Marathon De Escargot’s in Portarlington was the destination for my latest Marathon. Having meet Mark chief bottle washer for the day on the course in Dublin twice, once as a runner and secondly as a DJ I felt it was time to participate in his event. This event’s funds go 100% to charity so I was happy enough to part with the few €’s and once I got an accurately measured course with a bit of grub afterwards was all I was looking for and that's what I got.
Pre Race
Unfortunately this race coincided with Willie week. This normally means gigs in Milltown Malbay into the early hours. This was the case on Friday night got home at 4am so the decision to get the train to this race was a safer option then driving as I could very well fall asleep at the wheel on the return leg. Train from Ennis would get me to the start with 20 minutes to spare. That's if Irish rail play ball. They didn't, I had to change and Vaseline up in the bog of the train, which was a new experience. Train arrived in Portarlington @ 9:15 and even with the short walk to number pickup it was 9:20, ten minutes before the start. This still left enough time to meet with some old friends, Eamon who I had not meet since his Dalmatian Run in November was about to try a Marathon again as well Frank, John, Dipak, Leo and Patrick the Belgium.
Race Time
Soon we set off. Water was in short supply for the first 3 or 4 miles and of course it was the one time I was thirsty. Plenty of water and fruit, jellies etc. after that. Todays race plan was, 4.5 Miles Warm Up followed by 4 sets of 7:10 min pace for 2 miles and 8:00 min pace for 2.5 miles. Race went pretty much to plan expect the third set was into the wind and when we turned out of it, I was expecting a cross/tail wind, but it was still in my face, a bit demoralising but toughed through it. The marshals where great along the way and passing/catching runners makes this type of session easier to do in a race then on ones own. Finished the set and after 1-2 miles easy picked up the pace to roughly 8 minute pace again to finish in 3:36:34. Medal is class acts as a bottle opener as well. T-Shirt was cotton, in fairness the organisers where trying to do something different with this, I would prefer none and give more funds to the charity.
Tea Party
Got my cuppa tea and several (packets) of Custard Creams. The girl doing the tea/food was solo which didn't help things but it turned out there was a valid enough reason for this. Having been involved in organising club races I get what happened. Traffic on the course meant runners safety was far more important then the speed of tea pouring. I still got a good feed so no complaints here. Not a photograph of me to be found must start wearing a pink running gear again.
Travelled home in the company of Club mate Antonio who failed again to go sub 3:30, but as he said he was in a better state afterwards this time. His time will come in Dublin.
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