Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days
Glory days, well, they'll pass you by
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl's eye
Glory days, glory days
(Bruce Springsteen)
Race done and completed. My first marathon distance since Dublin 2017 and my first ultra since April 2015. Therefore I fulfilled my initial aim of getting to the start line and getting to the finish line. It's the stuff that happened in between that proved a bit tricky.
Just to explain about the Donadea 50k. It's held in the forest of the same name in Co Kildare. It's hosted by a guy by the name of Anto Lee, who's way of publicizing the race is somewhat unusual. It's not my cup of tea but leaving that aside it is a well organised race if somewhat pared down compared to a lot of long races . I entered last October and so began a low key training build up. As ever I was accompanied by my running buddy Aidan McGee. He was training well enough but got injured early in the new year and apart from a couple of 13 ml long runs had done little training of consequence.
My own training focused on the long run with only short mid week runs which at times I didn't complete. I had nevertheless still completed good long runs of 20mls, 23mls, 21mls, 26.2 mls over the last 8 weeks. I had no speed work completed, with weekly mileage averaging under 30 mls peaking at 47 mls in the last 2 weeks. So I suppose the training wasn't particularly great, it was what it was.
Another issue was the weight. I had dropped from 14 stone to 13 stone 8 pounds but I was still carrying a lot of gut and chest fat. This was becoming evident during the long runs with the pace hardly getting above 9.05 pace. All the same I was reasonably happy I got to the start line confident of getting under the cut off of 5 hours.
I had predicted 4 hours 55 minutes. When I ran Connemara 39.3 mls in 2015 I reached the 31 mls in 4hrs 38mins and had never finished a marathon over 4 hours so I felt reasonably confident. (Duh)
Anyway here is the rough story. You can see the photo below with the splits. I ran the half way point (5 out of 10 laps of 5k ) in 2hrs 25mins. This was a lot slower than my training runs but I felt good and relaxed. Lap 6 went in similar time to the previous 5 and I reached the clock in 2hrs 50 mins . Then by the time I got to mile 19 ml the arse fell out of my day.
I basically ran out of steam and I still don't know why. Maybe running the 26.2 mls two weeks prior to the race caught up with me. Anyway I had to walk / run until I got to the start of lap 8 and did more walking and even less running. I was contemplating quitting at this stage as I feeling pretty low. Then I remembered it was my 1) choice to take part, no one forced me, 2) stop being a moaning dickhead and 3) (most importantly) I was running on behalf of Pieta House so it was a case of suck it up and get on with being alive. So I did.....
At this point I would have loved to have said I ran the remaining 6 miles but I would be lying ... lot's more walk/ running. I got and gave great encouragement on the way and during the course of the race I enjoyed the banter. I was also humbled by great commitment of the runners out there in particular the women who flying around the course. It was also obvious to me that having a few marathons up in the legs rather than relying on old and faded glories was the way to do it. (Note to self).
At the end of lap 9 (4hrs50mins) I knew the cut off was almost up (5 hour cut off). Anto , the RD, informed me that I was on my own now. Maybe it was a attempt at giving me that added extra incentive, it certainly worked.
It got me through some incredible painful spasms that started hitting my calves at this point. The walk running thing finally bit the dust at mile 29 (just walking) and the last of the runners started to drift past me. I was on my own with two miles to go. Storm Ciara was beginning to make her presence felt and the encouragement of spectators and the P.A was no longer there. The race was in shut down and clear out mode and I realized I was probably the last runner out there, something which was a new experience for me.
Anyway out of pride I shuffled the last 1 km to get over the line in 5 hrs 32mins 28 seconds, third last, no official time up on the clock with little glory to be gained. Mind you I wasn't too despondent. I got the job done and sometimes that's as good as it can be. I didn't let anyone down.
The real story of the day was the performance of my good friend Aidan. The fecker with no training (but with plenty of marathons up on the legs) ran in at 4hrs 55mins. I was chuffed for him and it gave me a real boost. Delighted for him.
Then it was back home to Charleville casting my vote in the general election. Don't know what to do now maybe just rest.
