Thats 3 Dublin Marathons complete 2009, 2010, 2011. Never would have dreamed of doing it until a conversation with a team mate on my tag rugby team new years eve 2008. He mentioned he did it, but never again he said!
I thought, well why not try it (having never run further than 10k before) and now I have trudged through 3. Got my personal best this year by 2 mins! Hilarious, managed 3 marathons all over 4 and half hours within 2 mins of one another, consistently average that's me!
2009 - 4.36
2010- 4.38
2011 - 4. 34!!
So all that training, despite not doing any run further than 16 miles and a weekend full of gigs (4 on Sat) and a trip to gig in Cork on Sun, wasn't in bed til 3am Monday morn, up at 8.30 for breakfast uhhh)
This marathon was different than the last ones... I started in the second wave, and the weather was mild- I went at what i thought was 10.20 pace to keep me on track for a 4.30 finish, but looking at the splits, looks like i did 5 miles in 53 mins which is 2 mins slower than I should be- my satellite watch letting me down a bit here. Shouldn't trust the virtual partner pace.
Had a little shower but progressing nicely- Gill met me at mile 12 on the bike and I ran a bit faster and the lads with the pace-setting balloons for 4.30 came up to alongside me, so I knew I was in the right ball park so I kept near them for the remainder. Doing fine until Ballsbridge, mile 22 and my legs were in knots, and it started to lash, very cold, very wet, very sore... saw the guys with balloons go further and further away as I tried to soldier on with an ungainly hobble.
Mile 25 was awful until a really cool fella, African/American I think, stopped and looked at me and said COME ON- nearly there and we ran together for most of the last mile- if you are reading this.. THANK YOU!! I managed to find something extra thanks to his kindness and energy..
Overall, a good race with my second 13 miles faster on avg than the first 13 which is rare- so if I can speed up a small bit at the start I should be able to break 4.30- but I dont want to do Dublin again, if I put myself through this again its a) for a different city experience and b) for a good cause.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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