Training Log Archive: Boyzone

Dublin Marathon - what an experience! My first marathon and so was unsure what to expect. After dropping off our bags we set off to the start (with Hugh and his brother Ben), we lined up close to the front just in front of the 3hr pacers (who are visible by the large kites they carry out of their backpacks!). Plan was to aim for just under three hours by running a consistent ~4min15 per km throughout and if body was hurting just to ease off and enjoy the experience. We were close enough to the front to see the elites come in and line up just before the off. After the gun went, I found myself cruising comfortably and couldn't keep my pace slow enough as everyone around me was flying and so the first few km I was finding myself consciously trying to keep myself slow while people just kept streaming past. After about 4km I managed to find the slower steady pace I needed if I was going to survive. Hugh passed me after about 7km which was surprising as I had expected him to be ahead from the off - he was cruising nicely at 4min3 pace (and eventually finished in impressive 2hr55min), I let him go as it would have been stupid to stick with him. Needed to empty the bladder after about 12km which was frustrating as I must have seen about 200people stream past including the first of the 3hr pacers. Was mad how many people were grouped together just behind the pacer, I forced my way through to get back ahead of them and the next few km found myself running probably too fast to get daylight between myself and the pacer. Settled down again after a few km and took in an energy gel and soon after had lucozade and found myself close to stitching, had to contend with this for a while but it eventually abated. About 24km while chatting to another competitor who was running my pace for quite a while we realized the pacer was right on us again, I was feeling good again and pushed on hard for the next 15km at a good clip, now I was just cruising past people and it felt good to pass people also the cheering of support in the suburb towns along with FM 104 blaring out music helped. I started to pay for my efforts in the last two miles and all of a sudden my legs were like bricks and it took some serious digging to keep myself going, I knew I was slowing and each marker seemed to take an eternity to reach. Heard and then spotted Fionne and the kids about 800m out and managed to muster the enthusiasm to wave and cheer back, this gave me a final lift for the last stretch and happily crossed the line in 2hour57min17 on clock. Chip time was 2hour57min13! Very chuffed - Getting my medal meant a lot after that amount of pain! Those last two miles were probably the two hardest I've ever ran! Very amusing to see thousands of people hobbling around after - Dublin looked like it had been taken over by zombies!

GPS did weird things for a couple of km!!