The Biggest Smile - Part 1

So here I was a little disappointed but relived as I approached the finish line. Marathon number 50 done, my first official Ultra but the wheels had come off big time over the final 6K that I missed my secondary target of 4:10 which I felt was well within my scope. This feeling didn’t last long as once I crossed the line it turned to sheer joy, I suddenly had as Seb put it “the Biggest Smile in Portumna”

The night before

On receipt of an Email prior to the event I soon realised that we could pitch tents the night before the event. This appealed to me as there would be less stress involved in trying to get to the 7AM start if I went the night before. Went to Limerick on Thursday and picked up on of these pop-up tents. As not to look stupid I did a trial run on setting it up. Popup tent does what it says on the tin, but getting it back into the bag took an half an hour to figure out. Arrived in Portumna on Friday evening to see several hotels already pitched there. So I set my minion tent besides Finns minion tent in the shadow of Hotel MacKessy fitted with its own elevator and en suite bathrooms. What a way to relax the night before an event burgers, wine both red and yellow, Mo produced a guitar so a sing-song started. Only downside was the midgets where having a field day on us. Pretty soon we all retired to our respective abodes for the night. Didn’t sleep to well but never do before a goal race any way.

Race Time

Courtesy of Mary Mockett

Up at 5 am got my number, breakfast. Alan Gorski joined me at the table and he was bemused that I could eat so close to a race. Luckily that has always been the case my issues seem to be on other side of that particular equation. Vincent Gutherie had the kettle on and I got a coffee which moved the necessary, a quick warm up and off to the start.
I had initial after a strong finish in The Burren thought that sub 4 was a possibility but the recent heat/humidity had raised doubts on this. I decided not to wear a GPS watch and wear a HRM for the first few laps to ensure I didn’t overdo the effort early. Took off at the start and found myself a bit to close to the front HR showed the effort to be a bit too high ignored it for 1K. It was however still rising so I dropped the pace back. This left me running comfortably with Mark who I meet in Ballyvaughan for the first two laps. Both came in over 25 minutes so I decided that 4:10 would be more likely time. Discarded the HR Strap and picked up the pace from here and try and hold the effort till the end.
My original plan was to bring my Son Christopher with me to act as crew, he neither had the inclination of getting up at 3 AM or coming camping with me for the pleasure of watching his dad run around in circles for the day. So on Lap 3 as I rummaged through my supplies under the MCI table Brenda Barrett Dunphy immediately volunteered to take over the roll. Nutrition for the day was going to be a mix of Jaffa’s and Pringles every second lap. It worked very well, I would tell Brenda what I needed for the next lap and it was available on arrival.

Courtesy of Mary Mockett

Not much to say about the race, laps flew by, the half marathoners soon joined us and the course was now busy. As they passed me it didn’t bother me as I was well in tune with my pace and moving nicely. Briefly spoke with CM from boards where we discussed which was worse been dead or injured, I think we concurred that death was the better option. At around 38K I passed Alan Gorski he was struggling, I was motoring. Passed the 40K mark and I was about a minute up on 4:10 pace but from here on things started to get difficult. Once we passed the 2K marker I really had to grind. My legs were starting to feel dead as doorknobs. Antos friend gave me a lift after this which got me going again until I hit 44K. The cool breeze we had in the morning on the long last kilometre of the loop had suddenly turned into a Calima. This knocked the stuffing out of me. Kept running, I was not going to walk just keep in moving. Hit 45K 3:45:xx on the clock, this meant I needed a sub 25 final 5K, spurred on by the crowd I lifted the pace but once I hit the climb at 1K the pace dropped again to I kept going but the pace was gone from my legs 4:10 was gone at this point. Got to the turnaround looking for coke or anything to lift me. No coke took an orange instead. Started to walk for a bit. Saw Alan coming against me and decided there and then right he is not passing me out so I started running again. Combination of the Orange and the downhill I got up to a reasonable pace but once we hit the 4K again it was a death march to the finish. In my head just keep running while trying to listen for footsteps behind, they never came I crossed the line in 4:12:24.

