Posted in Dublin Marathon, marathon
Tags: 13.1 miles, 8 miles, Chapelizod, Dublin, Dublin Marathon 2008, Edinburgh Marathon, energy drinks, energy gels, Inchicore, mobile phone, pain, River Liffey, tired, tiredness, Walkinstown, water stations
I was a little disappointed as the marathon left Phoenix Park. It was very pleasant to run through the greenery of the park in mid-autumn just as the sun was coming out. There was another water station here which I availed myself of, then I noticed they were giving out larger bottles of energy drink as well, so, in a rather decadent move, I threw away my bottle of water without even opening it and just drank the energy drink instead. I decided not to have one of my energy gels as well, as I thought the energy drink would be enough and I didn’t think I needed it either. Looking back, I think I was a bit over-confident here. I also decided to take a toilet break here as I really needed it. There would be no urinating in the street for me.
Running down Chapelizod Road, the route crossed the River Liffey again then took a sharp turn left onto St Laurences Road. There was a slight incline, which I took in my stride, almost not noticing it. That can’t be said of the hill that greeted me after running underneath the Chapelizod Bypass and seeing it in front of me was a little daunting at first, but I just ploughed into it and climbed it as a matter of course.
The next three miles took the marathon back east and steadily southwards. I was still a little unsure about speeding up to my “normal” pace, but I felt that, running between miles nine and ten, It was high time to really start running this marathon like I meant it.
My Edinburgh Marathon experience meant I was fully expecting to start tiring around this point and I thought this hill would be a precursor to that. Fortunately, it didn’t tire me out or come anywhere close. In fact I was feeling so good at this point, I didn’t want to admit it to myself, lest I somehow jinx it. I was rewarded at the top of that hill with the nine-mile marker.
At this point in the race it was just a case of putting the miles in. It did cross my mind “who would ever voluntarily run a marathon?” and I suppose the answer is it takes a certain type of madness. Not just to do it the first time, but to enjoy it so much to do another! I was going at a steady pace and I felt like I had more than enough energy to get me through, so my confidence was steadily increasing. The subtle mile markers caught me out again as I missed the eleven-mile marker, which was annoying. Instead I just had to guess at my true pace. This also had the psychological effect of feeling that miles ten and eleven were longer than mile nine, because I didn’t have an accurate idea of where one started and the other finished.
It was during these core few miles that I experienced the best that Dublin hospitality has to offer (at least when running a marathon). There were plenty of bystanders and supporters, spread out all along the route, clapping us runners along. Some even offered sweets like jelly babies (extra sugar = extra energy). It was little things like that which told me why this marathon was called “the friendly marathon”.
The route then turned onto the busy Crumlin Road. Running down this road I felt a bit exposed as only the right-hand side of the road was closed to traffic and there was plenty of that coming down in the opposite direction. It was nowhere near me, this being a very wide artery into the city, but running like this on main roads always unnerves me.
Another thing which didn’t bode well was that I started to feel the first twinges of pain start to come through in my legs and feet. I was feeling so good about my progress however, that I confidently ran through it and just ignored it. A kind woman on the side of the road was offering boiled sweets and she gave me the last ones she had. They helped as a distraction, both from the pain and also from the boredom of running along this rather long uninteresting stretch of road. I ate one and stashed the rest in my arm-wallet for later.
At mile twelve there was another water station, which was also offering energy drinks, so I decided to take both, because I felt like I needed it. I felt much thirstier than when I left the last water station outside Chapelizod Gate. one thing that particularly annoyed me at this point was that my mobile, which I was using as a stopwatch, started complaining about a low battery. I knew from experience that it was only a matter of time before it died on me. The only way to complete the distance with enough battery power and to keep my mobile usable was to stop using it as a stopwatch. This really annoyed me, because now I had no precise means of measuring my pace – just rough calculations in my head.
What must have been a good half-mile after, the route finally took me off Crumlin Road onto the much quieter surroundings of Walkinstown Road. This change in direction also signalled the half-way point of the marathon: 13.1 miles. Everyone was congratulating the runners on reaching the half-way point, but I was more impressed by the fact I was only just starting to feel tired. The next couple of miles would be some of the best and most challenging I’ve ever run in a marathon.
Posted November 11th, 2008 by Simon
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Posted in Dublin Marathon, marathon
Tags: 10k, 8 miles, Chapelizod, Dublin, Dublin city centre, Dublin GPO, Dublin Marathon 2008, Edinburgh Marathon, energy gels, O'Connell Street, Parnell Square, Phoenix Park, six miles, water stations
Running at the pace of a quick jog, I crossed the start line and timing mats along with thousands of others. It was crowded, but everyone spaced themselves out pretty quickly. I had to be careful not to trip over bin-liners which runners had been wearing to keep them warm and discarded after the race started.
At the top of Merrion Square East there was a kink in the course as it moved onto Holles Street. The huge volume of runners caused a massive traffic jam and everyone slowed to walking pace again. Two American runners behind me thought it was the approach to another start line, but it was just the volume of runners trying to squeeze around the bend. Holles street was on a small descent, which led onto Sandwich Street Upper, then Pearse Street.
One of the most amusing things I can remember was the number of male runners who were “caught short” and had to relieve themselves. Running down Sandwich Street Upper I saw a whole line of runners relieving themselves against a row of garage doors.
The first six miles of the marathon would lead us out of the city centre and into Phoenix Park. Coming to the top of Pearse Street, the route turned onto Westmoreland Street, which took me across the River Liffey, then along O’Connell Street. I ran past the Dublin General Post Office, a landmark in Irish national history for the rebellion against British rule that took place here. I can confirm that the Dublin GPO has no steps.
