were chatting away nineteen to the dozen. Friday was a rest day which was good as I had a million real-life things to catch up on and then my parents paid us a surprise visit.
Which was lovely but I had planned on staying off the vino and the dinner out put paid to that. (They forced my mouth open and poured wine down my throat obviously. Those assholes!!)

The ensuing mild hangover and the fact that they didn't leave until after lunch on Saturday meant my 10 miler at PMP was later than planned but I'm guessing this just enhanced the handicapping effect it's supposed to have on my 21 miler today. Which is the point really so extra bonus points...I win at making things harder for myself! A fact that everyone who knows me well is already very aware of.

The 21 miler went amazing. I had planned 10 easy pace and then the rest at a comfortable cruising pace that felt like I could still have chatted at and I could eat and drink at. I wore the same shorts, socks and shoes I intend to wear on race day and took 3 gels. One as I was leaving the house, one at 5-6 miles (takes me ages to drink the buggers!) and one from 12-15(seriously...ages!)

I also took two of these guys as GI issues have caused me to avoid gels in the past. I still brought TP just in case.

God bless modern medicine!

Anyway all was well on the gut front so will be repeating that on race day and bringing a couple of extra for good measure.

Splits were:
9:49
9:46
9:46
9:03
9:12
9:20
9:00
9:23
9:13
8:47
8:30
8:38
8:32
8:26
8:39
8:19
8:25
8:21
8:24
8:22
8:16

I felt really good throughout and was quite impressed with myself that I ran around the car park a few times at the end to make it 21. If I had felt tired I would certainly have called 20.7 good enough and dodged inside to tackle the three flights of stairs to the apartment. I could definitely have done another 5.2 miles. Could I have done them if my first few miles weren't easy? I don't know.

For that reason and from information I've gotten on boards.ie I'm planning on going out with the 3:50 pacers and sticking with them the first 10 miles.....so that's 8.47 pace (but I'd say they will be more like 8:40 to allow a bit of a cushion for extra distance etc.)

Then I'm hoping to get onto 8:30 pace if all is well and push that in to mile 22. After 22 most of the hills are over and I can try to take advantage of the downhills to maintain/increase my speed.

Well that's the plan anyway. Today. Ask me again tomorrow!

Dublin Marathon Training - Last high mileage week!!

I can't believe I'm on the last week of my training before the taper starts. I'm rationing episodes of catch-up tv so I have something to do for the next three weeks when the amount of time on my feet drops. Eating large amounts of food won't be an option either or I'll be hauling lots of extra ass around the streets of Dublin. No thanks!
Luckily the next few weeks should be busy from a work and family point of view so that should keep me distracted to a degree.

Training itself is going fine. I'm hitting all my paces and exceeding most. The only problem is marathon pace. I'm not sure if my pace is so variable because I'm just not physically tuned into that effort level yet or if I need to tie myself down to a more specific goal pace......instead of "vaguely somewhere between 8:25-8-40 (but definitely not your actual supposed pace of 8:47!) depending on how you feel....and sure throw in the odd 8:00 for the craic just to mess with the average." I need to pick a pace and then get used to sticking to it during this next few weeks and stop myself running it like a tempo.

I don't have that many harder sessions left now. One bigger interval session tomorrow, two medium distance marathon pace sessions later in the week and the final 20 miler on Sunday. If I remember from last year though, mentally this is where the hard work starts and the temptation to second guess yourself takes over!

I've decided I'll most likely start with the second wave on race day.
For some reason when I put in that I would like to finish under 3:50 I got put in wave 1. Which is fine....except the 3:50 pacers start with wave 2 according to the website. So not fine!

Going out at a nice manageable pace is really important to my state of mind so I need to start with those 3:50 guys. Anyway I'm sure it'll be grand (famous last Irish person words)
Seriously though it will....going down a wave is not usually a problem. It's only if you want to move up one they think you are a chancer. And they would usually be correct so more power to them.

