Horror course…

If you running marathons with East of Ireland marathons remember that when Don Hannon will set the course it will be really tough… and it was. Today’s Roundwood marathon was really, really hard. 4 laps with at least 100 meters incline on each lap. Considering that I have always run just the flat marathons (Ballina one had just 170 meters incline all together) I would call this one a HORROR one. But having said that experience was really nice and I was very happy to finish that one. My GPS watch showed 4:02:21 when I have crossed the finish line but have to admit that I have to use the facilities after first lap so the official time given by EOI will be probably somewhere closer to 4:08…

Anyway… I must say that the marathon was so hard that I wasn’t even able to talk to my body as usual 😉 Even that ankle was hurting… on the top of that you can add both knees, thighs, calves and I can go on with the list, I was so tired that usual ‘dialogue’ wasn’t possible. To tell you the truth I was so tired that on the last lap I have actually walked about 60% of the distance. That means I was in bad shape. Only two thinks on my mind were that I’m not actually so fit as I was thinking I was and where the hell is that finishing line… So, course scenery was great… and after first lap I was thinking that I haven’t really felt that over 100 meter incline but with every next lap slopes become hills, hills become mountains and after that I was hiking 😉 I was so grateful that there was second water station in the middle of a lap (saved me twice)… Still tired, hard to think about something which will make sense. Probably will add something later.

But I have a small warning, probably mainly for myself…

DON’T RUN MARATHON IF:
1. You have just came out of illness (literally two days before marathon, in my case),
2. You haven’t been training for whole week (because of illness, in my case),
3. Gain some pounds in last couple of days (because of point 2, in my case),
4. Your shoes are in really bad shape.

And if it’s about marathon with such a incline you can add another point:
5. If you can’t run uphill.

Even that I have ticked all the 5 boxes and I still run it. Proud of myself ? For finishing, yes. Time, no…

Not much photos this time: