Not as bad as expected

I think that was the first time when I was expecting route to be more hilly than it actually was. Nice surprise. Everything started with email with document I should sign and bring with me to expo. In the email there were as well links to half-marathon and marathon route. Both led to same GPX route. So, I have assumed that same route just two loops. One thing was was just bothering me. It was said that big hill which was daunting runners was taken out from marathon route and on the GPX for half one I could see really bad incline. So, I have prepared myself for two loops with one big incline on each. That expectations but still weren’t sure about the legs after Ballina. Couldn’t say if the legs were heavy or wobbly. Usually before start I can say how I feel. It’s either crap or I’m buzzing can’t wait to start the race. Last Sunday I felt nothing. Completely empty. That was very strange. Didn’t know what to expect. All I knew is that I want just to run my comfortable pace. Knowing that body probably still hasn’t recovered from previous weekend I wasn’t trying to push too hard.

After taking some photos with friends and complete strangers, complaining about my ‘don’t know being’ we were called to start line. I started slowly waiting for my body to warm up. Don’t know how but my pace started to get better. I started to feel my legs again (unfortunately were heavy). At least I knew that I’m back in the ‘running zone’. Have promised myself that I will try to appreciate the surroundings, enjoy the views. Shouldn’t be to hard when you are not pushing yourself to the limit. Some ups and downs, one bigger hill and after that we turned into road leading to ‘Banna Strands’. Road crossing through big open space. In the nice weather you should be able to see bay and water. But as soon as I made the turn into that road wind just hit me. Till that moment I haven’t got the idea that I was running with the wind pushing me (probably that was the reason for comfortable pace being quite fast). Anyways, with wind in my face I was trying now to stay focus on running and not losing too much speed. At the finishing line I was talking to Ruthann and she had exactly same experience with wind and views. And second attempt was the same. Bay and wind. After that wind became a companion almost till the end of the race. On the way down to Tralee, to finishing line I just wanted to get time below 3:30. Had still some time to spare so wind could slow me down (calculations). Wind and the traffic. The last couple of kilometres we were joined by half-marathon runners. Big groups of runners were now running together, side by side making sometimes impossible to overtake them. And when on the street you had to watch as well on the upcoming traffic. Not a best finish to the marathon. Ohhh… and according to my watch I run over 42.4 km and that 200 metres took me over the 3:25 for that race…

At the finishing line I have met Ruthann, George, Deepak and some other runners. And it seems that for everyone that was a good race. Not too easy but sound… Good that they took that ‘hill’ from the route. According to GPX it is just about 300 metres incline. Not much, even that incline in Lusk marathon was smaller it felt that Lusk was much harder than Tralee. Isn’t that funny?

Some pictures.