After we reached the top of O’Connell Street, the route ran around Parnell square and up a light gradient. My hotel was a few hundred yards off to the left as I approached the first mile. Leaving Parnell Square behind, the route turned right and continued to climb up Dorset Street upper, then turned left onto Eccles Street, still continuing on a steady climb up and out of the city centre. I was a little surprised to see more men relieving themselves behind a shopping arcade. There were so many that as soon as one man finished, another man took his place almost instantly.
At this point, approaching my second mile, my pacing was spot-on. The first mile had taken me 12:42 and my second mile about a minute faster at 11:45. I continued at this steady pace for a good few miles. Running down the North Circular Road, towards Phoenix Park, mile three approached faster than I expected. It felt a little strange to be running down a tree-lined leafy suburban street with so many others and I was still trying to settle down into the race. Plenty of other runners were still surging ahead, the pack was still very fluid.
Mile three was significant because it signalled the first water station. Unlike at Edinburgh, where I felt the water stations were irregularly spaced and few and far between, Dublin had one roughly every three miles, which I thought would be more than enough – possibly even too many, but then I was sure I’d be grateful for this in the latter stages, when I would really need it.
Even though I had deliberately not taken on any extra water before the race began because of the frequency of water stations, I didn’t feel really settled enough at this point in the race to be troubled by taking on water. I knew from Edinburgh and from training however, that it is better to take on water before you feel thirsty, because when you start feeling thirsty, it’s already too late to make any difference in this type of race. So I took a bottle onboard. They were very small bottles though, so small that you wouldn’t have thought they would make any difference.
Eventually we reached the top of North Circular Road and the first major change of scenery as we entered Phoenix Park. At first I wasn’t even sure if this was Phoenix Park, because on my left was the business end of Dublin Zoo. I think all the animals must have been still sleeping, because I didn’t spot much activity.
Moving up North Road behind the road I was caught out by the rather subtle mile markers for the first time. I don’t think they were as obvious as they should have been (just notices fastened to lampposts) and I missed the four-mile marker, which meant I wasn’t able to gauge my pace over miles four and five accurately. As the course came around from behind the Zoo to join Chesterfield Avenue, the main road running diagonally through the park, I was becoming more worried about my speed and pace.
I became more and more convinced I was running too fast, even though I was keeping more or less to my target pace of twelve minutes per mile. Erring on the side of caution, I decided to gradually slow myself down. this is much harder than you might expect, as the sight of other runners flying past, the atmosphere of the occasion and a full tank of energy can make it so easy to go too fast in the early stages. For the rest of the Phoenix Park phase of the course, I deliberately aimed for a pace of about a minute slower than my target.
The psychological milestone of the six-mile marker (representing approximately a quarter of the entire distance) felt a long way off. There was nothing much to do though except admire the scenery. Several people were in fancy dress, including a man dressed as a toucan (who was also running with a pint of Guinness). I lost track of him when he darted behind a tree to answer the call of nature. This wasn’t the last time I would see him or the pint of the black stuff, however.
If there’s one thing about Phoenix Park which becomes apparent to you whilst moving through it, it is the huge scale of the place. the park stretched all the way up to the horizon straight ahead of me and off to the left. Running up Chesterfield Avenue at my restrained pace genuinely felt like it was taking a disproportionate amount of time, after the easy miles which were clocked up leaving the city centre. Miles five and six, run in the open surroundings of the park, felt much longer than the ones I’d just completed in the city.
Mile six was also important for another reason: I decided that my energy strategy would be pre-emptive and that I would take an energy gel at the second water station, which was coming up at mile five.
The main reason I did this was mainly motivated by what happened at Edinburgh. I began to tire at around mile ten and despite a second wind which carried me through the early teens, by the time I reached mile sixteen, I was shot and had to take regular walking breaks just to keep going. I took my energy gels fairly late in that race, when my body was already telling me it was running out of energy, but by then it was already too late to avoid hitting the wall, which I did. Hopefully my pre-emptive strategy would help me avoid the same fate this time.
At the official six-mile marker, my timing chip recorded a time of 1:18:28, which was just a little slower than my paceband dictated, but at this point in the race I wasn’t bothered. The slower the better! The route turned left onto Furze Road, which again changed the scenery into more of a forest route. The pack had considerably thinned out now, though as the course wound down Upper Glen Road towards the gate at Chapelizod, hundreds of runners were still passing me. I was surprised at the numbers of runners who continued to pass me, as I thought the main crowd had overtaken me earlier. I deliberately resisted the urge to catch them up, as I believed I was still burning to much energy by going too fast.
I noticed that it wasn’t just the men who were caught short, as we came out of the wooded area, I noticed several women dart off to my left and crouch behind trees. Naturally I was too much of a gentleman to take any further notice.
At the bottom of Upper Glen Road, the route took us out of Phoenix Park through the Chapelizod Gate. This also marked the eight mile point and, I decided the last mile I would run at this slower pace. With evryone passing by me, I couldn’t help but feel that the race was literally passing me by. One of the things I disliked the most about the Edinburgh Marathon were the long, lonely stretches of road, where the runners at the back of the pack were spaced out, sometimes by hundreds of yards. I didn’t want to run another “lonely” marathon, so I began to speed up to my normal pace again. As the marathon entered populated areas again, I didn’t need to worry about that, as there was a steady supply of supporters along the rest of the distance.
Posted November 10th, 2008 by Simon
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