I feel like I need two things right now (i) a good painful sports massage (ii) a good talking to by someone who has run a lot of marathons to put me in my place (or pace)
 

Big mileage weekend. Warning - This post is unnecessarily long!

The way I was feeling Friday night I was very tempted to do absolutely nothing this weekend. And I would have justified it to myself too as resting to get rid of this damn cold.
It didn't help when I awoke Saturday morning to a dull, rainy morning. Why would I want to go out in that?

Luckily by an hour before we we due to catch our train the sky was beginning to brighten a bit so the younger and I got ourselves ready and hit the road...or to be accurate, walked across the road to the train station. Very convenient!
Less than half an hour later we were at Heuston station and ten minutes after that we were at the gates of the park armed with hot beverages. At that point the sun came out and we started down Chesterfield avenue to find a good spot to see the runners come past.
We settled ourselves around the 9 mile mark just on time to see Gary O'Hanlon fly past looking very comfortable. Once the drinks were drank we got down to the serious business of clapping and shouting encouraging words. Much like running, it's easier just to keep on clapping as your hands tend to get into a rhythm, whereas stopping reminds you that your hands are sore. So clap on we did!

We remained here until about twenty minutes after the 2hr pacer had come through and then had to hurry on to drop the younger off with her Dad.

I was feeling quite anxious about my plan of running on the marathon course.
Would I wander around like a tit? Would I get mugged? Was I even able to run the proposed ten miles at marathon pace in the condition I was in and after standing around all morning...oh and not eating also. One must never do things by halves!

Anyway I got the Luas out towards Drimnagh and made my way easily enough to the middle of the Crumlin Road. I felt like a bit of an eejit with my map and I appeared to be the only runner around but I got on with it and eventually got a bit more confident in my map reading abilities. In fairness, it's not a difficult course to find your way around so three or four stops to check I was on the right track and one water stop at a garage were all the breaks necessary.

The course felt as tough as I expected it to given my lack of preparation and physical state but PMP wasn't a struggle. My stomach felt fine and I enjoyed the hills if anything as a break from the monotony of the flatter straighter bits. The condition of the pavement wasn't great in areas but we will be mostly on the roads on the day so that shouldn't make a difference. Oh and I much prefer where the hard parts come now (miles 22-24) as opposed to previously. Psychologically I'm much more able to handle a hill if I know I can expend most of my energy on it. If you are hitting Fosters Avenue at around 20 miles when you know you have 6 miles to go it's very hard on your head.

Anyway the proof will be in the pudding as they say. We shall see on the day.

I had only planned to do about 10 miles but couldn't help myself in the end doing all the way to 25 where I was meeting a friend. My average pace was around 8:30 for the duration which I was happy with and I finished at about 4:30.

Obviously this put me on target to have very tired legs for my long run this morning! The fog kept me in until about 10:30 so at least I did get a few extra hours of rest. I can't say my 20 miles were the most pleasant but I didn't walk any of them, my stomach was fine and my average pace was in the low 9's.
I was tired finishing but I did have enough in the tank to do an 8 minute final mile and I feel I could have continued if I had to. Happy with that and I feel that I really managed to get my legs properly battered over this key weekend of training. I was a bit worried with not feeling 100% that I would have had to postpone this big week until later in the cycle and I don't think it would have benefited me as much then with less time to recover.

One more loaded-up long run the weekend after next and then I'm done! Cooked and ready to rest at room temperature.

Timing is everything

I appear to have some kind of cold with a (prepare for TMI) productive cough. Can't remember the last time I had a chest cold so perhaps I was due one.

I think if it was a couple of weeks earlier or later I'd be in a state but I don't feel like this week after racing the half is the time for making major fitness gains. I took today and yesterday off to give my system a chance to fight whatever this is. I'm not really feeling any better or worse for it so I'm going to go ahead and get my miles in this weekend but at easy pace as long as I feel ok. Sometimes you just need to sweat it out!

