Eddie Murphy 2013

Clon comes to Clare

Myself and Paul wanted to run the Eddie Murphy on Sunday so we were duly handed the responsibility of looking after the Directors Run on Saturday. After a few doubts whether we would have enough to run the marathon race we eventually had Thirteen starters as well as Seven from the club in the half. Looking at the lineup for the start it appears a certain Mr Hillard must have been giving out free tech tops again. I thought we had travelled forward in time by three weeks and were actually in Clonakilty judging by the attire most runners had on. There was however one proud 10 in 10 finisher top on display. The rest of the day was looking after our small group with water, jaffas and support. The other job was counting laps, which just drove me scatty and thank god we were going to have chip timing tomorrow. There was a brief discussion afterward about tomorrow pending runs, my contribution was along the lines that if I was ever to do an ultra which I didn't see happening any time soon, I would go the whole hog and do a 100 Mile race. Famous last words.

Less than 100 but over 26.2

After about three hours sleep due to a gig the night before,  I have a small Breakfast and make my way to Sixmilebridge.In the darkness there are only a few lonely souls setting up the course for the day and registering the brave Double Marathon Runners. I have an early start so that I would be available for giving a hand later. Its not long before we start and there are about nine of us doing the marathon with the Double Marathon runners. During the week I had one very good session where I did 13 miles @ 8:30 pace and felt really strong but then I followed that up with a five miler and 9:30 pace my legs where like lead weights. I decided the plan was to go at 9:30 or 4:10 pace. Well best laid plans. First lap was just over nine minutes so I took it easier on the next lap or so I tought same again a little over nine minutes. This went on for several laps so I finally conceded that this seemed to be the most comfortable pace for me. The miles laps moved along very quickly as they always do in this race. The thing I like and many others like about the one mile loop is you are always passing or been passed by someone. Even though I at no stage ran with anyone it never felt lonely. Got to mile 19/20 and I just felt like I was only after starting the run, it was then that a mad idea entered my head. I suddenly realised that no one from the club was running the 30 miler or the Double Marathon. Well you can't host a run in Eddie Murphy's memory and have no club member at least have a go at an Ultra. I was going so well at this point that I decided there and then to do another four miles and go for it. I let Richie and John on the clock know what I was doing and off I went with a new plan. Cross the marathon in sub 4 and run on feel after that for another four laps. Finished the marathon in 3:58:09 and set off again, laps 27 & 28 were indeed a new experience. At the start I asked Jim McNiece why he had a selection of shoes in his box. His answer was dry feet make comfortable feet. I now knew what he meant, at the start of lap 27 my feet were sliding around in a pair of shoes that were soaked through at this stage. I tried some running repairs but it didn't really sort it out. Luckily I remembered on the next lap I had a dry pair in the car which was parked near the start. New dry shoes I set about upping the pace for the last two laps. On the last lap going as hard as I can the 30 mile leaders cruise past me, my one bad moment of the day was here, Thoms greets me and I bitch about how easily he just passed me and I was flat to the boards. Anyway finished in 4:33:35. Another great thing about this race is you get a split for every mile, the results showed two very positive things to me. My first 25 miles had 5 mile splits of 45:30,45:17,45:28,45:27,45:27 which showed that I consistently knocked out sub Four hour marathon pace for most of the race. My last five mile split was 44:26 but that was because of the shoe pitstop and knocking out mile 29 and 30 in 8:03 and 7:51 respectfully. Putting in those times on that course after 28 miles has really given me the confidence to kick on and get a sub 3:25 next year for Boston.

The Aftermath

My day didn't finish there, spent the rest of the day doing a mixture of tasks. Surprisingly I was able to move with some degree of efficiency and was able to contribute to the proceedings just as things started to get busy with Half Marathon runners starting to register. The banter was good and some new faces were adding their own mark to the race. Some even managed to render our MC speechless for a while, which was the greatest achievement of the day. From a racing point of view the Half Marathon was the race to produce this year with the front three been pretty close throughout and it was only decided on the last lap. The day flew by, the weather obliged slightly and it wasnt long until all that was left was the few lonely souls doing the cleanup and putting the village back together in the darkness and rain.