You can’t be serious

Courtesy of Mary Mockett

I then heard Seb announce over the microphone 3rd place finisher in the 50K. What I initially thought there is a mistake here, but then slowly remembered who was doing the timing. My God the sensation of going from the dejection of missing a target to finishing 3rd from 100 runners in the race was some buzz. Immediately returned to the MCI table and gave my stand-in crew a massive hug. Sheer joy Seb was right I had the biggest smile on my face. Cracked open a can of 95.7% water for rehydration and took my rightful place on the Podium.

Results

Courtesy of Trish Carey

On looking at the results I gained places troughout the race. My last lap was not as slow as I thought on the course and everyone seemed to to suffer to the same degree. I was only 2 minutes outside 2nd place but those 2 minutes where outside my reach. The winner Rory Mooney was of course a country mile ahead and the closest I got to him all day was on the podium.
 
 

 

 

 

Splits for the nerds
0:25:54,0:25:43,0:24:45,0:24:28,0:23:57,0:24:33,0:24:28,0:24:58,0:25:37,0:28:02 4:12:24 3/97

Womans Flu

April so far has been as wash out as regards running or training. I got the female version of the Man Flu and was thrown down for the best part of a week. Never in my life have I been so sick and for the first time in I don’t know how long did not run for a full week. After several rants on Face book I got some replies that made me feel much better.
This had an adverse effect on whatever chance I had off getting some faster work done in preparation for the Kilnaboy Ten Mile. I think the Friday before I managed to do 2 * 2 Mile at 10 Mile Pace. Could have done a third but as per usual the after effects of been sick was still somewhat in my chest

Sonny Murphy

courtesy of John O Neill

The morning of the race the chest was still a bit tight, so I decided I would do this at an easy pace. Maybe I would have been best advised not to do it but I just love this race, so I headed to Kilnaboy with best intentions. Got to the start late so I found myself well up the front. Yeah run it easy went straight out the window. As there was a severe headwind for the first 3 miles I found myself in a big group going @ ~ 7:15 pace. Options leave the group and have to work just as hard or stay in it, took the second option. After half a mile I noticed only Mary Cahill (Ennis Track) and a young lad from Fergus AC were the only ones in the group cutting out the pace or doing any work. I made my way to the front and pulled it along for 2-3 minutes, damn hard, however none of the others where even bothered to help out. Really made my blood boil so this just left the three of us cutting out the pace. Once we turned into the tail wind the group fragmented and I eased off. I was not near race fitness and my early endeavours where coming back in spades. Finished with 72:50, over 3 minutes slower than last year in similar conditions. The result has left me in no doubt that I have a lot of work to do to get back to where I was last year. Now even 4:15 for 50K is doubtful in June. Following this I have put together a plan to be in better shape for Portuma and I may throw a race or two in between.

Curragh of Kildare

Courtesy of Stephen Mooney

Marathon number 45 and after last week I decided that there would be some structure to this. I reckon my 50K pace is a little over 8 minute pace. So I decided to do 3 * 5 miles at that pace off 5 min recovery during the race. The Curragh Plains was the destination and been an ex Solider I knew from experience that it was not flat. A lot of the runners on the day where quite surprised at how undulating the course was but I knew better. It was a return to the Curragh Rugby club, last time I was there as a young Apprentice trying to chat up some young Kildare bird in the 80’s. How things have changed. Easy First lap followed by the prescribed session’s over the next 3 laps. For the last lap I discarded the shoes and socks and ran barefoot. It’s a thing I have be doing lately 4-5 miles barefoot around St Flannan’s once or twice a week. It is something I have started to enjoy and tend to run much easier as a result. On Saturday it got some funny remarks from other runners but it felt really good.

A New Year a new Me

That is the plan, finally cleared the house of all its Christmas temptations and got back to a good clean diet again. This coupled with my regular Doctor issuing me with NSAID suppositories my UC/Proctics as abated some bit. On the first week I went for one of those talk to myself runs to try and maybe set a goal or target for the year. Its probably something that has been lacking since I ran Seville last February. Okay their is a goal in completing 50 Marathons (24 more) before my 50th Birthday in August 2016. While it is a challenge in itself, in my opinion it doesn't require me to push on to the next level. Really all it requires is that I stay injury free and get the job done. I had looked at tackling the shorter stuff but the faster interval training does leave me open to injuries. To other option is to go longer, I am kind of flirting with the idea of racing 50K in Portumna in June, not fully committed to it yet but a crack at a sub 4 Hour 50K would fit the bill of giving me a goal for the next few months.

