Running along the banks of the Seine in the sunshine, spotting all the landmarks, including the towers of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower was possibly the highlight of the entire race. I was now feeling much better as I had overcome my tiredness and aching phase from earlier and was happily clocking up the miles (or kilometres).

The Eiffel Tower makes its first appearance

Whereas before I was running behind the Louvre, this time I was running on the other side of it, but I still didn’t get to see it, because the course entered the Tuileries Tunnel for about a kilometre.It got quite warm down there and I was just starting to sweat again when the course emerged onto the Quai des Tuileries and the daylight again.

Every time the course went into another tunnel, the pacemaker shouted encouragement and motivational comments like “Let’s attack this hill together” (in French of course) and every time we went under a bridge he shouted at the bystanders on top of it to give some words of encouragement. It all helped to keep spirits up.

Just after coming out of the third tunnel, we crossed the Place de la Concorde (again). After turning onto the Voie Georges Pompidou again, It became possible to see the Eiffel Tower appear from behind the trees lining the route. I saw it again as we entered the Albert 1er tunnel.

After crossing the Place de la Bastille again, the course followed the River Seine, running past some of Paris’ most famous landmarks, including the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower. Watching the spire of the Tower appear from behind the trees and gradually running towards it was a genuinely beautiful sight. There were also plenty of vocal, supportive crowds in the centre as well, which helped spur me on.

Video: Passing the 30km point

Just before we got to the Trocadéro, we passed the 30km point. Now we were three quarters of the way round the course and the aching in my legs was becoming harder to ignore. Still, ignore it was all I could do and I ploughed on. I actually congratulated myself on feeling this good at this point. Getting this far whilst still feeling like I had enough left in the tank was an achievement in itself when compared to how I felt at this point in my previous marathons.

There was another water and food station opposite the Eiffel Tower where I took on another bottle of water. The discarded orange peel and banana skins made it very slippy and treacherous to try and run through and that wasn’t helped by the fact that this station was on a cobbled road. Once again I had gotten ahead of the pacemaker once I left the water/food station, so I slowed down for a moment until the pacemaker group caught me up again. However, my increasingly achy muscles meant it was becoming harder to starting running again after each walking break.

The course continued south-west down the Avenue du Président Kennedy, moving away from the riverbank and past the Maison de Radio-France. We crossed onto the Avenue de Versailles, then at the Place de Barcelone the course veered off to the right through another sponge station, down the Rue Mirabeau. There was no stopping this time, the pacemaker telling everyone to run straight through. All the sponges were long gone – none left for us – only the buckets of cold water which I willingly splashed on my face and neck. Running through the water/sponge stations always makes me feel like I’m going really fast, but the photos show that I was only moving at about a moderate jogging pace.

The next mile took me along the Avenue Daumesnil, which was another of those seemingly unending roads. It started out in the suburbs, running past some residents who appeared to be surprised by the 31,000 runners running down their street, then eventually opened into broad parkland, with trees lining the route.

At this point the pacemaker shouted something I couldn’t translate, but it became obvious when he darted off to the right and stood behind a tree. Some other runners followed him but I thought it a bit weird to go to the toilet at the same time as the pacemaker, so I carried on running. I suppose even pacemakers must answer the call of nature. This meant I was now quite far ahead of the pacemaker however and the fact that he had gone now made me feel like I had to go – so I did the same thing of ducking behind a tree and relieving myself. It also allowed the pacemaker to catch up with me and overtake me a bit.

Coming to the end of the Avenue Daumesnil, the tower of a castle gradually came into view. I didn’t know what it was as I approached it, but I know now it was the Château de Vincennes. In front of the château was another sponge station. I would have preferred another water station, but this was better than nothing. The sun had made me a bit sweaty, so I grabbed one of the sponges and cooled myself down.

The course continued down the Avenue des Minimes, entering a heavily forested area. The shade was nice and the atmosphere felt more secluded, with trees all around us and not many supporters on this part of the route. At the end of that road the course merged with the Avenue du Tremblay, which marked the most easterly point of the race. Then the course zig-zagged southwards until it joined the Avenue de Gravelle at the southern perimeter of the park.

