And my name is Frank…

and I will taunt you for at least 13.1 miles. Haha… That could be summary for my last marathon in 2015 and the first I have run on behalf of Make-A-Wish Ireland foundation. As I was landing in Dublin at 29th of December I have tasted Storm Frank. Little bit turbulences. But that wasn’t too bad. Trip to Armagh was really challenging. Wind playing around with the car on the motorway. Adding up rain and the trip was a ‘delight’. Anyway, thanks to Clive I had place to sleep before heading to Belfast next morning. Had a place to sleep but it was very hard to sleep when the whole house is shaking cause of wind and rain. So, instead of nice night sleep I had lousy 3 hours of a nap. Early morning, quick breakfast and off to Belfast. Still about 75 minutes drive and I had to have coffee before run. Cause I left before 6 AM there was no open shops at this time of the day. It was a rainy morning still. Not as windy as day before but as I was about to find out still quite challenging when running. I was at parking spot much earlier than I wanted. And actually could start at 8 AM with early starters. Have checked the weather and decided to opt out cause of the rain. It supposed to stop raining later. Now I know that early start wouldn’t be a bad idea. Maybe more rain for the first hour but definitely less windy. And wind for the first part of marathon, probably about 12 miles, was in your face. So, running first hour with less wind would be an advantage…

Preparing myself for that marathon wasn’t easy. Still not in the best shape, legs not ready for longer runs and being just on the beginning of Daniel’s training. I knew that it will be hard. Considering all of that I just wanted to finish in 3:45. Recently cause of the weather I was training on the treadmill. Besides that throw back when I was sick I was doing quite well. Running every day in the slow pace and then adding two additional harder trainings seems to be working or that what I thought. I haven’t consider my fitness levels, still low, and the weather. But all I wanted was to run first marathon on behalf of Make-A-Wish. I got my first donation, unfortunately wasn’t done via my site but via Make-A-Wish site directly (thanks Tara). Cause matters not the way donations are done. And that is most important. So, back to the topic. First marathon for Make-A-Wish. Expectations – not very high. But still wanted to do it. There was another small thing, Clonakilty marathon was postponed cause of the weather… And before 9 AM rain stopped but wind picked up a little bit. I was really excited for that run. Overexcited if you ask me. And overexcited means I that I haven’t been paying attention to my body signs. First of all, I went out to fast. And instead of trying to keep my pace to reach my 3:45 I started with pace I felt I was feeling ok. Feeling ok passed of course after about 12 km and after that my pace went down, down with no prospects of picking it up. And wind wasn’t helping at all. After about 4.5 miles into the run we had to turn into see front park. Path just on the see side was flooded in parts, so running there was not easy as well. After park there was part where we had to cross dual way road. Quite dangerous. Having that out of the way we had first water station and we were already running for over 8.5 miles. Was quite tired and had bottle of energy drink. Probably not a best idea. Rest of the route was going via industrial estate and towards airport. We were crossing new bridge (besides blue fish) and passing SSE Arena. And that was the place I got lost. Went other side of the Arena and had to stop to recognize where to go. Thanks to Ali who showed me where to go I was back on the route with probably 3-4 minutes lost. At this stage I was running already quite slow and after getting lost I wasn’t in the best mental shape. You know, when something is going wrong it is just driving you down. So, I wasn’t in best shape. But on the mid point of run I have turned and run back. This time no errors on the route. Slowly back. How funny is that when you running against wind it is slowing you down but it is not helping you too much when it is blowing in your back. Maybe that day it has calmed down when we were running back? Anyway, see front was less wet. To regain little bit energy back I had three bottles of energy drink. And that wasn’t best idea. Quick pitstop needed and lost couple of minutes again. At the last stretch I have been splashed by couple of cars (drivers weren’t paying any attention, we were just there to be ‘splashed’). So, have finished in 3:51:40. Maybe if I wouldn’t get lost and haven’t had pitstop I probably achieved 3:45 I wanted…

It was really nice marathon in the tough conditions. And I know that I will be back to run with East Antrim Marathon Series…

Pictures…