Baseline Test

With this in mind I decided to run a Hadd Test just to get an idea at what level my fitness was at. The results showed that I had lost a small bit in comparison to where I was the last time I ran one. The lower/aerobic running was giving me 740 BPM/KM over 2K. Last year I was lower at 710 BPM/KM but I am now 7 lbs heavier. So all in all I feel a little more concentration on steady/ high end aerobic together with keeping my hand out of the cookie jar should leave me in shape come the end of February to consider having a go at a 4 Hour 50K

Loving the Trees

After seeing my workload for January, my intention of running MCI Marathon in Liliput was gone leaving me with the 3 hour drive to the sunny south east. Luckily I had some in car entertainment to shorten the journey in the form of Mr Enright. Oilgate been our destination for the day and Marie Chapman our host as Race Director with the ever reliable Vincent lending a helping hand. Great to catch up with the usual few and 60 or so runners took on a five 5.25 Mile laps for the Day. Each lap had a downhill start with a gradual climb back to the main road, and the obligatory tree hug halfway. The first lap fly by in the company of Tom and Paul, I didn't even notice the climb. Lap 2 saw the standard pit stop, but thankfully it was the only one of the day. Lap 3 things where a bit tougher but for the third Marathon in a row I finished much stronger. Lap 4 I put in some 7:30 miles to catch up with Paul after some running repairs with footwear, and on the final lap I was pretty much feeling very strong and able to keep the pace up to come home in sub 3:57.

Words to the Wise

Meet Thomas afterwards and I queried him re what type of mileage running will he do in preparation for 24 Hour Championship in Turin. His answer while vague is a pretty sound philosophy that everyone should bear in mind with regard to running and training. “I will run whatever mileage my body can recovery from”. Afterwards the usual presentations say Gillian and Oggie Winters received their 100 Marathon awards as well as a special award for Brenda M O’Keeffe to mark her record for most Marathons 74 in a calendar year for a Female. Clearly these guys have much better recovery ability then my old body.

What a year for the roses

As I close of 2014 I cant help but look back at probably my best year running. Ran 2170 miles for the year my highest ever. Ran 12 marathons and got personal best at 5K, 10K, 10 Mile, Half and Full Marathons. At the start of the year I would have taken half of that. Haven't decided what the goals are for 2015, I have some options but nothing definite as off yet.

Trial and Error

Going to Portumna on Saturday morning must have been the first time that I really felt I had a greater chance of a non finish then a finish. Fitness was not the issue but I fear that a recurrence of what caused me to get constant injuries a couple of years ago had reared its head again. I need not have worried as the more the run progressed the better my hip/glutes felt, my only issue was that I set a new record for the number of pit stops Three. The other indicator as you can gather is an inflamed bowel which lets go pretty quickly when I run. Luckily there are plenty of hiding places from the grizzly's in Portumna. Had a good day and some craic/chat and banter along the way. Looking forward to running more of these next year. The other reason I ran Portumna is I am contemplating racing the 50K next June. My only other race there before was a disastrous Boston Qualifier attempt. While the course is perceived to be relatively flat it is tough and I found there is two short unnoticeable climbs that can zap the legs over 10 laps with a turnaround it probably not an ideal 50K course, however it does fit my time scale. Not going to make a final decision until maybe February.

Health and Fitness

While my fitness is at its best level in my life my health has taken a dip. A recurrence of Bowel Inflammation had me at the Doctor on Christmas Eve. The last occurrence several years was successfully treated with NSAIDs and a GP who would listen. I asked her to check my Vitamin D levels, which came back extremely low. After treating this the Inflammation cleared without having to resort to the use of steroids. Unfortunately she wasn't available on the day and Fill in Doctor just wanted to script me an 8 week course of Steroids. The Vitamin D test takes a month to come back anyway was his response. I tried to explain that I would prefer to try the NSAIDS first as before and Steroid's would have the side effect of not been able to recover sufficiently from running leading to other complications. He said well then don't run. Doctors differ patients die. I told him I would wait until my regular GP came back and not to bother filling the script. I don't think he was to impressed with me.