Tomorrow should be fun. I'm planning to run ten miles of the marathon course (miles 14 to 24 approx) If this blog isn't updated again it's because I'm still wandering Dublin with a map!

Dublin City Marathon Training: 7 weeks to go!

This was a big week of training. Probably one of the toughest before the marathon itself as from now on a lot of the faster miles disappear in favour of marathon pace miles.

Mondays tempo was followed by easy miles Tuesday and then a killer but very enjoyable (yes that is possible) session on Wednesday of 1 mile warm-up+2miles @10k pace+1mile@5k pace x 2+2miles 5k pace+1 mile cool-down. I looooovvved this for some reason and am secretly hoping we do it again this week.....when it will probably kick my ass all over town.
My day was made by one of the guys turning to me after a repeat and saying "Did you just improve a lot all of a sudden?" My little wannabe runners heart skipped a beat!

Thursday and Friday were mostly easy miles as knew I was about to trash my legs this weekend and didn't want to end up sidelined in these big weeks.

I did my long run Saturday - 19 miles @ 9:05 average. Felt ok. Not great but they can't all be.
It seemed longer by myself but luckily I met up with a friend between 13 and 16 when I really needed it and she dragged me along. Fueling went ok. My strategy is very high tech as gels etc don't seem to agree with me. What I'm doing is taking packs of jelly sweets (I recommend sour patch kids) which I know I can stomach as I've used them before, and turning them into runner fuel by emptying in one of those tiny sachets of salt you get at deli counters. Don't knock it until you have tried it! You barely taste the salt as only some of it sticks to the sweets anyway and you don't feel as if you have been beaten and robbed by a running shop for something that once again sends you running to the portaloo (I'm talking to you Gu, Honeystinger, Hammer and don't even get me started on sports drinks!)

So what does one do on the final day of a week that included no rest days and the day after a tough long run?
Climb the highest peak in Leinster you say? Don't mind if I do!

Had a beautiful day for a jaunt up Lugnaquilla so set off with my friend G and made good time completeing the return trip in 3 hours including the sandwich but not including the pint of Guinness each at the bottom. Yum! An auspicious end to a 66 mile week......my highest mileage ever.

Scandal!

No not with me. Life is wonderfully uneventful at the moment and that is fine by me. The Scandal I'm referring to is the TV show. I have managed to binge watch the first two seasons of this in the last few days. I'm not really a TV person but something about marathon training makes me want to put my feet up more in my free time (when I'm not running of course.) Also a distraction is handy during foam rolling and donkey kicks etc. to make it less head wrecking.
Anyway....Scandal. Love it. Love Olivia Pope. Love her wardrobe. But how how how does she wear so much white and still drink red wine? I would end up with an array of slightly speckled off white clothing.
I suppose this is what makes it not real.
Get a grip girl!

Starting to focus on the Athlone Flatline Half Marathon on September 13th now.  Haven't done specific training for it...just sticking to my training for DCM. Next week is a step back week with mileage anyway so it fits in nicely.

Tempo this evening. Only girl at training so ran with the guys and felt very comfortable on the whole, and held 8 minute/mile average for the six miles. That course is on grass and on very rolling hills so hopefully that kind off pace is realistic for the very flat half on roads with a pacer. Or maybe I'm deluding myself but hey-ho...I'll find out soon enough!

Dublin City Marathon Training: First 18 miler!

Amazing long run again this morning.  Evil thoughts of changing my marathon target time entering my head.

This was a big mileage week but not much intensity so everything but my interval session were at a fairly easy pace this week up to today.
The interval session happened on the treadmill due to work and family constraints which made it very easy to dial in the paces but not any easier to actually execute.
This was 1 mile warm-up + 1 mile at 5k pace + 2 miles at 10k pace (this sucked!!!) + 1 mile at 3k pace + 1 mile cool-down. There was sweat everywhere after this!

Did two extremely easy 10 milers Thursday and Friday.  Didn't even bring the watch and just enjoyed being out there and refused to get intimidated by people passing me.

