Actually plenty of hills. 5 loops of 5 miles and on the beginning one small one. Nice route, some in the forest, some on the road. Very enjoyable course. Even with incline of (depends of application) 500 to 700 metres. That was another back 2 back for me. Second week in the row. This time I have run twice same route on both days – Saturday and Sunday. Starting at 8 AM in Avondale House Park in Rathdrum. Not too far away from house but still one hour drive. So it was early start for me on both days. First day I went there with Cezary cause he and his family was staying with us. To get there at 7:30 AM we had to leave house a hour earlier. We knew that there was a good chance of getting lost on the way down so we had make sure that GPS is working. Actually two GPS’s. Arrived there on time, still with some time to spare. Plenty runners there. Most of them have already run for at least one day but plenty had two marathons in their legs. Registration was quite quick. Got number 260 and then 262 for Sunday. Straight away I knew that I will amend my number and will run my 50th marathon with slightly different bib. Sunday, 50th marathon. On my bib I added up some small details. Instead number 262 I was running with 26,2. Marathon distance. Small other addition like ’50 done. Half way there’… Ok, back to important stuff.
For whom the bell tolls…
… by Metallica was my song before the Vartry 50 miles race. Don’t know why really but on the walk with dog on Thursday I heard it in my headphones and that was it. Rhythm, music and lyrics somehow were accurate…
…and I’m still alive
First Ultra and I went literally extra mile during that run… Should be very tired and wrecked after race but I wasn’t. At least not as I was expecting and not as bad as sometimes after marathons with high incline. I was amazed myself. I knew that I won’t be able to run as strong as usual on tarmac and I knew that I will be as fast so decided that I will run just run where ever and whenever I will be able. Rest will spent looking at the tremendous views. Especially that weather was so nice…
Art O’Neill part 2 it’s really art…
…art of trail running. We were running today just one part of Art O’Neill route. I would say the hardest one (haven’t run the first bit – 30 km from Dublin Castle to Wicklow Mountains). Even that training was during day-light I found it kind of hard. Not HARD hard but still finding trail running much tougher than road running. Harder to pace yourself, harder to be sure if your feet will land on the steady ground or not. Another thing, especially now, is that most the time I’m comming back home soaked feet. And no matter how I would like to avoid streams, water, muck there is no way not to step into one of these or even better to fell into…
Regular day in the office…
I wish I could say that looking at that picture… Unfortunately that just picture of gear after training session in Wicklow Mountains…
Really nice session with Trail Heads. Over 1.5 hours of running up and down the hills, avoiding (not too much) mud and muck and trying to keep your feet dry when crossing the rivers (didn’t work at all)… Must admit that on the beginning of the whole trail running I wasn’t great fan of that. But now I really enjoy it. There is small issue at the moment thou. It is my eye sight. If I’m not wearing contact lenses I’m blind like a bat and even best headlamp won’t help.