First Marathon & Running event in Two Years

First race in almost 2 years to the day.

Delighted to get a PB… in my half marathon time 😂😂🙈

Not a good sign for a full marathon and the legs were gone with 10k to go. Silly mistake but felt really good for first 20k. But delighted still finish under the 4 and I know what’s in store to build up to a sub 3:30 in Dublin next year!

Huge thanks to @niamhyoc and @lawlesseric for the support along the way this morning! Would’ve struggled without ya!

I talk more about how I took off too fast for this event on a recent episode of the Any Given Runday podcast that you can find on Spotify HERE and Apple Podcasts HERE

At the start of the race, I didn’t know what to expect out of myself. All my runs had been slow runs. Averaging around a 5:45 pace. A PB was not on my mind, but I was curious. The goal for Dublin was always under the 3 hours 30 mins mark. But since it had been cancelled, I had not been training for that time. I hadn’t been training much at all for a marathon. Until 4 weeks before I even knew about this race.

Despite 4 weeks to prepare, I knew the competitive juices would flow. But I knew nothing about this race. So I didn’t know how to prep. Hindsight being 20-20, I would have driven this route and planned accordingly. I was told that the first 2-3 miles were uphill. After that, I assumed flat. Man, did I assume wrong.

As the race started, I aimed to pace myself slowly for the first 2-3 miles, get past the hills and then check in with myself for the rest of the race and make a plan from there.

I thought I was pacing myself, as I let others pass and go at what I considered to be a comfortable pace. I checked in after the first mile on the watch. I was running a sub-5-minute km. I hadn’t run this fast in months. But I was feeling great. Let’s try to slow down a little before I burn myself out too early.

After 3 miles, I had passed the hills… and was running at roughly a 4:55 pace! A quick check in with myself. And I felt great! This is unbelievable! As the downhill followed, I kept going. Expecting to need to slow down at any moment.

Except, I got faster. At the 8km mark, I took my first swig of Lucozade, having only had water till now. I was at a 4:45 pace.

And my mind wandered. What if I broke 3:30 today?!?!

At the 15km mark, I met Niamh. I was barely halfway through my Lucozade bottle and switched it with a full one.

“How are you feeling?”, she asked!

“Too good!”, I replied, confusing her and the lone bystander beside her.

How am I running this fast? At the halfway mark, I was 1 hour and 43 minutes into the run. That’s a new half marathon PB and I was still keeping pace for the 3:30. My friend, and Any Given Runday Podcast host, Eric, sprinted up the road to catch up with me. In shock at how fast I was going, he asked the same question. Same response. Felt great. A few km later, that would change.

Around the 26km mark, the legs felt tired. And I slowly waved goodbye to the sub 3:30 dream.

At the 30km mark, I was 2 hours and 32 minutes into the run. Another PB hit. But as I came into some village, I heard a man roar, “all down hill from here”. I don’t know what he said, but I either misheard him or he had a wicked sense of humour. What felt like the next 2km was ALL uphill! I thought Kildare was flat. As I reached what I thought was the peak, I saw yet another hill. It broke me. I stopped.

The legs started to seize up and the slow walking/running for the next 12km began.

At around the 22-mile mark, I saw Eric. I stopped for a quick chat as he force-fed me a banana, telling me how shite my nutrition approach was to the marathon. He was right. I didn’t feel bad, lesson learned.

I knew I would finish the race. There was no question in that. But with the legs as seized up as they were, I had no interest in pushing any harder or faster. I had another 4 weeks to Run The Line, my first trail run experience, and I wanted to be healthy for that!

I was on track for a PB that day, but I went against pushing it. I would much rather get through this one healthy and do Run The Line, i thought to myself at the time.

I eventually finished around the 3 hours 55-minute mark. 6 minutes slower than my PB. Meaning it took 1 hour and 25 minutes to do the last 12km of the race compared to 2 hours 30 or so minutes for the first 30km.

I was happy it was done. I was delighted with my PBs along the way and now I knew what it would take to get sub 3:30 in Dublin in 2022. And I have a long way to go.

As the weeks passed from this event, I did have some doubts. Did my mind give up too easy?

Working on my mental toughness would need to be a goal to hit before the end of the year…

Great event, really well organized Thoroughbred Marathon… love the medal. If only you could flatten out all those hills 😂

#LetsGoGetEmAgain