Sixmilebridge would wake up on Monday morning as if nothing at all had changed, but those of us who were there on Sunday experienced something unique and have a special piece of Tipperary Bling to show for our efforts

The Big One

Pacer Stand/Expo

Picking up numbers at the expo was extremely efficient so hats off to all the volunteers  Pacer stand was mayhem not really helped by its size or location. Really busy handing out pace bands, explaining the role of pacers etc. It still really surprises me how some people can have goal times in their head the day before a race that differs by 30 or more minutes.

Post Race Knees up

Not really what's on the horizon for the other 14,600 runners, but the pacer meal was a great social event. Meet up with many old friends and even some new ones. The sport at our table was especially good when you have two corkonians trading punches across the table. We retired to the lounge where we finished off the vino. There were suggestions of a trip to the residents bar but that idea didn't float so we all got to bed at a civilised hour and everyone was ready for the job ahead tomorrow.

The race

As I had no salt tablets my plan was to eat a good auld Full Irish for Breakfast, unfortunately I had to make do with the more carb/healthy option as the fry did not materialise until after Seven. I did however seek out a banana or two for my mid run snack. I was really surprised that the backpacks which held the pacer flags/sails were quite lightweight and easy to secure. At first fitting they came across the nipple area but a little adjustment moved them away. Large quantities of vaseline applied to prevent chaffing and down to the lobby to meet up with the others. We set off at a little before Eight for the start for a quick photo shot and dropped off my bag with towel and dry top for the finish. Weather was a bit nippy at this point but at least it was dry. We took up our positions at the start and slowly but surely a large enough group started to assemble around us. Plenty of questions about pace and other things, loads of banter. Tom even had to show one runner how to operate her Garmin. At 9:20 we got the off, for some reason my GPS watch failed to pick up a satellite  so it ended up been a dumb stopwatch for the day. No worries as I had a foot-pod polar as backup and two other able bodies with me in the shape of Tom and Dipak. Turns out we had well in excess of 200 marathons ran between us and as my tally only accounted for Ten so I and our pacees were in safe hands.
The first few miles we found that the mile markers were a little longer so we ended up been down about 30 seconds  Once we got into the park we were back on target though. Certain ladies in the group who had difficulties in the bladder department found that there was queues at the first set portaloos we met at mile Three. My suggestion of what they should do did not go down too well, it certainly got a reaction from some of the ladies.  At this stage we had got to know some of our group, there was a good gang with us from West Waterford AC and 4-5 ladies from Dunleer running for Team Carrie of whom some had made an early request for a fag break, turns out they were still 20 a day smokers. There was even one lady looking for a date for some social event or another around mile 8. I will not forget the lady from New Zealand who took a shine to me especially in the finish area. Once we left the park things start to get that little bit harder for those around us as we hit the climbs around Inchicore, South Circular Road and the Crumlin Road. We hit half-way with 2:24:46 on the watches very much on target. Over the next few miles it was pretty difficult to keep the pace as it was downhill and with a tail wind. The time gained allowed us to give back some time on the climb out of Miltown and Roebuck Hill itself. It was just a matter of getting people up the two climbs without stopping. Once that was done most of the group still with us where with us till the end. We picked up other runners dropping back from the 4:40 pacers, who we just kept encouraging them to get a move on and start running with us. At Grand Canal Street we told the fresher runners around us to hit for home. From here to the finish we pretty much hit every mile on time but the congestion on Mile 25 cost us about 20 Seconds so we just had to pick it up a bit around Trinity College  Great support around the finish and three of the West Waterford Girls and the smokers from Dunleer were still there with us at the end as we crossed the line.

The aftermath

Walked back to the hotel with Tom for a quick shower, and then to McGrattan's for the usual post race recovery drink, pints of the Black Stuff. Meet up with some fellow pacers  and boardies, but as per usual at the end of the night putting names to handles was a bit beyond me. A great buzz about as Orna not only broke but destroyed sub 3 hour to finish 9th Lady. It showed with a lot of work it can be done, I was really delighted for her as were many others. The photo call with an ex RTE newsreader was probably the best bit of fun for the night. Rolled back to the hotel slightly after midnight happy in the knowledge that another one done. Following morning was a different matter, could not talk and had the usual post marathon pains, one especially in the head but as herself says self inflicted so just get on with it.

Better Every Day

Running up that Hill

Had Not been to club training in quite a while so decided I had better show my face. Thursday nights is Interval/Speed workouts so I have decided to do as many sessions as possible between now and Dublin. So where does a club with no track run its 400/800 intervals ? You got it up heartbreak hill. Last week also saw the added benefit of some typical Sixmilebridge Whether  We were treated to a typical torrential downpour. By the time Eddie Murphy comes round I will either be sick to death with it or maybe I might not even notice it's there.

