me running…
about runs
That was the question I have been asked by some kids twice today on the Main Street in Wexford. Some confusion caused by number I was wearing. For the first time I was given number one. So, runner walking with number one bib and the medal… what can the kid think? Had to explain that all finishers are getting that medal and number one is just a starting number…
Yes, it was long time overdue… marathon in Szczecin. My hometown was the last of the bigger cities in Poland without marathon event. We used to have 20 km anual run, which evolved into half marathon but the main running event was still missing. Missing until this year. In 2015 at 19th of September we, runners, will take part in 1st PZU MARATHON in SZCZECIN. Timewise it is placed week before Berlin and Warsaw marathon and week after Wroclaw (so, if you want and have time you can spend three weekends in Poland running marathons)…
and of course I have missed that. Again. Focusing my attention on the part Clare Burren marathon… Have sign in for the run without even checking route. Just knew that it will be in County Clare and that it will start in the small village. Didn’t even know the village name. I was totally relaxed before run… till I met all my friends on the starting line. Then I heard: ‘You need to add at least 20 minutes to your marathon time’, ‘It’s a trail run’, ‘You are climbing here’. Ohhhh crap. Mistake again. Haven’t done my homework again. At least I took with me trial runners and Hokas. Decided for Hokas cause it was quite dry so terrain would be hard. Choice was good. Now on the starting line. Nervously talking to other runners. Plenty of friends and familiar faces… But I was feeling uncomfortable still. Didn’t know the route, didn’t know what to expect. Decided to go with the flow. ‘What will be will be. All I need to do is to run’. These were my thoughts. Before start Cezary just said to me not to follow the runners on the head of the whole group cause they are running just 10 K race…
I have already run that course. Before, I thought it was hard. And with every time on the same route you would expect to be more comfortable. But Howth is not like that. There is plenty additional things which can make your marathon to go wrong or be ok. Weather, food eaten, things in your head. I know that all these factors would disturb or help you during any marathon but Howth with its Summit climb is one of the hardest one. Each of that elements is intensify during that run. Wrong food, no energy? You will suffer. Water station on the start of each loop and on the top of the Summit. Worrying to much about something won’t help you when you will be fighting when climbing the hill of Howth 4 times. Weather? Wind in your face and not only when climbing. Like during that run it was against you when you were running downhill or on the flat part. Parts where you wanted just to rest after hell of a climb or restore little bit time lost before. Hard enough, now add little bit sun and you are getting the whole picture…
In the past week, after filling tone of online documents, I had interview in the US embassy. I’m still very disappointed that even if I would like to go to United States just for holidays I need to apply for visa, go to interview and pay quite amount of ‘bucks’ for whole process…
…actually small part of Cork. Whoever run the Cork City Marathon would recognize that route. 5 loops beside river, then run in the park and that was about 6 km of the CCM route. Rest: marina run and through Blackrock Village with climb almost to finish of loop. First loop was little bit longer, we had to add two small loops around pound, rest same… Flatish for Cork but kind of hilly for regular marathon. I was really happy to be back in Cork where I have started my adventure with long runs. Almost a year ago I started my first marathon, now I was standing on the starting line of my 39th one. Long journey…
This post was long overdue… Even that in my head I had so many ideas and things to say about Prague Marathon. But I couldn’t just sit and write about that… That weekend was just brilliant. Prague, run, experience, new friends and prospect of coming back there next year…
…and jellies. That was a phrase which was constantly repeating during second half of the Royal Canal Run in Longford. I was able to got my hands on one cup of coke before starting last lap (about 5.2 km per lap, so 8+ loops) but that was already too late to fill energy which deteriorated during run. Apparently I was unlucky cause according to other runners coke was available for last three laps. If that so marshals weren’t able to fill the cups in time for everybody. Other thing we with jellies. These were gone just after first two loops. I think problem was in the amount of runners starting almost at the same time. Marathoners, halves and 10K started just 30 minutes between them, so on the 5.2 km loop there was plenty people fighting for food and water… But that’s only complaint but that one probably cost me my best year result for marathon. Anyways, wasn’t too bad. finished in 3:18:58.
