Dublin City Marathon 2009 – Under my belt!
I was shooting for a 4hour finish in the Dublin City Marathon on Monday, but I somehow managed to do better than that… I completed it in 3.44 – not bad at all for my first Marathon!
It was the most amazing experience ever and I enjoyed every single millisecond of it.
It was a lot easier than I was anticipating actually and that surprised me. I didn’t get hung up on mileage, I just knew I had to sustain a decent pace for about 4 hours and I focussed on that. The weather was perfect; sun shining down for the duration of it, yet it was crisp enough that you didn’t overheat. I felt like a wild monkey at times because children were feeding me jellies from the sidelines on little plates. When I ran past them, I grabbed such handfuls that their plates toppled and the remainder of their jellies fell onto the ground, as I stomped away stuffing them in my mouth… the people standing at the sidelines cheering us all on really makes the world of difference. I found I ran faster in the designated cheering zones than anywhere else and it’s cuz they were shouting encouraging things and making us feel good about ourselves. Encouragement does wonderful things for the psyche begorrah…
Whilst I was limping to the airport like an old woman, I got an email from my friend Tom, who informed me that I might qualify for automatic entry to the London Marathon, based on my time, sex and age. Without further ado, I looked into it and it looks like I just might… The cut off time was 3.45 and I did it in 3.44 and 54 seconds. If I finished another 6 seconds later I wouldn’t qualify! I then remembered the point where I was running through a cheering zone and I got an almerciful burst of energy; with 2.2 miles to go, I just started sprinting like a madwoman thinking I could sustain that until the end. I heard people say “Jeeze yer wan is flying it!” ha! I managed to keep it up for 2 minutes and then I went back to my usual pace, feeling a bit wobbly. I think if I didn’t do that then, I would have come in later than 3.45
I am confused about one thing though and that’s the times. Mine are as follows:
My results
I started my own watch timer as I crossed the black mat (the official starting point). When I finished, my watch said: 3.43, the Marathon Timer Clock said 3.47.
The race website said my finish time was 3.44 and my chip time was 3.47. Surely they have the chip time and the finish time mixed up, do they? How could your chip time be higher than your finish time? I can’t get my head ’round it at all…
Anyway, well done to all of you who ran…
Injury feels as though it’s healing…
For those of you out there who have no interest in running, you’re probably finding my blogs very boring lately… maybe you have always found them boring and you’re just humouring me by reading them… who knows. I will continue typing anyway…
I just wanted to share my hope with you y’see.
My newfound hope that I may be running again soon! My shin splints (self diagnosed with the help of google) seems to be healing. I am lucky in the sense that the shin splints were like a delayed effect and came on the day after a run. So I have never actually been running with the injury or through the injury as I know some people do. I haven’t ran since the injury, allowing it the time to heal. It was hard not to, but I had to keep reminding myself to listen to my body. I had to summon up the physiotherapist in me and adhere to the advice. Now if this persists, I am going to have to visit a physio but I am going to see if it will heal by itself first.
I did go to the gym and did 40 minutes on that elliptical trainer thing I spoke about in a previous blog. I also did my usual 17 mile cycle and did the ‘climbing stairs machine’ in the gym also, all of which didn’t aggravate my injury. The only thing that seems to aggravate it is the motion of walking and the contact my foot has with the ground, so running is out of the question. Walking is being introduced gradually and today it feels a lot stronger.
When I did my running plan, I added in an extra two weeks in the event of injury or say, if I got swine flu or something that would prevent me from running. So, I do have up to two weeks to rest without jeopardizing my training.
If it heals, I will start running again on grass or preferably sand. I am off to Galway tomorrow for a couple of months. I am sure there will be a beach there I can run on that will lessen the impact.
It’s funny but when you have been enjoying doing something for a long time, like running and it suddenly becomes a forbidden activity, you start to become a little obsessive about it. I find myself rubbernecking when joggers pass me by and then filling up with envy.
I have got to get back out there soon and I have got to run in the Dublin City Marathon.
Fingers and toes and shin splints crossed.
Marathon Training Update – Shin Splints
I’m doing my absolute nut these days…
I’ve been doing great with my training and for the last ten weeks I’ve been slowly building to my peak which was a sixteen mile run on Thursday. I did it in good time so was in great spirits altogether.
The run itself was hard work definitely and I felt where my weaknesses were by the end of it. It was the first run in my training programme that actually had me aching after it. I was also aware of the need to be more toned up and well compacted in the abs/core area and made a pact with myself to really strengthen up in that respect.
Then on Sunday, I did a four-miler on the treadmill to give my joints a rest from the concrete. I like to combine the two, keeping the treadmill for short runs and while doing so, try and push myself a bit on time. Anyway, On Monday I woke up to my worst nightmare… the dreaded shin splints. Now I don’t know if it is shin splints, I kinda diagnosed myself.
Shin Splints cover a range of different injuries in and around the shin bone and the surrounding muscles. From my google self diagnosis, I know the pain is in my Tibial anterior muscle:
The most painful bit is that part that kinda narrows down as it reaches the ankle. I can’t walk on it for long without it becoming painful. The part where I have to lift my foot up to take another step is the tricky bit and then my foot sort of stomps down. Banjaxed.
I can cycle fine, though I had the misfortune of getting a puncture on my way to work and had to walk with the shin splints and my punctured bike for about two miles. We were like a double act, the bike and me and I was in agony by the time I got to work. I haven’t run since Sunday and it is killing me to abstain. I can’t figure out which is worse, the actual injury or having to stop training.
