Tag: belfast

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First time in ages

Spooky medal

Maybe not ages but long, long time. East Antrim Marathon Series marathon over May long weekend, Carrickfergus coastal route. Little different than the one from end of the last year. Instead of going all the way to Belfast airport and back this time it was three loops. Weather better than last time. Again, cause Carrickfergus is about 2 hours from home so overnight stay was needed. Stayed at Larne, nice small town north of Belfast. Spent one night in very friendly guest house – Derrin. Owners created warm atmosphere. Got upgraded to bigger and nicer room cause there was no guests that weekend. Even if that was Belfast marathon weekend, long weekend and quite good weather. Like that town, even spending just couple of hours. Beautiful view of hills and sunset… If will need any accommodation near there I will use same guest house in same small town. Read more

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And my name is Frank…

Medal for Make A Wish Ireland

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… Read more

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I wish I had more time…

Medal and award

One of the biggest challenges this year has arrived. On Friday evening we were heading north to Belfast. Usually before marathons I was calm but not this time. That was no marathon, that was 12 hours run, during which I could cover more than two marathons. Yep, I was nervous. It wasn’t for the first time that I knew how long I will run. Was pacing already marathons for particular time but now was different. Now I haven’t got the clue how much distance I will cover. And that was the point. Go for whole 12 hours and get as much distance in your legs as possible. Till now my longest distance was 100 km which I have finished in Portumna in 8:51. So, now I will run 3 more hours, hoping for the best… Read more

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THE PLAN

Recently I was checking races for next year… which I can run, which I will need to pass and which I can run outside of Ireland.

I wanted to do maybe 4 foreign ones and the rest in here, in Ireland. Planned as well maybe 1 or 2 longer runs – ultra and that was already sorted out by My Wife when she have signed me into 50 KM run in Donadea in February. That was the plan. Quiet but still pushing me to get more marathon runs… Read more