Which brings us up to todays 18 miler.
Splits were:
8:50
8:35
8:17
8:23
8:30
8:36
8:26
8:06
8:19
8:34
9:50
9:21
8:23
8:11
7:56
8:13
8:20
8:19

The 9+ miles in the middle were where C had to stop with her knee and jog back to the car which is really bothering her.  Hope she feels better soon!  Also I forgot to stop the watch while we refueled at the cars at that point.

Sooooo! What to do.  I'm going to do a slower long run by myself next week and then see how I get on at the half marathon.  I am aiming for sub 1:45 which I had thought was a bit unrealistic but....maybe not!

High mileage week!

Well high mileage for me anyway! I'll top out at about 55 miles this week with quite a few of those being marathon pace miles. There isn't that much speed-work on the schedule this week to temper the mileage increase so I'm going to try to do what is there exactly as prescribed. I'm trying out the treadmill at work tomorrow after everyone else has left.  This lets me dial in the session and hopefully just keep the legs turning until it's over. I'm quite looking forward to it in masochistic sort of way.

Conveniently this also fits quite nicely with the real world outside running in that I have to go to meetings in two different schools tomorrow night. Maybe you can see why I'm looking forward to a treadmill interval session now? Anyway getting the run in immediately after work is probably the only way it's going to happen and I hate missing sessions so that is the plan!

Legs feeling good. Fingers crossed, touch wood etc. that I will stay injury free.  Might book a sports massage for later in the week to fend off the evil eye/niggles.  

Sooooooo

Almost a month has passed since my last post...how did that happen? It's been so long I had to go back and have a read over my previous posts just to see what had been happening at the time. I'm a bit disappointed in myself to be honest as I really wanted to document this training cycle and see what has worked and not worked when I look back after the marathon. Back to it then!

Training has been going well. The long runs are starting to get longer (obviously) and I'm up to sixteen miles (more on that later)  The mileage is in the high 40's the last couple of weeks and I'm tolerating it well which I attribute to maintaining a fairly good base all summer.  Not starving (any more than usual) and not really feeling it in the legs so far.  Fingers crossed this will continue!

I can't even remember if I'd mentioned my target time here. It's 3:50 so a pace of 8:47 minutes/mile.  Now this had been intimidating me a bit and I was wondering if this was a realistic target. I didn't really have any good reason to doubt myself but that has never stopped me failing to believe in myself before so why break the habit of a lifetime!

This week of training has been a bit of an eyeopener though! Firstly I did a longer session at the track of 6x1200m at 5k pace. To say I was scared beforehand is an understatement but I hit every interval at or under my target pace of 7:30. Happy happy!

The second key workout happened almost by chance. An athletics club night out last night meant that I was contacted by some of the other girls doing long runs to see if I wanted to run with them yesterday morning instead of doing our long runs alone on Sunday. This was lovely of them to offer and I accepted but was really nervous. They are both 3:30ish marathoners so I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. Faster than my long run pace anyway! They assured me they wanted to take it nice and easy. Conditions yesterday were perfect and to cut a long story short we ended up doing the entire thing at 8:39 minutes/mile. Easily. On a hilly route. While chatting. To be honest I felt like I could have done a few more at the same pace or faster.

This of course was a massive confidence boost and I'm delighted.  But also it now begs the question....is my target too soft? In my opinion it's too soon to tell. I'm edging towards making a decision once I do the twenty milers. Today my legs are fine and I'm enjoying a lovely rest day which I'm taking very seriously here on the couch. The foam roller beckons!