Video: Passing kilometre 19 on the Avenue de Gravelle

The Avenue de Gravelle was another long road, but it was full of bends, so this time it felt like I was getting somewhere. At this point I was ticking along, enjoying the sunshine and the scenery of the park. As the course gradually left behind the park and moved closer to entering the city again, the number of supporters increased which helped lift the atmosphere a little.

Approaching the half-marathon point, the scenery of the parkland gave way to the more urban landscape again. The sun had gone in again, which made everything seem rather grey and dull. Still, when I crossed the thirteen mile marker and then the official half-marathon point, I was feeling good, but my legs were now starting to ache a little, which was becoming a bit distracting. This was a crucial point in the race for me – if I started feeling tired and achy now the next 13.1 miles would only get worse. I could only hope that this was a phase which I could run through.

Video: Passing the half-marathon point

For the next 1.5 miles, the course followed the Rue de Charenton, then the Avenue Daumesnil. The sun had come out again and there were more people shouting us on and some more bands were playing along the route. The further we made it into the city again, the better the atmosphere became.

Video: Soaking up the atmosphere on the Rue de Charenton

Once we made it onto the Avenue Daumesnil again, there was another of those unending roads. The relative boredom of running along the long, straight road was broken by continual encouragement from the pacemaker and the appearance of two drag queens – I nearly tripped over the kerb as we ran past them! By now it was obvious I was becoming quite tired.

The pacemaker advised everyone to take on a snack if necessary as he tucked into an energy bar. I stuck to my strategy of taking energy gels every three miles. It felt like we’d been running down this road for ages when we finally moved onto the Rue de Lyon.

Update: Half-way through

In the distance I could see a column which looked remarkably like the one we had passed in the Place de la Bastille some miles earlier. Of course, it was the same one, but I hadn’t realised the course actually passed through the Place de la Bastille twice – I just thought we might pass a street behind it the second time.

Approaching the Place de la Bastille for a second time

The course took the second left from the Bastille onto Boulevard Henri IV. Just as we turned that corner, the pacemaker grabbed a handful of bananas and passed them out through the crowd. I declined, as I hadn’t eaten them during my training so I didn’t want to chance it now. A few metres later there was a another food station, where I took my next energy gel instead. After the Boulevard Henri IV, the course turned onto the Quai des Célestins, then the Voie Georges Pompidou, on the banks of the Seine. This phase was probably the most beautiful of the whole race.

Unfortunately, whatever helped me fly around last time wasn’t there this time. From the outset my legs felt really heavy and my muscles ached from the start. I had to stop about six minutes after starting to remove a stone from my shoe, so I took the opportunity to do some extra stretches as well. I warmed up after the first three miles, but my muscles never totally stopped aching.

The lap system worked well again. I split the run into two nine-mile laps followed by a third four mile lap to bring me up to 22, around the South and North Bays. Running this kind of distance reminded me of just how demanding distance running is. At the end I was racked with aches and pains, which continued all right through the rest of the day. It took me all Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to recover from the effort.

Finally I must comment on the weather. I’ve been rather lucky this year with the weather, with each long run falling on relatively mild Sundays. After completing my first lap, I took the decision to dump my running coat, hat and gloves at home and the bright, constant sunshine rewarded me. The chilly breeze reminded me it was still technically Winter, but it was what I needed on this long run.

The first session of the week was on Tuesday. This intensive phase of my training plan called for a 9-mile run – on a weekday! I wasn’t sure if I could fit a 9 mile run in before work, so I decided to get up at 4:30am instead of my usual 5:00am start just to make sure I had enough time.

This plan backfired as soon as I woke up. I literally dragged myself out of bed and went through my usual routine. However, I just couldn’t get going and I felt like I was in danger of drifting back to sleep whilst doing my warm-ups.

It didn’t get any better once I started running. I was still tired from getting up so early and my muscles were in open rebellion, aching and painful from the offset. I felt like I was running with a sack of potatoes tied to each leg. I managed to complete it, but I felt shocking afterwards. So now, through that hard lesson, i know that getting up earlier than 5:00am to go training is just not an option.

After over-extending myself on Tuesday, Wednesday was a rest day, followed by my next session on Thursday.

