It went very well!
Run time was 4:10, which on that course, on that day (in this life) was a very satisfactory time indeed. The marathon was won in 2:48 which is pretty slow.
This was mainly due to the hills on the course.
See the course map here; http://www.connemarathon.com/sites/map/map.htm
The weather was shaping up to be terrible and kit choice was very difficult. On the bus trip out to the course we had snow and sleet but luckily at race start it was reasonably bright and dry.
I have photos of snow on the hills just before we start, but the photos come to an abrupt halt as I dropped my camera and realised it was on the road behind me just in time to turn and watch it get rolled over by a bus! Deadders! But I did at least rescue the SD card and its piccies.
The start of the race was into a strong wind and we got a couple of hail showers (with some big-ole stingy hail stones) but the rain held off well and we stayed dry. I was running with my brother MarcO and we were pleased that we could both settle into a steady 5:30-6:00 min km pace despite having done very little training together.
We ran through 13 miles with no incident, and no slow miles. On the climb out of Lenan (see map) the weather actually turned hot and sunny which made the hill hot work and MarcO was wishing he had not been poorly and managed to get the hill training done as per his program. But still you run the race with the training you have and we made fairly steady work of that climb and topped out feeling good. We both ran well from there to mile 17-18 at which stage Marc started to feel the pace pinch a bit and was inclined to give himself a bit of a harsh talking to. We pushed on together to mile 20 at which point we agreed that as I was feeling strong we would split the pace a bit.
I left Marc and slowly built pace up to mile 23 which is the base of "THE HILL". With the help of a bit of a tail wind I stormed up it, not droping much off 6 min pace. On the top I indulged myself with a bit of a Rocky stlye salute before storming off down the hill to Mamm cross and the finish. I was running 5:30-5:45 over the last 3 miles and passed a lot of folks who were tying up. It was in this purple patch I passed my Ma and Da. It was nice for them to see me come through strong after seeing me wrecked after Dublin in 06.
Crossed the finish line feeling practically chipper. Never hit the wall, never saw the bear.
MarcO finished 10 mins behind me and was very pleased with himself. Just taking a touch of the pace at 20 allowed him to settle and he went on to recover good form running the hill in good style. Once on the hill he knew he had it in the bag and it was all over really bar the shouting.
I will post some more detail with maps and such later, and get the shots of Dad's camera.
More later.
This was mainly due to the hills on the course.
See the course map here; http://www.connemarathon.com/sites/map/map.htm
The weather was shaping up to be terrible and kit choice was very difficult. On the bus trip out to the course we had snow and sleet but luckily at race start it was reasonably bright and dry.
I have photos of snow on the hills just before we start, but the photos come to an abrupt halt as I dropped my camera and realised it was on the road behind me just in time to turn and watch it get rolled over by a bus! Deadders! But I did at least rescue the SD card and its piccies.
The start of the race was into a strong wind and we got a couple of hail showers (with some big-ole stingy hail stones) but the rain held off well and we stayed dry. I was running with my brother MarcO and we were pleased that we could both settle into a steady 5:30-6:00 min km pace despite having done very little training together.
We ran through 13 miles with no incident, and no slow miles. On the climb out of Lenan (see map) the weather actually turned hot and sunny which made the hill hot work and MarcO was wishing he had not been poorly and managed to get the hill training done as per his program. But still you run the race with the training you have and we made fairly steady work of that climb and topped out feeling good. We both ran well from there to mile 17-18 at which stage Marc started to feel the pace pinch a bit and was inclined to give himself a bit of a harsh talking to. We pushed on together to mile 20 at which point we agreed that as I was feeling strong we would split the pace a bit.
I left Marc and slowly built pace up to mile 23 which is the base of "THE HILL". With the help of a bit of a tail wind I stormed up it, not droping much off 6 min pace. On the top I indulged myself with a bit of a Rocky stlye salute before storming off down the hill to Mamm cross and the finish. I was running 5:30-5:45 over the last 3 miles and passed a lot of folks who were tying up. It was in this purple patch I passed my Ma and Da. It was nice for them to see me come through strong after seeing me wrecked after Dublin in 06.
Crossed the finish line feeling practically chipper. Never hit the wall, never saw the bear.
MarcO finished 10 mins behind me and was very pleased with himself. Just taking a touch of the pace at 20 allowed him to settle and he went on to recover good form running the hill in good style. Once on the hill he knew he had it in the bag and it was all over really bar the shouting.
I will post some more detail with maps and such later, and get the shots of Dad's camera.
More later.
posted by Setanta at
9.4.08
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