First b2b during crisis. Definitely not finishing time I was expecting but… Yeah, what time I was really expecting. Previous day I was pacing in Galway – 4 hours. And now, day after I’m on the starting line again. Knowing that fitness is still not there I haven’t got much expectations. Wanted just to finish. Was trying to get 3:45 time if possible. But… hills of Monaghan town. I know these well having run there last year. Year ago I got 3:25. Was aiming for 3:45 as well but legs were ok, was running with my watch but haven’t got the idea that in the vast part of the route (forest / park) GPS signal is really bad. Watch was showing pace which would allow me to finish marathon in 3:35 – 3:40. Ended up 10 minutes faster. But back then I was running with TomTom multisport watch. Great watch but I think was loosing signal quite fast during that marathon (I think that TomTom was short by 2 km almost). This year was much better. With Suunto I was just off by less than 350 meters (that says something about quality of the watch). Don’t get me wrong. Liked and still like TomTom watches but I think that Suunto is THE BEST in business when comes to GPS watches. But love for TomTom is still there. Now just shifted towards Bandit Action camera. Great videos taken during Szczecin where I had infamously missed my 4 hours mark as a pacer (thigh was tight). Ok, shifting little bit from the main topic now. Plan – slowly finish, if possible in 3:45. If not in that time just enjoy the run and first b2b in ages.
This year there was two marathons taking place in Monaghan. Saturday and Sunday – back to back during Monaghan Festival of running. For obvious reasons I couldn’t run the Saturday race. For me was Sunday booked. Saturday route was exactly same as the one last year. 5 loops mostly in the forest. Sunday run was slightly different. First loop was in the town and over the canal. This year supporters could cheer for us not just on the road where the loop was starting and finishing. Now they were gathering as well in the town. And despite very cold weather (started race when it was about 3 – 4 Celsius degrees) and no sun in the morning there was quite a crowd there. Of course there was much more runners now cause of two days festival but as well cause of new distance added. Last year it was marathon and all marathon distances, this year 10 km was added to that. There was another important reason for people to show up that Sunday morning. Leslie Crawford, race director, was running his marathon number 100. Cause Leslie is such a nice guy I think that everyone wanted to make his day special. Big crowds, nice cake at the end of the race, cheers from fellow runners and wishes to get another 100 in the bag soon… Back to run. Knew already forest part, knew that it is not flat. Some ups and downs, some quite demanding and four loops of that. New was that first loop in the town. This year, cause coming from Galway, we weren’t driving through Monaghan and I couldn’t remember if town itself is flat or not. I was just imagining that it’s not flat at all. And guess what… I was right. I think actually that this loop had more incline that loop in the forest (need to double check the watch for details). Ups, downs, town, end of first loop. Official watch was showing over 45 minutes already. More less loop in the town was same length as the one in forest. So, means that I was running slower than anticipated. 45 minutes for each loop was giving total time of 3:45. Being behind on the first one I was wondering if I will be able to finish in predicted time cause probably I will get tired on some stage and the pace will go down definitely. But now I was doing loops which I knew. Maybe haven’t remembered all the turns and ups and downs but idea of that loop was in my head. And with each next turn I was remembering more and more. And in the middle of forest loop I knew all the turns and inclines. It is actually nice to know the route not just from GPS profile but actually know it cause you run it or walk it. At the end of first forest loop (second all together) got 2 minutes to spare. So, maybe the town loop was little bit longer than forest one. Read more
