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.