1st marathon report - Dublin
valentine4
Posts: 233 Member
Hi all, sorry if I ramble, just so excited and exhausted, I had to post firstly to thank you all for the advice and support over the past year.
So I did it! Dublin city marathon, took the advice here on board and kept it a steady 10.30, looking over the splits which I will post tomorrow you can see where I speeded up and went below 10 at 16 miles only to really struggle at 8/ 19. From there on it I went up to about 11.30 doing a combo of walking/ jogging. I spent ages behind the 4.40 pacer having passed the 5 hr guys ( I missed the start of the race queuing for the loos) ended up crossing the line at 4.46, but they still gave me a medal
As someone here once said it is the best way to see a city, we passed the Guiness factory, Uras on Uchtarian - our presidents home in Phoneix park, kilmainham gaol, plus places that would be sentimental value to us as a family - the crumlin which is the national childrens hospital where our eldest fella has been attending for years. Plus lots of international visitors runners too which was great craic.
It was exhausting and emotional, but so well worth it, I got great support from my running club, 22 of us in total doing it plenty in the 3 - 4 hr range, one lady doing her 300 marathon! Even before we finished I was thinking I want to train and next year really go for it. This year was all about getting over the line, and I did!!!!! woo hoo!
Highlight of the race was definitely at the very end, the atmosphere was electric with thousands of people lining the street, once I saw the end in sight I started to get teary which isn't like me normally I'm all smiles but I was joined by my three youngest kids ( eldest fella stayed at home) it was just amazing running across the line with them. Of course they are already rolling their eyes at me going on about their marathon mammy lol but an amazing experience.
Again thank you all for the amazing support and advice,
regards,
Valentine
p.s. hopefully I will get some pics of the 4 of us finishing if so will get them up here.
So I did it! Dublin city marathon, took the advice here on board and kept it a steady 10.30, looking over the splits which I will post tomorrow you can see where I speeded up and went below 10 at 16 miles only to really struggle at 8/ 19. From there on it I went up to about 11.30 doing a combo of walking/ jogging. I spent ages behind the 4.40 pacer having passed the 5 hr guys ( I missed the start of the race queuing for the loos) ended up crossing the line at 4.46, but they still gave me a medal
As someone here once said it is the best way to see a city, we passed the Guiness factory, Uras on Uchtarian - our presidents home in Phoneix park, kilmainham gaol, plus places that would be sentimental value to us as a family - the crumlin which is the national childrens hospital where our eldest fella has been attending for years. Plus lots of international visitors runners too which was great craic.
It was exhausting and emotional, but so well worth it, I got great support from my running club, 22 of us in total doing it plenty in the 3 - 4 hr range, one lady doing her 300 marathon! Even before we finished I was thinking I want to train and next year really go for it. This year was all about getting over the line, and I did!!!!! woo hoo!
Highlight of the race was definitely at the very end, the atmosphere was electric with thousands of people lining the street, once I saw the end in sight I started to get teary which isn't like me normally I'm all smiles but I was joined by my three youngest kids ( eldest fella stayed at home) it was just amazing running across the line with them. Of course they are already rolling their eyes at me going on about their marathon mammy lol but an amazing experience.
Again thank you all for the amazing support and advice,
regards,
Valentine
p.s. hopefully I will get some pics of the 4 of us finishing if so will get them up here.
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Replies
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Way to go! great job!0
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Good report Do you see more in the future? 0
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Great report! Glad it went well for you and welcome to a new group of marathon completers.0
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Yay! Glad you had a solid race!!0
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Awesome! Congratulations!0
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thanks all, yep hopefully see more in the future. Going to get the miles in over the winter and then hopefully do a trail one next year, though once a year will definately be the max! I'm sitting at my desk in work right now and feel like I've been hit by a truck lol. Well worth it though0
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Congrats! Awesome job and glad to see you are already thinking of a second 0
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Fantastic! Great job.0
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Inspirational. It's nice to follow your story here from pre-race jitters to success.0
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Well done that's brilliant. you make it sound so good, maybe I'll have to pop over from N Wales and have a go at making Dublin my first Marathon.0
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Fantastic! Congrats on a great job!0
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Congrats! What a great achievement! 300 marathons...??? Unbelievable! Are you sure it wasn't 30? Anyhow, thanks for your report, very encouraging!
Best wishes
Stef.0 -
Congrats!0
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thanks all def recommend it as a first marathon, there were lots of interesting folks - my neighbour her name is colette o' hagan she ran did her first one 23 years ago and yes that was her 300th - they even did gave her a special race number and a lovely presentation. Then we had team carrie which is a team from a village close by - basically this guy who always ran marathons found eventually he was no longer p'r ing, he set up team carrie which is basically a running club which trains together and gets everyone over the line. The stats are mad! he had 150 people last year, he doesn't cross the line till the last of his team does.
-Then there was the Hughes family - they broke a guiness world record for the most family members doing a marathon think it was over 30 and another man who had travelled the world doing a crazy amount of marathons this was his last I think he was at 1200! my fb friends will have seen a lone pic of me out on the course with a very colourful local character - he stopped at mile 25 for a pint and a *kitten* before finishing So definately all sorts of people, I feel extremely lucky to have been able to run with and behind them ( mostly behind them) hopefully I will get to do so again in the future. I'm going out for dinner now, it is ok to wear my medal isn't it? lol 0 -
You also had marathonmanuk there. He has run a marathon every day since London back in April. He ran at Leicester (where I ran) the day before Dublin.
His goal is something like 367 in a calendar year.
Imagine doing a marathon each morning before going to work!0 -
Unbelievable 367 in a year...would love to see an MRI of his knees at the end.0
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I did actually end up wearing my medal lol but only messing, that man is amazing I don't know how he does it.
If you are interested the link to a very lighted account of the Dublin marathon is below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baNoDngH38c
if it doesn't work just youtube dublin city marathon 2014 is the third one down two guys in orange vests. Dead funny with a blink and you miss it cameo from yours truly at mile 18 or so.0
