Silence of the lambs…

You can just get that in the movies. In reality sheep are very loud. Especially when you are running besides them or actually racing against them sometimes. Before, every times I was passing fields of Curragh driving on the motorway I was amazed how many sheep are there. Despite that you could still spot plenty of runners there too. That Saturday I suppose to be that runner as well. How was it? How was to run in the open spaces surrounded by all that animals?

Never run that race before so it was a big mystery for me. All I knew was that it is trail marathon almost fully run on the grass. But running with

EOIM so many times I could expect that this marathon will have it’s own surprises. Same way like Howth has Summit, Lusk its ups and down, Colontarf or Donabate beach and constant breeze. So, what was Curragh hiding? Grass, inclines, fences, animals. Grass – draining your energy. Inclines – you had to work much harder there. Fences – need to be conquered after each lap using small ladder or hole in it. Animals – really try not to bump into any sheep or step into their droppings. That is just a scenario for a disaster. You focussing on pace, trying to get your head around the open spaces and… you need to watch for all of that. 42.2 km of being vigilant. 5 laps of just over 8 km each plus run around GAA field on the beginning with first fence to go through…

Maybe not as hot and sunny as week before but still it was a quite warm day to run. I was planning to do back-2-back that weekend so I knew that I shouldn’t be running fast. I should pace myself and save the strengths for second day in Ballina. Besides that there was (still is) Belfast 12 hours hanging over my head. So, slower pace and saving energy. Result – 3:24. Not too bad but still that was just the first of the marathon days. Was expecting that next day will be much slower. Still, last time my b2b times were 3:31 and 3:42. From that I was predicting that my second day should be 3:35 or little more. Everyone thinks that Curragh is flat. They can’t be more wrong. There is plenty of small inclines and some longer ones. Each road which was crossing our path was higher than the field. Softer ground was forcing me (probably not just me) to use more energy. That wasn’t that bad. After first lap I have adapted. Bigger problem for me was that open space. Almost whole time we were running in the open field. It was little bit freaky. I felt like somebody was messing with my head. I think that was actually the reason I couldn’t run faster. Still, having said that I was able to keep the constant pace throughout the whole race. I could see some runners slowing down. I knew that with the same pace I will overtake some of them. 4th lap was the one where I passed 3 runners. On the last one another competitor…

For such a though course I must say that I was happy with the outcome. Time 3:24 and was waiting for next day in Ballina. But first had to get there.