This was a simple easy run of five miles, followed by four ten-second hill repeats. I completed it with no problems – it was probably the highlight of an almost universally bad week.

That highlight was followed by Friday’s session, which turned into something of a disaster. My schedule called for 1 mile easy (no problems there), then 8×1k at 10k pace. However, I didn’t measure the distances beforehand, so I had to estimate how far a kilometre was, which I now know that I can’t really do whilst running. Additionally, I fell for the common mistake of miscalculating how long the repeats would take (because I forgot to take into account the rest kilometres in-between). So I didn’t run as far as I should and I didn’t do as many repeats as I should.

I decided just to cut my losses and cut the in-between rest time from eight minutes to two minutes, which I could just about handle. After I’d finished I still felt like the running I had done was good, even if the session as a whole had been a bit disastrous.

So after a shaky start to the final month of training, I wasn’t looking forward to the twenty-mile long run on Sunday. I split the run into three laps: The first two were eight miles each, then finishing with a four-mile lap of the North Bay. I also tried out my new running belt, for storing my energy gels. For the first eight miles, my legs felt rather light, so the going felt surprisingly easy. By the end of the last mile, I was shattered, but I managed to do it in 4h 25m, which impressed me quite a bit.

Last week I think the combination of taking Monday off as a rest day and my other recovery techniques worked rather well. On Monday I didn’t fell creaky and painful like I sometimes do the day after a long run and when training the day after, I didn’t feel like I was still recovering from Sunday. So I’ve decided that Monday is my new rest day. On Tuesday I felt more comfortable today than last week. I felt good all the way round. Afterwards, I didn’t feel totally exhausted like previous times.

Unfortunately, by Wednesday, the weather seemed to be getting a bit chilly again after the “mildness” of last week. Thursday was more like Tuesday in that I just seemed to run the four miles easy and two miles at moderate pace without much fuss. what made it memorable was the beautiful sunrise which rose as I ran around the headland.

Sunday

This week has just flown by. So when it came to this week’s long run, a mammoth eighteen-miler, I didn’t feel totally psyched up for it. In fact, I was even dreading it a little bit. Last weeks’ sixteen-mile run hurt, so adding another two miles onto that wasn’t going to make it any more comfortable.

To make the distance a little more manageable, I split it into two laps, each a nine-mile circuit of the South and North Bays. Basically it covered all the areas where I usually run, but with a few extensions to place I’ve run to in the past.

I decided to try and minimise the pain of this endurance run by taking my first energy gel before I had even set off, unlike my usual system of using them after the first six miles. Then I took one every three miles after that. Just a few hundred yards into my first mile, my leg muscles felt solid, like bricks. There was no elasticity or flexibility in them at all. It was obvious that my warm-up exercises had been somewhat lacklustre today. I had to find a wall and perform a few quick leg stretches in order to get my legs going. I was a little surprised as this was the first time I’ve ever had to do stretches after starting running. Once I set off again, they didn’t feel as stiff, but they ached really badly as they warmed up which was really painful.

By the time I had reached the Spa, they had stopped aching so badly, but the rocky start had shaken my confidence somewhat. I took my second energy gel whilst passing the Ocean Room and made my way to the most southerly point of my route. My muscles weren’t aching any more but they still felt as if they were not performing at their best, which filled me with apprehension about what the next fifteen miles would have in store.

Throughout this run I had a sense of stop-start regarding my energy levels. Each energy gel would come “on stream” about half an hour after I had eaten it, so there was a small lag between the effects of the last one wearing off and the next one kicking in. No matter how many gels I ate though, there was no distracting me from the fact that my feet and legs were all feeling tired and achy even in the early stages of the run. This made it much more uncomfortable than usual and I even contemplated walking at some points.

After I had rounded the headland in the middle of the first lap, about six miles in, the tide in the North Bay had gone so far out that I was able to get onto the beach from the most southerly steps (opposite the Albert Drive Cafe) – I don’t often get the chance to get onto the beach this far south because the tide doesn’t usually go out this far when I’m running. I was then able to run the entire length of the North Bay beach all the way up to the most northerly steps outside the Sea Life Centre.

