Dublin Marathon race report (xposted from runners)
So I did my first marathon yesterday...
I'd decided back in June after the Cork marathon relay that I wanted to run the Dublin marathon in October. It's my hometown race (I live 2.5 miles away from the 16 mile point of the course) and it's the biggest one in Ireland. It's also much less hilly than the Cork or Connemara marathons.
Training-wise, I started my training off the back of training for the half I did at the end of June. I started week 2 of Hal Higdon Novice 1 a couple of days after the half. Training was going just nicely until the end of July, when I got hamstring tendonitis and wasn't allowed to run for 10 days. However I got back on track by the end of August, and completed the rest of the long runs on the program (with the exception of a 16-miler which I missed due to nasty crampage). By the time I got to the peak week, I felt like I was about to get injured, so was very, very glad to taper! My running was *very* light and sparse during taper, I really got into a funk in the first week and barely ran at all that week. However, my mojo was coming back by the end of the second week of taper, but I just had a bit of trouble controlling my pace on shorter runs!
After a terrible weekend weather-wise, I was delighted when race day dawned, mild, calm and humid. Got up at 6.00am, ate my usual pre-race breakfast of cinnamon and raisin porridge with honey, bagel with Philadelphia and red cherry jam and rocket fuel-strength coffee, Body Glided all relevant moving parts, and got a lift to the race start. We arrived at the race start at about 7.40am, which left plenty of time to freak out before the race! Stashed my stuff shortly afterwards, queued for a portaloo and then headed to the race start. Met up with one of the boards.ie A/R/T forum girls before the race too, it helped to have some company while waiting around. It took a while to see where the 4:30 pace group was, and we somehow ended up way ahead of them!
After belting out the lyrics to Amhrán na bhFiann and Molly Malone, the race got going at 9am. Just as I predicted, I went out WAY too quickly - first mile was in 9:30-9:40ish. My excuse is that it was mostly downhill, but this mile also included me shouting "GIZZA LOOK!" at the many guys using the Sugar Club in Leeson Street as an outdoor urinal. Ended up losing the girl I started the race with at about mile 2, because she was on a run 15 minutes/walk 1 minute run/walk strategy. I very quickly settled into a rhythm then, my next 15 mile splits were all in the 9:50-10:10 range, and I was surprised by how comfortable that felt. I can honestly say too that the part of the race which passed through the Phoenix Park was possibly the most at peace I've ever felt as a runner - and I've raced there quite a lot already. Hit halfway in 2:11:50 (chip time - gun time for 13.1 was 2:15:04) and felt damn good at this stage, the sun was shining and life was peachy.
I took gels every 5 miles (PowerBar strawberry/banana) and water at every water station. I'd intended to use the gels available on the course too, but when I saw them at mile 15 I noticed that they were caffeinated isotonic High5 gels, and I can't handle caffeinated gels at all while running because they make me feel really jittery.
Was starting to really feel it, and starting to feel myself slowing up, by mile 19 (around Clonskeagh, heading up towards UCD from Milltown). 19-21 is all uphill, and it was starting to really hurt. I kept my head up though, and kept running. Kept telling myself "No! No walking! Fastest way to make it stop is to run to the finish line!". It felt like a bit of a victory when I made it to the top of Foster's Avenue at mile 21, because I knew then that it was all downhill to the finish line. Had a nice satisfied smile too when I realised at the mile 22 mark that I had something like 50 minutes to do the last 4.2 miles in and still get under 4:30. Barring absolute disaster, I knew I could do that. Of course it's always likely that disaster *will* happen in the last 4 miles of a marathon, but y'know... I wasn't thinking about that while running!