If it persists, I am hoping to see a physio. I am going to the gym this evening to do some leg presses and use that elliptical trainer thingy and see if I can do some strengthening exercises:
(That’s not me on it by the way! ha! no, I haven’t changed race)
I really hope this is a short term thing and that I can get back into training soon…
I invented something AMAZING in my dream!
God, I’m a genius. I actually INVENTED something really amazing in my dream last night.
I hope it’s not one of those things that I am the only one who thinks it’s amazing… and then when I tell someone, they think it’s not only weird but really stupid.
Let me tell you it anyway and you can tell me what you think… I was going to patent the idea and bring it to the Dragons Den, but it would cost me a fortune in concrete to actually make it.
Here it is anyway, in a nut shell.
It all came from my subconscious genius-of-a-mind don’t forget…
It’s going to be really hard now to translate it into words as I just saw images of it in my dream…
Right, so… em…
Ok…
Well basically it’s made from concrete. If that’s not feasible, then fake concrete may suffice and may be the better choice for emergency reasons (this will make sense later).
Right, what you do is, build a MASSIVE block of concrete, like about the size of a twelve story apartment block. There is only one entrance and one exit to the concrete mass and in between is a kind of maze, similar to that of an ant farm…
But should be as complicated as this:
The narrow burrows should only fit one human being with enough space to maybe scratch themselves if needs be. The burrow should not be wide enough for them to be able to give up and turn around and pull themselves back out. The reason being, that once you enter, there is no wimping out. This teaches the individual the all important lesson of sticking to an important decision… a lesson in strength of mind.
Method of travelling through the burrow is by pulling your body, worm like through the maze. Elbow pads would be supplied free of charge to anyone willing to partake. Tunnels may be fitted with a sort of mechanism that doesn’t allow you to go backwards even if you tried.
Some tunnels/burrows may lead to a dead end; where this is the case, the tunnel would not have the mechanisms that prevent you from turning back (otherwise I’d be done for manslaughter). The idea behind these traps are again, for building up strength of mind and for teaching people to relax and focus under extreme pressure.
I think that these human concrete ant-hill mazes would be great in amusement parks or maybe army training camps or even boot camps for delinquent adolescents.
If someone does have a heart-attack in the middle of the concrete maze, there is an emergency procedure whereby the building can be pulled out in four parts and the person can be plucked from the maze and treated.
Under no circumstances is the person allowed to be removed from the maze however. They must continue on after receiving medical assistance.
These human concrete ant-hill mazes can be a wonderful way to raise money for charity. People would be sponsored to partake in it and spectators could come and watch the concrete while they are inside trying to get out.
There could be an opportunity for further developments to the idea in so far as, the outside could be fitted with glass whereby the spectator could see the individual struggling within but the individual could not see out.
For even more fun, you could add another element. If the person doesn’t make it out by 5pm, then they get locked in the maze overnight! The exit would be bolted shut like….
So what do you think then?
They look interested to me!!!
YES!
I ran 10 miles today…
Woke up at the absolute crack a dawn today to do a 10 mile run.
I like to go for my long distant runs as soon as I hop out of bed (after a decent stretch). If I hang around any longer, then I run the risk of getting hungry and I’ve never been able to handle being hungry; I always get really shaky and weak.
I’ve become kinda neurotic with the eating and running thing actually… It’s just that I am very prone to getting stitches so I have to wait about 4 to 5 hours after eating, otherwise I am crippled. The less food I have in my belly, the more enjoyable the run… But, this means that at the beginning of a run, I am borderline hungry. It’s a thin line.
Running first thing in the morning is perfect cuz I have nothing in my belly and the run always feels more comfortable. I swear, when I get going I feel like a panther or something! I am now doing longer runs in the build up to the marathon, so lately, my stomach starts rumbling mid way through and this has been making me feel a bit nervous. Well, I have recently discovered the solution to this neurosis… and it comes in the form of these energy gel packs…
They’re just the job. You eat them while you’re running. They keep the edge off the hunger and they’re light enough on my stomach that I don’t get a stitch. The whole thing could be psychological, but I know I’m alright if I have my little gel pack with me.
The run was good today but not great. In the first half an hour, I got a few stones in my shoe. I was too stubborn to stop and take them out. There were about four small ones in my left shoe all rolling about and then embedding themselves in various locations on my foot before moving off again. They niggled at me for most of the run.
Anyway, me and the stones did the run in 1 hour and 35 mins.
That wasn’t too bad. If I keep up that pace then maybe I can run the marathon in 4 hours. That goal is beginning to surface now despite promising myself I wouldn’t set a time goal for the marathon. I told myself I would be happy just to run the 26.2 miles.
I don’t want to go over the 4 hours though.
I will be happy running it in 4 hours or under…
Winning brekkie this morning!
Woke up for a 9am run.
5 miles.
Was hungry after it.
Ate this:
The egg was a bit over-done.
Over the years I have come to be a bit funny with my eggs. They have to be free range and they have to come from happy hens. I used to like them sunny side up but now I have them ‘over easy’. I used to like to see the yolk gush out when you slice through it with a knife, but now i don’t. I like it very soft and gooey in the middle but it mustn’t spill out all over the plate. The yolk mustn’t run past the circumference of the white part of the egg. It mustn’t have that kind of film of see-through goo over the yolk either. That turns me off.
As a result of my fussiness, I never have fried eggs in a restaurant. If I did, I would have to go in and cook it myself and chefs don’t really like people doing that kind of thing.
It was a winning brekkie all the same.
