Supposed to better than Prague

One week after marathon in Prague I was back Clontarf running with EOIM. I wanted to do 3 in the raw – running without toilet breaks. And at the end that was achieved. Time was less important but ideally wanted to do 5 minutes better than Prague, so 3:40. Pace around 5:15 should be ok. So, no stress…
I was feeling comfortablec regards running without any breaks and to get time I wanted. Learned from previous runs I have decided that not to push myself too much. Enjoy. When I have arrived to Clontarf I was many runners. You can see that marathon scene in east of Ireland is growing. I’m running just two years now but have noticed that more people are trying to conquer marathon distance than back in 2014. Small 20 runners events grew now to sometimes 60-80 or time to time even 150. Maybe this time it wasn’t so big but still about 80. I think all who run Clontarf before were eager to get their Hokas, Asics, NB… on the beach sand. I was amongst that crowd. We have started after usual ‘abusing’ and amusing briefing and traditional photo. First 2 km I was running definitely too fast. Below 5 min/km. After that I have slowed down to around 5:10. That was very comfortable. No problem at all. Plan would be completed. Beach, causeway, seafront and halfway point of first loop. All good. Seafront back to causeway. And… small breeze hit me. Something has happened which I cannot explain even now, three weeks after that run. Suddenly pace went down dramatically, legs not even heavy. These had weight of the huge stones. Barely could lift my feet 2 inches above ground. And that was 16th km. In my head was just one idea. ‘What is happening? How I will run the remaining 26 km.’ After that run was a big torture. Head was the only thing which was working ok. And that was the only thing which pushed me through finishing line.

Struggle… very bad. But another lesson learned. Some days are crap (if you in bad form would be more of these) but you can get to finish line. Mental strength and friends will help you.