The disaster almost did happen, somewhere around the mile 23 mark I felt something lift on the second toe of my left foot. I honestly thought at that point that I would be the Nine-Toenailed Wonder later on, and later the Eight-Toenailed Wonder when the same thing happened on my right foot at mile 25. I also couldn't take in my last gel, I'd intended to take it at 23, but after 4 gels I seriously could not stomach a fifth. I did break one of the Golden Rules Of Marathoning though at mile 24, there was a woman with a huge basin of sweets outside her house in Ballsbridge and I ended up taking half a Mars bar from it. I'm not a big Mars bar person at the best of times, and I *never* eat chocolate while running normally, but it didn't cause any GI problems and tasted pretty good too. Gave me a bit of a lift, enough to take me closer to the city centre as the crowds built up close to the finish line. Coming into Pearse Street, around by Trinity College and into the wall of noise on Nassau Street was such an amazing feeling - I didn't have the energy to pick up the pace but the crowds really gave me an amazing lift. I don't think I've ever seen such a sweet sight as the finish line, and to see the clock ticking just past 4:28 as I crossed the line.
Gun time: 4:28:10
Chip time: 4:24:56
Pace: 10:07/mile
Overall placing: 6190/10435
Place in category (Female 18-34): 528/1312
Well, I still have all 10 toenails. What I thought was the toenails lifting off on my second toes of both feet was actually just some rather large blisters. Which I haven't popped yet. This is going to be fun.
I'm still in shock that I actually did it, but SO glad I did, even despite all the pain, and my inability to navigate stairs today. Crossing that finish line has to have been one of the most satisfying moments of my life, and it was really, really awesome to get my target time too. I'm also delighted that I ran the whole way and never took a walk break.
I'll definitely be back for Dublin next year, the race was extremely well organised, and there is something really special about your hometown marathon - be it running through the beautiful Phoenix Park, the Dublin wit in evidence, the wonderful spectators who gave so much encouragement along the route and being able to head home to my own bed afterwards! :)
I'm looking forward to being able to get back to running once my legs are back to normal, I'm contemplating having a pop at a few of my PBs over shorter distances in December and January, then settling down to a few months of base-building before starting a training program for Dublin '10 in June. I'd like to be able to step up my mileage when I come back to marathon training in June, possibly following an intermediate plan next year. We shall have to wait and see!
I'd decided back in June after the Cork marathon relay that I wanted to run the Dublin marathon in October. It's my hometown race (I live 2.5 miles away from the 16 mile point of the course) and it's the biggest one in Ireland. It's also much less hilly than the Cork or Connemara marathons.
Training-wise, I started my training off the back of training for the half I did at the end of June. I started week 2 of Hal Higdon Novice 1 a couple of days after the half. Training was going just nicely until the end of July, when I got hamstring tendonitis and wasn't allowed to run for 10 days. However I got back on track by the end of August, and completed the rest of the long runs on the program (with the exception of a 16-miler which I missed due to nasty crampage). By the time I got to the peak week, I felt like I was about to get injured, so was very, very glad to taper! My running was *very* light and sparse during taper, I really got into a funk in the first week and barely ran at all that week. However, my mojo was coming back by the end of the second week of taper, but I just had a bit of trouble controlling my pace on shorter runs!
After a terrible weekend weather-wise, I was delighted when race day dawned, mild, calm and humid. Got up at 6.00am, ate my usual pre-race breakfast of cinnamon and raisin porridge with honey, bagel with Philadelphia and red cherry jam and rocket fuel-strength coffee, Body Glided all relevant moving parts, and got a lift to the race start. We arrived at the race start at about 7.40am, which left plenty of time to freak out before the race! Stashed my stuff shortly afterwards, queued for a portaloo and then headed to the race start. Met up with one of the boards.ie A/R/T forum girls before the race too, it helped to have some company while waiting around. It took a while to see where the 4:30 pace group was, and we somehow ended up way ahead of them!
