Gower Marathon Report

The results are out so I should probably write up a wee report before I forget it all.

A few months ago, Pauline mentioned an off road marathon in Wales and I entered before realising that she was going to do the half and not the full one. Greg and Waggers were then talked into doing the half as well.

The Journey

We headed over on the Friday on the ferry from Rosslare and arrived in Gower before it got dark. We got to see some lovely countryside, hills and beaches that we would be running over. Then we went and bought food, cooked it up and went off to get registered. Registration was well organised and it only took us about 10 minutes before we were all done. Pauline arrived shortly after that and we all chatted before heading off to bed for an early night.

Next morning I was up and had breakfast before heading off for the briefing at 08:30. There they told us that they had to lengthen the course by about 2 miles. Wahoo, my first ultra!

The Race

To the race. We started in the car park and raced off to the beach where we had been asked to pick up a piece of rubbish and put it in the bins at the end of the beach. One guy I saw ran most of the beach with a plastic bottle filled with water before realising and emptying it out. Then it was over the dunes and down into a caravan park for the first checkpoint. 24 mins for 2.8 miles.

Then we hit the hills, big climbs, fast downhills and lots of potholes filled with bog water. It was like being a kid again, jumping in puddles and dodging around some of them. The next checkpoint was at 11.4 miles and I got there in 1:41. I was still going well at this point.

More sand next before we headed onto a beach with a headwind. There were 5 of us together so a bike style paceline formed pretty quickly. After that nice section were lots of steps through a foresty bit that we were warned about earlier. It wasn't as slippy as it might have been, but there was no point in taking chances.

Down more steps and onto a flattish cliff top run through fields. I had latched onto a guys shoulder and we were pushing each other on until he stepped aside and I was left on my own again.

The next checkpoint was at the start of a beach which I had to run on my own this time. I was getting more mentally tired at this stage and the gel I had taken a few minutes before hadn't quite kicked in.

A wall

The next bit is a bit of a haze, I ran past lots of sheep and walked a lot of uphills, even the slightest incline had me down to a walk. There were some off camber slopes and it was hard work trying to keep your footing.

The rain and wind also started around here so it was back on with the jacket and hat and head down to keep going.

Finally I got to the last checkpoint and they had jelly babies! It was the most welcome sight of the day so far. I was also joined by another guy and we decided between us that we had to finish the last 10km inside an hour. There was more walking of the uphills and laborious jogging on the flats and downs.

We got near to Worm's Head and I was back in a groove of just jogging on. I kept this up to the bottom of the last major climb and felt better for having pushed the pace a bit.

The last climb was tough and slippy and when we got to the top, the other guy wanted to keep moving as he was getting cold. We passed out a few more people along the top of the ridge and eventually topped out on the final peak. From here it was all downhill to the finish.

The only problem with it was that it was downhill on ground akin to a ski slope. There was water running down and rocks sticking out. I lost my footing and landed on my back, bounced and was back up before I realised what had happened.

Over the line in 4:48 and 32nd place, the timing chip was taken and Greg arrived with a bacon buttie. Yum!

The rain was really pelting down by now and I got changed and went back to eat all the free Clif Bar samples.

Back to the house for food and then more food and some rugby on the telly. Feet up with some beers was the order of the night.

Summary

Overall I was happy with the race, except for my nutrition. I only had one power bar and one gel in the entire race. For the Dublin marathon I had 5 gels. I definitely felt it late on in the race, I seem to be able to get along quite well to a point and then collapse. The trick for me is to start eating while I feel good and avoid that crash.

The race was well worth doing, the organisation was great and the course was beautiful. It also added quite a chunk to my December challenge. Next time though, there will be more hill running training done!

Dublin Marathon

It's coming up on Monday, only 4 days away now and I am in a dilemma. Do I go out and race it properly, following the red balloons and try to get near to 3 hours? Or do I cycle in, run the race as I feel on the day and then cycle back home again?

If I want to race it, it'll be in Ronan's name as I'm entered as him. He entered and then wussed out of racing so I said I'd take his slot. I didn't go and change the name on the entry or anything, so technically I am doing a bad thing. I also haven't trained particularly much for this, I have done one long run of 20 kilometres going home from work and a few 10-12 kilometre runs. I feel I have a good race in me, but will it be blighted by having it attributed to Ronan?

On the other hand, I could use it as a small taster for Ironman distance racing. Albeit without the uber long bike ride before hand, which is kind of the essence of it all. That would take the pressure of trying to race it off me, but is a type of wussing out too.

The weather isn't helping either, wind and rain for the last few days doesn't entice me to go out and try and race fast. Nor to cycle :)

I'm going to go for a jog this evening and see how I feel and I will probably delay the decision until Sunday evening.

Connemarathon

It's coming!

On Sunday I will be running in the Connemarathon in Galway. It's supposed to be a killer of a race with lots of hills and running into the wind in both directions.

To prepare, I jogged home from work today just to keep my legs moving. A nice 50 minute 10km at an average of 140BPM. Really looking forward to Sunday now.

Some pictures

Here are some pictures from the ING Amsterdam Marathon site. The first one shows where I finished relative to other people


Next up we have my speed broken down into 5km blocks. This gets slow and nasty around 30 to 35km



As a comparison, here is the speed graph for the winner

Amsterdam Marathon

Well, it's three days after the marathon in Amsterdam and I'm now able to walk properly again! I went over there with 7 other people, three of us doing the full marathon and the others doing the half.

I finished in 3:14 according to my chip time, so I was really pleased, especially as I hit "the wall" at around 33km or so. I managed to get through it and hung on to the 3:15 pacesetter for the last 7 km. I was wrecked at the finish and collapsed on the track after getting my medal. Then I went and ate and drank all I could find. Waiting for the others in the stand was cold, and I probably wouldn't do that again (Sorry guys!).

Things that I learnt from the race were to eat properly the day before and even for breakfast. I was ravenous at the end of the race, more so that I thought I would be. Also, stay off your feet for the day before. We spent the day wandering around looking at everything, mainly because we were only there for a couple of days. And finally I learnt that I can push my body further than even my head thinks! I should never have been able to keep with the pacesetter as I was down to almost 6 minute kilometres as he was passing me. It's amazing what a challenge does for you!

Now, I'm going to spend a few weeks not running or training and get over the cold that I picked up (I'm blaming Sparky). Then it'll be back to look for another challenge, possibly the Connemarathon.

Photos and timings to follow soon.