I had managed to establish a rhythm which carried me through most of the nine miles of the first lap. After switching empty bottles for full ones at my home, I started the second lap. Naturally, it felt harder because I had already completed the first lap, but the energy gels meant I kept on having spurts of energy, which kept things interesting.

Coming back from the most southerly point of my route, I took an early detour into the beach, as the softer snad is more forgiving on my feet. It was the first time I had run outside the southern end of the Spa, which still has that feel of faded, dilapidated glory. Whilst I was running towards the lifeboat station and the end of the beach, I noticed how alone I was in the vast expanse of empty beach. Earlier on it had been quite busy, but now this section of the beach was much quieter. The headland was, as usual at this time of day, very busy with plenty of people around the South Bay end.

Coming around the headland for the second and last time and I was really beginning to feel the exhaustion creep up on me. I ran down onto the beach again, this time having to dodge the tide which was coming in quite fast. By this point I had equalled last weeks distance of sixteen miles, but the thought of doing another two miles was almost too much. I deliberately psyched myself up because I knew if I stopped now, I wouldn’t be able to get going again.

To my surprise, even though my legs were fatigued and I was generally quite exhuasted, I didn’t feel like my legs were going to explode like last week. It was more a case of just trying to run through the tiredness and try not to stop. When I finished, I could only half-believe that I had just completed the longest training run I’ve ever done. These long runs are also beginning to remind me of now much effort is required just to keep moving whilst running a marathon and how just much of a massive commitment it is.

After Sunday’s mammoth effort, I was still feeling the effects of that exhausting fourteen-mile run. My legs are still aching, which isn’t really a good sign, especially as my plan dictates that I should have gone training today. I have no idea how anyone other than an athlete could have done a five-mile run today after yesterday’s effort. I feel like the graduation to epically long runs has come about rather soon, when compared to my training for my last marathon in Dublin.

However, that has probably something to do with the fact that this new “non-linear periodisation” training plan is designed to fit a lot of training into a very short period and that I started this phase of my training much closer to the actual marathon than I have ever done before.

Tuesday

It was quite tough going over the first two miles as my muscles warmed up. The last three miles were easier, though I was still quite tired though by the end of it. The four 10-second hill sprints made me feel better, but I still felt more tired doing them than last time, which is not a good sign.

Wednesday

The plan for today was one mile at easy pace, then three miles at tempo pace (basically as fast as I can go without ), then another easy mile to finish with. This is always a deceptively simple run which hides a quite intensive and tiring three mile run in the middle of it. It always sounds easier than it is. I had a burst of energy between miles two and three, the challenge is sustaining that level of exertion over three miles. By the end of it, I felt very tired but not exhausted.

Thursday

Today I ran two miles at four miles at easy pace with two miles at moderate pace sandwiched in the middle. I was feeling quite good until the end of the moderate miles. The last two miles felt quite difficult, but the I had just run two moderate miles so maybe that’s not too surprising. The major bit of fun on this run was when I ran down onto the southern end of the North Bay beach. Unfortunately, the tide had come in further than I could see from the promenade, and cut off my route. So I had to make a slight diversion by climbing up onto the sea wall and making good my escape. I don’t recommend doing it because it is covered in slippy, slimy algae and sea weed, which didn’t make it easy.

Sunday

Now that my Sunday long runs are getting really long, I decided that I needed a better system to my current one of just running one big xx-miles long circuit. Whilst I did enjoy doing things like running to Filey and back during training for my last marathon, those type of runs are just too inflexible for this time round. What if I got injured, or just burnt out? I would still have the remaining miles to walk home and I also could only take as much fluids as I could carry, which inevitably wasn’t enough.

So this time round I’ve decided to go with a laps system. I start at my usual location, but each lap finishes at my home, where I can switch over empty bottles for full ones (and also make use of the facilities if necessary). This also allows me to break up longer distances into smaller chunks, which makes them easier to swallow (or at least makes it seem like they are).

I split my sixteen mile long run into three laps: One six-mile lap and two five-mile laps. It was unseasonably bright sunshine and quite mild as well – perfect running weather. My lap system was working well, but at the end of the first one, I felt like I was already succumbing to tiredness. After completing the second mile of my second lap, I was so tired I wondered how I would be able to complete the remaining eight miles.