WOI Galway

An unplanned excursion mainly due to Man Flu saw me line up at the start of the WOI Marathon in Galway. I only decided to run it 3 days prior so the plan was to take this extremely easy and do some miles at the pace I will be pacing Dublin at. Meet up with the usual MCI heads before hand where we witnessed the warm up routine that the 10K runners were vigorously going through. It was quite intense, not what I would call a gentle warm-up by any stretch, some people were actually pretty spent after it. We started with the 10K runners for the first loop and settled in to a group of three Myself, Caroline and Paul at about 9:30 pace. Caroline was saying this was her fourth marathon, it was only later that we realised she also ran the 24 hour in Belfast and the 50 mile in Dingle so it kinda but this my 10th Marathon back into its box. We pretty much kept this pace for the first half and I will admit that when I got to 14 miles I was happy to doing the next 7 miles at 11 minute pace. The heat and humidity where really knocking the stuffing out of me and I let Caroline go on at this point. Ran a bit with Gerard Fay and a few more so its great to be able to have a brief chat with people to pass the miles away. Got to mile 21 and had promised myself a Ice Cream cone so on the last Lap I got one, I must have looked a sight jogging up the prom in Salthill like a big child with his face covered in Ice-Cream. Ran a few miles with Valerie who kinda half convinced me to run in Craughwell in December  With 5K to go I decided to pick up the pace but after about a mile my legs started to cramp a small bit so I eased into a run walk for the last 2-3 km. Interval sessions on the Thursday prior probably didn't help me here. Overall considering I have been sick for the previous 2-3 weeks and the heat of the day 4:21 was a decent enough result.

Recovery

The same as my previous Marathon. A dip in the sea afterwards followed by watching Clare in the hurling followed by several pints of the black stuff. This time I managed to find my way home. I am still unsure why this works because I was not sore the next day and was back running on Monday Evening. I had left the decision to Pace the Human Race in Limerick until Monday so when the boss rang I was able to give him a positive answer. I declined the chance to pace 4 hours as I felt that it was a little outside my comfort zone for 30K and left whether I did 4:15 or 4:30 up to him. This was a more appealing option then racing 6K Cross Country trying not to finish last.

The Human Race

First running of this event and I can say that the experience was a good one. The whole event was ran very well, plenty of Marshals, Water and KM markers spot on. With these things in place it is very easy to pace or race such an event. The combination of Dooneen AC and the Management of GLR was a good one and they should take credit where its due. Hopefully this race will stay on the Calendar for next year.

courtesy of Munster Images

I had a smalish group and there was some confusion at the start with the half marathon runners a bit bemused that there was no 2 hour pacer. Maybe something to look into for next year and possibly start the 3 races separately rather than the 30K and Half both starting together. Had an initial group of 8-10 runners and most seemed to be going at a comfortable enough pace. Three ladies took off shortly after 3-4 K. I would catch two of them on the last lap but both where able to stay in touch and pass me again in the last KM. Again I lost my balloon when it got ensnared on the bridge just coming up to the end of the first lap. This kinda leaves you anonymous for the race but luckily I had an idea of the faces that started with me and the group was still pretty much intact.
After 15K we lost 2 out the back and 3 pulled away ahead not to be seen again. This left me and Mike who was actually going easier than I was, without my balloon it was hard to tell which one of us was the pacer. I had a quick toilet break but was back with the group again within 1K, it was good to stretch the legs out a bit. Caught up with some of the stragglers who were starting to suffer. One girl who was pretty much going at marathon pace was telling me she did 20 the previous week and had planned 22 next week. Dublin was to be her first so I told her that 22 miles next week would just be too much for her that close to the race, I really hope she takes my advice on board. Meet with Rebecca who had been with me in Limerick and Killarney where she got a Sub 2 hour on both days. She struggled over the last 5K but stuck with it even though I dropped her in the last 2K she had started far enough behind me to make the time on her chip. Came home in 3:01:15 3 secs under pace, and pretty much all that started with me that went ahead or where still there after 15K got home with the time they were aiming for.
The combination of the last two weeks races have giving me my first 50 mile weeks in over two years with thankfully no ill effects afterwards.  With this in mind I will easy back this week and keep myself intact for Dublin.