Tag: hard

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Ground-hog day

Cool medals

Another day, same wind, same rain… Nothing has changed. Ohh, maybe one thing. Decided to start at 8 AM. Was checking the weather day before and it looked like same old, same old, with slightly better morning. Of course that wasn’t the case on the day… Was trying to convince Cezary to start with me earlier but Cezary woke up too late. So, I took under consideration start at 9 AM. But still wanted to have that crappy weather behind me and if there would be any chance of running without rain and wind I will take it. Besides there was still chance of me getting lost. So, running earlier more chances to see runners using proper route and follow them. Day before, tried 9 o’clock and got lost cause there was not many runners running behind me. Ok, 8 AM start. Was sitting with Cezary till 7:40. He was having his breakfast and I decided to run without him earlier… Read more

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Clonakilty second attempt

First medal

And I’m back in Clonakilty… Second attempt to run marathon in here. As you probably remember last December run was postponed cause of the storm and floods. Hopefully this weekend will be better. It looks better now but not ideal. Weather forecast shows winds and rain on Friday and more winds on Saturday. But still they haven’t named the storm so maybe it won’t be as bad as two months ago. But needs to be prepared for all… Read more

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Caught me by surprise

Leixlip medal

Friday early evening I got message from Mark Conlon asking me if I can give him a lift to marathon. My reply was that I’m not going to Donegal. He was probably surprised by my reply but texted back that he is going to Leixlip to run local marathon. I was planning to run that one but was convinced that it’s on next weekend. Confused? Yes, probably cause I have skipped couple of marathon weekends lately and this year that wasn’t a regular thing. Anyway, I wasn’t ready to run but on Saturday morning I have picked up Mark and couple of minutes later both of us were heading towards Leixlip. That was the first marathon of the two which were organised to support hospital. Read more

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Silence of the lambs…

Eating EOIM again

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? Read more

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Challenge is in the name…

Burren yum yum

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… Read more

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And that was a real challenge 3 marathons in 2 days

2nd medal

It is hard to give it a right name… 3 in 2 challenge or ‘At least 3 ways to die in 2 days’ 😉

I knew it will be hard… but really wasn’t expecting that. I did already couple of back 2 back’s and each of these was tiring, energy draining and tough. And now I had to do same plus squeeze another marathon between two mornings. Read more

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Trail surprise

Looking stupid with medal

That wasn’t pleasent surprise. 3/4 of whole course run through forest. Forest duct, loose chipping, stones. Felt like trail run, not road. I think that just runners from Monaghan and surrandings knew the route. Don’t get me wrong. I was enjoying that run but could choose better shoes, consider trail ones. Read more

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20 to go…

Last weekend I have finished my 5th marathon. And like Roundwood one, this one wasn’t easy for me. I know that most of participants were running all 4 marathons in the Quadrathlon event and I admire them very much but I must admit that I was struggling… Again. Read more

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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… Read more