80k Wicklow EcoTrail 2020

I posted before and after the race on Instagram, here are the excerpts from those posts

Before:

Call me Rocky Balboa because the goal for today’s Ecotrail is ‘going the distance’.

Honestly, I have no idea what my body is in for. The furthest I’ve ever done in training is 50k with 399m of elevation… in training.

Today? 80k with 2470m of Altitude gain. Wanted to go all in on the distance and challenge but hopefully not in over my head! Even if I am, it’s not a fail if I don’t finish: it’s just my first attempt at it.

But the goal is to finish!

The plan is simple. Keep moving forward… ok, enough Rocky quotes. The actual plan: power walk up the steep hills, steady pace run on the flats, not get ahead of myself at the early stages (keeping the heart rate down) and control on the downhills. That should help the legs last longer.

The other half is mental. Staying positive, along with breaking the route down into five smaller runs to each aid station.

It should help the focus for the next 11-12 hours on my feet. And on that note, March up Bray Head and 16k ahead to the first stop, the readjust from there!

#LetsGoGetEmAgain #EcoTrail #TrailRunning #FirstUltraMarathon

After:

We did it!!

What a fantastic day! Never been so proud to finish a run because the legs did not want to cooperate 😂😂😂

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes from texts and the earlier posts. It was helpful fuel doing rough times in the mountains!

I will do a proper post on the race soon. But I will say how incredible the @ecotrailwicklow crew ran the day! The support along the route and the aid stations, as well as the set-up at Race HQ, were class!

The next few days should be fun to assess how it impacted the body, but, for now, a few pints of water … and a few pints are needed from this @wicklowwolf tanker by far the best and most useful ‘medal’ that I have ever gotten!!

#LetsGoGetEmAgain