After belting out the lyrics to Amhrán na bhFiann and Molly Malone, the race got going at 9am. Just as I predicted, I went out WAY too quickly - first mile was in 9:30-9:40ish. My excuse is that it was mostly downhill, but this mile also included me shouting "GIZZA LOOK!" at the many guys using the Sugar Club in Leeson Street as an outdoor urinal. Ended up losing the girl I started the race with at about mile 2, because she was on a run 15 minutes/walk 1 minute run/walk strategy. I very quickly settled into a rhythm then, my next 15 mile splits were all in the 9:50-10:10 range, and I was surprised by how comfortable that felt. I can honestly say too that the part of the race which passed through the Phoenix Park was possibly the most at peace I've ever felt as a runner - and I've raced there quite a lot already. Hit halfway in 2:11:50 (chip time - gun time for 13.1 was 2:15:04) and felt damn good at this stage, the sun was shining and life was peachy.
I took gels every 5 miles (PowerBar strawberry/banana) and water at every water station. I'd intended to use the gels available on the course too, but when I saw them at mile 15 I noticed that they were caffeinated isotonic High5 gels, and I can't handle caffeinated gels at all while running because they make me feel really jittery.
Was starting to really feel it, and starting to feel myself slowing up, by mile 19 (around Clonskeagh, heading up towards UCD from Milltown). 19-21 is all uphill, and it was starting to really hurt. I kept my head up though, and kept running. Kept telling myself "No! No walking! Fastest way to make it stop is to run to the finish line!". It felt like a bit of a victory when I made it to the top of Foster's Avenue at mile 21, because I knew then that it was all downhill to the finish line. Had a nice satisfied smile too when I realised at the mile 22 mark that I had something like 50 minutes to do the last 4.2 miles in and still get under 4:30. Barring absolute disaster, I knew I could do that. Of course it's always likely that disaster *will* happen in the last 4 miles of a marathon, but y'know... I wasn't thinking about that while running!
The disaster almost did happen, somewhere around the mile 23 mark I felt something lift on the second toe of my left foot. I honestly thought at that point that I would be the Nine-Toenailed Wonder later on, and later the Eight-Toenailed Wonder when the same thing happened on my right foot at mile 25. I also couldn't take in my last gel, I'd intended to take it at 23, but after 4 gels I seriously could not stomach a fifth. I did break one of the Golden Rules Of Marathoning though at mile 24, there was a woman with a huge basin of sweets outside her house in Ballsbridge and I ended up taking half a Mars bar from it. I'm not a big Mars bar person at the best of times, and I *never* eat chocolate while running normally, but it didn't cause any GI problems and tasted pretty good too. Gave me a bit of a lift, enough to take me closer to the city centre as the crowds built up close to the finish line. Coming into Pearse Street, around by Trinity College and into the wall of noise on Nassau Street was such an amazing feeling - I didn't have the energy to pick up the pace but the crowds really gave me an amazing lift. I don't think I've ever seen such a sweet sight as the finish line, and to see the clock ticking just past 4:28 as I crossed the line.
Gun time: 4:28:10
Chip time: 4:24:56
Pace: 10:07/mile
Overall placing: 6190/10435
Place in category (Female 18-34): 528/1312
Well, I still have all 10 toenails. What I thought was the toenails lifting off on my second toes of both feet was actually just some rather large blisters. Which I haven't popped yet. This is going to be fun.
I'm still in shock that I actually did it, but SO glad I did, even despite all the pain, and my inability to navigate stairs today. Crossing that finish line has to have been one of the most satisfying moments of my life, and it was really, really awesome to get my target time too. I'm also delighted that I ran the whole way and never took a walk break.
I'll definitely be back for Dublin next year, the race was extremely well organised, and there is something really special about your hometown marathon - be it running through the beautiful Phoenix Park, the Dublin wit in evidence, the wonderful spectators who gave so much encouragement along the route and being able to head home to my own bed afterwards! :)
I'm looking forward to being able to get back to running once my legs are back to normal, I'm contemplating having a pop at a few of my PBs over shorter distances in December and January, then settling down to a few months of base-building before starting a training program for Dublin '10 in June. I'd like to be able to step up my mileage when I come back to marathon training in June, possibly following an intermediate plan next year. We shall have to wait and see!