The Big Day arrives - Dublin Marathon 2010

Jittery. An overwhelming feeling of underprepared and too many little niggly injuries dominates my thoughts Sunday night. I am a night owl so manage to get to sleep around 3am and wake up for 7.30 for the Marathon.

Breakfast of special K, a banana, slice of toast, vitamin drink/water and glucosimine and have my nipples been taped? Check. Vaseline in crack of butt and between toes? Check. Gloves and hat cos its minus 2 outside, check.

Get to start, some token stretching and look for my friend Emmet but no joy- so we are off at 9am. Beautiful cold autumn morning, sunny and crispy and dry.

Course goes through city centre and into the Phoenix park which really is stunning on a serene and quiet morning. There is 12,000 doing the race but it never seems crowded. People all shapes and sizes with or without muscle tone and charities/causes to support trundling along in various colours.
I'm feeling a bit achey and erring on the side of caution with my pace- around 10k per hour pace. After leaving the park and on to the half way point I am comfortable but not really pushing myself, preferring to wait and see how I feel toward the last 3rd. I am obviously well hydrated as I take a pee once per hour (4 pees in total!) which is a lot. I am worried about cramps as my only 2 long runs (13 and 17 miles) were dominated by them (probably due to dehydration).
However, my fears are joyfully unfounded. I take a gel once every 10k. The worst time for me, was around mile 16/17, I don't know why but my hip and knee was getting sore and certainly my groin/ lower ab muscles. Gillian was on the phone saying she would meet me near mile 21.

The most amazing thing happened just before seeing Gill, I felt strong, I felt fast, my gait was good. I was running at a pace like a trot before and then I really opened up and left most others for dust. Really pleasing and Gillian saw me at my best, cycling alongside for 3 or 4 miles as it felt like I ate up the ground. The support from people was wonderful throughout the course, strangers encouraging and handing out sweets and fruit.

Emmet was just ahead said Gill and was going for 4.30, but starting to struggle. My slow pace at the start was now being rewarded by a strong finish, hills on mile 23 and 24 not an issue. Coming into the city at mile 24/25 was actually difficult and I started to tire and went back to the trot but the last mile I opened up and even sprinted the last 200 metres (felt like that!) The commentator at the finish line called my name on the tannoy as I jubiliantly stumbled through the line, my watch telling me roughly 4 hrs 38 mins.

Amazing, that even with the awful training plan, my body was still able to do a time nearly identical to last years. Extraoooordinary!
I was hobbling and muscles screaming but what a feeling.

Went for a fantastic lunch with Gilllian and talked to Emmet who came in about a minute before me, with his first marathon and a great performance. He was sinking pints of Guiness and I was drinking coffee and diving into my pack of cigarettes.. well we can't always be high achieving angels ;--)

The long run

Despite my pathetically poor preparation for Marathon 2010, I located a friend, Emmet who is also giving it a crack, and its his first time. He has been training a bit better than I, and done a regular training pattern, but we decided to do a 16 mile figure of 8 loop in Phoenix park, where we could pass the cars parked every 8 kms for water and gels. This would be the longest run for us both.

We chatted right the way through and were running for 2.40 hours and decided to tack on another 2 miles. Probably a mistake for me as I developed a huge cramp in both calves and managed to hobble back a bit behind Emmet to the finish.

We were running about 3 hours and thats very surprising, as my longest run is 2 hours this year.

Much more fun running with a partner too

However 2 days later my calves are screaming and I hope there is no lasting damage bringing me in to 2 weeks before the Marathon. Ideally the long run should be done 4 weeks before...

Fitness isn't a problem for me I don't think- its just the cramping I am very scared of now. I will make sure there is plenty of salt in my body and use plenty of gels. Plenty of gym work and hot and cold on the legs and maybe a massage later and we shall see how the body is.

I am running for Motor Neuron Disease Research and have the sponsorship cards and T Shirt. Maybe I'll even stop smoking?!

Greek week over and the build up for the Marathon 2010

After blissful sunshine in Rhodes watching my great friend Paul Mc getting married to Joe, swimming every day and drinking shots every night, its back to Ireland and the grim realisation that with a month to go my longest run has been the half marathon and I was sore for days after!

The foot is grand but still not entirely comfortable- I have started using the hypoxia centre in the gym for half hour runs- its meant to boost your blood cell ratio, like training at altitude.
I really need a miracle now to complete this marathon.

I will do a run to Kill from Dublin city - 16 miles this week and see how that shapes up. If I can do that, I may be able to squeeze another 10 miles on the day, or maybe I'm just crazy.

My general level of fitness is good and doing some weights in the gym etc. Started the H Dip in Music education too so busy on a lot of fronts. This blog this year is on how NOT to train for a marathon, so i will be amazed if I can complete it!