Obviously rubbish at this blog business

So here I go again after another massive gap.  How many posts is that in total? 5? Over 3 months?  Big medal for me I think!
Right...so I did Dublin Marathon.  Missed my time goal by 9 minutes but in the end I really wasn't bothered....just wanted to finish.  Is it a cliche to say it was one of the hardest things I've ever done?  Well it was.  So tough that for days afterwards if I started thinking about it or if the subject came up with someone or over the radio I would find myself welling up.  I realise that this makes it sound emotional in a quite sentimental way but it wasn't like that at all.  I've probably only faced myself warts and all in the way I did over those last few miles of those 26.2 twice before in my life and both were during childbirth.  Similarly to labour I had no interest in ever doing it again right after but starting considering it again the next day.....the mind is a really funny thing.
Wonder if it's easier the second time around?  Anyway it won't be for a while...possibly not even next year, we will see!  Maybe I should do a race report while I still remember it so I can compare to next time?

I felt like I recovered quite well from the marathon..no major problems.  Did a half last weekend to round out the season while I still had the miles in my legs.  Didn't love it as lots of it was on a beach and I now know that I hate to run on sand.  Time was ok - 1:51:44.

So what's next?

Cross country season!  Have been training with the local athletics club for the last few weeks and I think the coach likes to throw everyone in at the deep end so I'm showing up a 4k ladies race on Sunday morning.  Nobody is making me but I would never have volunteered myself so I guess I should be grateful as I'd never ever have even though to enter.  Please please please don't let me come last!  That's all I ask. 

Everyone at the club seems to be really nice and friendly so hopefully this will all be positive.  Keep me on the straight and narrow just a little bit longer before I let loose for the Christmas!   

Ooops!

So I sort of forgot to write anything for the last few weeks...a combination of laziness and lack of access to a computer. My phone is banjaxed too and that has been my backup. Must try harder young(ish) lady! Training for the marathon continues and I'm now officially on taper. Yay! So so delighted about this as the last few weeks of running have been quite tough, just never really felt rested on a run and my longer races have been really really tough to the point where I questioned my level of fitness. Anyway it's done now so no point worrying too much about it until race day. Time to recuperate and focus on shorter quality sessions and staying healthy. Now is not the time to catch a cold! In other running news I have another new pb over 10k! 47:40 which is also a full 5 minutes faster than I ran the same race last year. Absolutely delighted with that. This is even more impressive when you consider that we ended up in the pub Friday night for more beers than was a good idea at any time and definitely not the night before a race. Not very clever at all! Anyway it all worked out ok in the end so no harm done. Next big goal is sub 45 but I'm not holding my breath for that for a while. It took me so long to get under 50 minutes that I can't believe I'm actually considering sub 45 at all. I'm starting to feel like I might have some real speed in my legs (relatively speaking!)

Last solo!

I'm very excited to say that I did my last solo long run for quite a while last week!  Next weekend I have a kilomarathon (26.2km) and after that a 3/4 marathon (30ish km.)  I'm lucky in that I quite enjoy the time by myself that I get while running and I have no desire to run with groups regularly but it will be nice to have that energy for the next few weeks.  Does that make me seem really antisocial?

Will have to fit one more long run in after that and then it's taper time....otherwise known as Breaking Bad binge watch and Italian food eating frenzy time.  Can't wait!

In other news I had my first sports massage last week.  Naively I booked this on my birthday for a little treat for myself?  This was the opposite of relaxing.  50 minutes of undignified screeching later and I was officially feeling very sorry for myself indeed.....oh well!  Get over it you big jessie!

Happily the physio said I don't have any obvious problem areas and am surprisingly ok for a first marathon training cycle so that's good.  I'm wondering how painful the massage would be if I was having problems?

Speaking of birthday presents I did get a lovely surprise from the BF..... a garmin 210 with a hr strap.  What a guy!  He knows it's something I would never have gotten around to buying for myself (cos I'm not a real runner people!) but I'm delighted with it...and him the big handsome devil :)  Brought it out for a spin that very day.

Look at me adding pictures and everything!

Really sad to hear about the death of one of the half marathon runners in the Phoenix Park today.  I know that statistically these things do happen every now and again but it's always a terrible shock when it does and stats are very little help to the friends and family of this young man. Hopefully every young healthy person who is lost brings us one step closer to getting to the bottom of these syndromes.