Little bit about marathon itself. Route was exactly same as the one which ‘Marathon men’ have run when they were doing their 32 in 32 days challenge. Quite flat, which just three bumps for bridges. Most of the route was on the hard path and just small bit of tarmac. That was actually really nice for the legs, but still path each wasn’t too wide. Sometimes just one person wide and when you were thinking about overtaking somebody that could be challenging. Am I complaining again? Ok, last one – the weather. Whole weekend prior run was gorgeous, sunny and warm. And on the race day we had heavy rain before the run and temperature drop quite significantly. I was regretting not taking gloves with me. Can you imagine that? End of April and I’m talking about running in gloves. Still, wasn’t as bad as couple last days where I was having my training runs in hale. End of bad part. Cause it was in Longford I have decided that I will drive there in the morning, especially that race was starting at 10 AM. This time was traveling alone. My Wife needed rest after exhausting week in work. Got too Longford, found Longford Slashers GAA and went to registration tent. And there was first surprise. Not just medal and bib number with chip but I was handed as well a technical shirt. Wasn’t expecting that, even that it entry fee was higher than usual for small marathons. Waiting for start in miserable weather. Great that there was so many familiar faces. Could kill time chatting and not paying attention to cold rain. Walking to starting line… Gloves, where are my gloves? Wind stopper checked. Whole way. Start… part on the tarmac, 900 m heading too finishing line (that was that extra needs to be done). Straight on we had couple of fast starters. You could see that they are heading for sub 3 time. I was thinking about 3:30 time and was hoping for 0 pit stop run. But couple of kilometres in and I was feeling great. Decided to pick up little bit on the pace and try to maintain that for the whole duration of the race. Didn’t worked out as I was expecting. Second half of marathon was slower by about 1 minute. Still not too bad. During whole race we could listen to music. And it seems that Brendan (race director) has similar taste in music as me. So, we had INXS, Guns and Roses, Metallica… kind of of Radio Nova party. That was very nice. Whole marathon itself was constant overtaking of other runner (not that I wasn’t overtook by others) on the 5.2 km loop. Even that my second part of the race was slower it was steady enough to allow me to caught up with some runners who were in front of me. There was one guy who, after the race, was complaining that I pass him by just 3 miles before finish line and that I done that for the second time in the raw (apparently did that in Clontarf). My steady run pushed me to 4th place. I was delighted. Time? Not too bad, but there is still room for improvement. After the race I had a small chitchat with Eimer about marathon in Szczecin. I’m trying now to get as many runners from Ireland as possible to run there. If at least 2 or 3 will show up I would consider that as a success. Will see.
Cause I was alone there isn’t any pictures from race day…
I have run that marathon couple of times already… and almost every time was different. This time was very sunny, quite warm, just that very cold wind was causing that everybody runner or not was shivering before the race (supporters have suffered little bit longer)… So, that was a run where I decided to put sleeves on the arms. And I was so glad that I did that.
That was participants record for Paris Marathon. With such a number of runners that marathon become 3rd biggest one in the World, behind New York and Chicago. Huge. That is only word I can think of now. Starting with size of the expo and finishing with length of finish area. On expo we were talking to Warsaw Marathon team and they told us that for the first time they got such a high stand number (something above 400). And that was just for stands which contains nutrition or info about other marathons. There was second part of expo where you could find just a running equipment. Over 3 hours spent there. Pasta party took us just 10 minutes, rest was just walking around and exploring options. Tons of brochures about marathons, new Compress Sport running pants (don’t know how to call them) was the outcome of expo. After expo we headed to hotel, hit the bed or laptop. Saturday was a very quite day if won’t count over 12 km of run. Including bucket list experience which is was to run under Eiffel tower. Did that. After run and quick shower walk around Paris. We saw a all the thing I saw during my morning run. We saw little bit more. Ended up with 18 km walk which lasted over 7 hours. Baguette at the end of the day and next day marathon…