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.

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.

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.

Tuesday was a rest day, then on Wednesday I returned to my pre-illness schedule with a 5-mile run. This was more tiring, but still well within my capability and I only barely broke out into a sweat this time.

On Thursday I completed my longest mid-week run yet, clocking in at 6-miles. This felt noticeably longer, running right around the headland and halfway along the South Bay before turning round and running my usual route around the North Bay. It was much more tiring, but that was probably because I had run another five miles yesterday. Despite all that, Thursday’s run still felt well within my capability.

Also, you may have seen on BBC Breakfast an item about free bus passes for the elderly. Well, the BBC sent one of their reporters to do a live spot on board an open-top bus from the Peasholm Gap turning circle. My route took me past this spot twice and though I didn’t run past when they were broadcasting, I still managed to see the correspondent. I can’t remember his name though. So that was a nice change.

I followed that eleven miles on Wednesday and Thursday with a rest on Friday. On Saturday I completed another six-mile run, which was quite easy. As I reached the Peasholm Park leg of my route, I was stunned to see that the heavy rainfall of the previous night had made the lake burst its banks.  This happens quite often after rainstorms, however, what took me aback this time was that the lake had overflowed so much that it was spilling out onto Burniston Road. It also forced me to make some diversions around the lake to avoid the flooded footpaths.

On Sunday, I went out for my Sunday long run, which today was seven miles. I went out much later this time, which I always try to avoid because the footpaths do get a bit clogged up with people who tend to get to get in my way. The early mornings have been bitingly cold this week, however, this morning was quite mild. Once again I was quite tired by the end of it, but I felt a massive satisfaction at completing the longest run so far in training for this marathon.

So this week began with a four mile jog on Tuesday. Then I did a five mile run on Wednesday and a six mile run on Thursday. I felt the pace was acceptable, I didn’t feel totally exhausted after each run, which I think justifies my decision to do all that base training.

By the end of this week I was getting tired. Friday was a rest day, which was welcome. The weekend involved two runs; A six-miler on Saturday and a seven-miler on Sunday. The six-miler felt fairly comfortable (about as comfortable as a six-mile run can feel), whereas the seven-mile run was more exhausting. After I’d completed them I felt like I was returning to my training runs of old, feeling totally drained yet feeling great about running so far.

The route of the course through Gosford House was a huge loop, intially through fields and past farm buildings, then behind the rather beautiful country house itself. I walked most of this section because I was totally drained. At mile eighteen took us through some woods, where I decided to try start running again, mainly because running felt less painful on my feet than walking. As the course left the woods, we left the estate through a rather grand gatehouse. This was a great moment, for this was where the course really did turn round – finally!

The joy of turning round was still tempered by the fact that I had more than six miles to go. I still felt totally exhausted, but after the next water station, I decided to keep running for as long as possible. So I kept my head down and just concentrated on the road. Whenever I looked up, I just thought of how far I still had to go.

Approaching mile 21, my spirits began to be lifted as we passed the holiday park I had passed going out. This told me that I was getting closer to civilisation and thus the finish line. Just before I approached the park where the relay changeover was taking place, I passed a group of well-wishers who cheered me and told me there were only five miles to go. it sounded like a short distance, but I knew it the finish was still a fairly long way off. I had kept my hands clenched in my usual running position that I now had pins and needles so bad I had hardly close them.

At Cockenzie and Port Seton, I passed through two more energy stations. At this point, I was grateful for every drop of water or energy drink I could get. I had already taken my two carbo gels (which was all I could fit in the pocket of my running shorts). They didn’t make me feel like I had an energy boost, but that was probably more the pain or tiredness talking. Running through Prestonpans, between miles 23 and 24 was a bit eerie as there was virtually no-one around, except the race marshals who stood guard every few hundred yards.