I pressed on. Running past the Sea Life Centre for the third and final time I felt like three laps along the same route was a little excessive, as I was by now quite bored of running the same route for the third time. This didn’t help distract me from the tremendous aching in my legs either. Just a mile later, running through Peasholm Park, I felt as though my leg muscles were ready to explode.

Fortunately, they didn’t and I managed to finish in just under four hours, which surprised me a little, as I didn’t think that I had been running for that long. That time is slower than my hopeful marathon pace, but at the moment, I’m not worried.

Another person further along had done the same thing but he was playing some rousing classical piece which I didn’t recognise.

Passing the water station at mile fifteen felt like a proud moment. even though I felt a bit tired, I still felt like I was powering through the miles and the more I compared my performance to Edinburgh, the better I felt.

Running down Kimmage Road West, the Toucan and the pint of Guinness caught up with me. The toucan appeared to be in fine shape, but the pint of Guinness was looking a little more worse for wear. Taking a sharp right-turn onto Fortfield Road, the toucan overtook me and charged off. “We’ve been overtaken by a toucan!”, another runner quipped. The pint of Guinness fell behind me again though and I didn’t see him again until I was walking back along the finish line.

The marathon reached it’s most southerly point at the bottom of Fortfield Road, then took another sharp turn onto Templeogue Road. This was another rather nice section of the race, running through plenty of greenery opposite Terenure College. I had been taking my energy gels regularly and so far all that training I had done was paying off in spades. However, the furthest I had ever run in my training was fifteen miles, which I passed on Fortfield Road. I was into unknown territory here.

Between miles sixteen and seventeen, I started to get a nervous, empty feeling. It was basically my stomach telling me that I was running out of energy. I felt like I was free-wheeling, running on empty, until the next water station. What I needed was to take on more energy, but I was still a fair way from the next water and energy station.

It wasn’t until I was half-way down Milltown Road on mile eighteen that I got to the energy and water station.I didn’t realise how tired I was until I slowed down to pick up some water. Since they were also giving out energy drinks here, I decided to take one of those too. I had my hands full trying to take my energy gel whilst also holding onto two bottles, but eventually ate and drank them all.

From here the hard slog began. From this point I felt like I was really flagging and my tiredness seemed to be washing over me like waves. It was relentless. I knew I couldn’t just run through this like earlier though because I didn’t feel like I had the extra energy to give. There was nothing left over, none to spare. I felt like I had just enough to get my round. The relative “easiness” (and I do mean relative, because marathon running can never be described as easy) of the past couple of miles was a thing of the past.

From here on, it just got harder and harder and harder. I only had six miles to go, which was a standard easy distance during training, but now it seemed like someone had asked me to run another thousand miles. My feet were starting to burn and my leg muscles were starting to ache so badly it was difficult to distract myself from the pain. I couldn’t ignore it by eating sweets or anything else, it was a constant reminder, always there, nagging me.

The worst thing of all was that I knew none of this would be getting any better until way beyond the finish line. I was actively punishing my body, pushing it beyond its limits and it wouldn’t let me forget it until at least a few days after the marathon.

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.

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.

Then the second mile was just as hard. Usually, it gets a little easier, the aches and pains wear off and I can concentrate on running the distance. Not today. It just got harder and harder. I was running my normal route of going round the headland, around the South Bay, back around the headland and along the North Bay and through the parks. When I reached the Sea Life Centre, I almost stopped as I turned around to head towards Peasholm Park, but I knew that if I stopped it would be twice as hard (and painful) to get going again.

So I struggled on, plodding away trying to ignore my aching leg muscles. By the time I was a short distance into the Peasholm Park leg, on the final mile of my route, I gave in and started walking instead. It wasn’t just my legs that were being tortured – my feet were on fire!

From there I walked the rest of the route. As I emerged from Peasholm Glen, I was started by a tremendous BANG! from the other side of the lake. It took me a few moments to realise that it was a television crew who were filming an episode of The Royal.

The exhaustion of this run has once again made my doubt my ability to run the marathon in my target time of 5h30m and rudely reminded me of just how hard and difficult running a marathon is.