Rotterdam Marathon

The Rotterdam marathon is over and all the training is long since forgotten. I'm on my post-marathon meltdown now which means I'm tired, grumpy and permamently hungry. But I'm jumping too far ahead now. I did a race report over at Team Geared Up which you can read over there or else here it is:

Marathons are scary events. Only a couple of people in the race are out to win and the thousands of others just want to do their best, whether that means just finishing or getting a Personal Best. Failure is so scary.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement but I’ve been worse, standing on marathon start lines. I got a Race number that allowed me almost right up at the start banner, so I waited till less than ten minutes before start time to get into my place. Looking around me was scary.

Once we were off I felt like I was moving quite fast. I hadn’t a clue how fast though because my heart rate went through the roof and I missed the first few kilometre markers so I just hoped it wasn’t slow!! I tried to relax and get my heart rate to settle but it wouldn’t so I chose to ignore the readings of between 185 and 190. When my foot hit the mat at 10k in 40 minutes I realised I was well inside the 3 hour mark (shock!) and decided at that exact moment that I wasn’t gonna let that go without a huge fight. I was thinking I was moving at too fast a pass to sustain for too long, but what the hell, let’s just go for it and hang on and I thought if I let it slip a little later on I could still break 3. And so I continued, despite hitting low points at 16k (feeling sick for a minute) I just pushed and pushed. It was killing me to be moving that fast while thinking I still had a long way to go. So I took a gel and as JackieO said to me “put your head down and dig in”.

I hit the half way mark at 1:27:42 so was still moving quickly enough. Finding things to focus my brain on was difficult. At 27k we came right back into the city but by 30k we were back out into a really quiet park which felt like a real lull after the buzz of the city. It was hard to push on at this stage. But I actually caught a glimpse of the leaders on the opposite side of the road who were at the 40k mark and thought, what a lift, to see them racing this close!

At 35k I was over a minute inside the 3 hour pace but the pain in my calves was increasing. I had worn super flat racing shoes and I suppose this was the price I paid for wearing light trainers. So from this point on it was head down, push hard through the ever increasing pain. But I knew the pain of being just outside 3 hours would be a pain I might have forever if I didn’t go for it! I can’t even describe what happened in the finishing straight. I couldn’t see the clock properly, but I could see metre markers counting down the last couple of hundred metres. I could hear the crowd do the countdown till the clock hit 3 and just as my foot landed on the mat the clock hit 3 hours exactly (and my heart rate hit 199). I couldn’t believe it. It took a couple of hours to get my chip time of 2:59:58, giving me a placing of 28th woman and 341 overall. Running buddy Bronagh had a PB of 3:20 and new friend Anthony ran his first marathon in 4:25.

During my marathon preparation Nige had said I could go sub 3. I didn’t believe it really, I imagined even as I stood on the line I would finish at about 3:03. I wrote before about how Nige was helping me but I didn’t imagine the help would ever get me this far. Training under pressure (with the heart monitor) made racing under pressure much easier, he said I would suffer so suffering during the race became normal, not something I should be scared of. (Normally you slow down when you’re suffering). His two words Push Hard became a mantra during the whole race and I couldn’t let it go. To run well I believe you also need a good club and a good coach. You need people to push you, to believe in you and they act like a support group. I sound like I’m doing an Oscars speech but I really have to thank my coach and brother Eugene for support and encouragement and his wife Gina who looked after my legs!

End of TGU post.
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I really didn't think I would do it. A sub 3 hour marathon is one of those elusive things I thought I might spend the next few years chasing and never achieve. My previous best was 3:13 in Chicago. If it hadn't been for TGU and the help of Nige I think it would be an entirely different marathon story I'd be telling right now and it wouldn't have a "2" in it.

Lessons from Nature

Every day this week has been a day of two halves; gorgeous weather in the morning (when I'm running!) and miserable, cold, wet weather in the afternoon and evening. It's natures way of telling us to get up early....

Taper madness..

Last long run done for Rotterdam. Woohooo! Bring on the taper!! (You'd swear I didn't love runnning.......) ;-)

Cute chicks

Pressure...

In the spirit of trying to kill time with the kids off school, we've been baking cakes (simnel cake, apparently a traditional Easter cake), shopping for Easter clothes and been to see Horton Hears a Who. Loved it! That Dr. Seuss rhyming stuff is just so clever!

Thanks God they have Easter Camp at their school next week or I'd be driven mental. The days are way too long otherwise.

Three weeks to go till the Rotterdam marathon. At this stage I want it over and done with, it can't happen quick enough. I've done more long runs and trained harder than ever before. I've done lots of marathons but this is meant to be my fast one, so for the first time ever I'll be trying to put myself under some pressure. I'm probably putting myself under pressure just writing this down.....

Training....

I had a look on paper at what I'd been doing lately, training wise, and it looks like a lot when written down. I've probably not taken enough complete rest days recently. I think checking back over my training diary it has only been the last couple of weeks that were too much. Like instead of rest days I would swim or go to the gym or cycle, thinking they don't count as much because I'm not running. I suppose people who know me would say I never miss out on a training session, but for a few months I've been adding in other elements like the gym and not easing up on the running at all. It hasn't showed much in my long runs but when I run with other people or race I've noticed I'm not running as well.

This is all of my own doing. It's not part of any training plan by anybody but me. But really I think I just need a few "easy" days. With the kids being off school this week it'll probably mean an enforced easy week anyway.

I'm probably making much more of this than it actually is. I think that's because you always end up on a bit of a downer when running's not going as well as usual. I'll probably wake up tomorrow and wonder what I was on about...

Friday....

It's been a little crazy, lots happening with the kids; stressful things that take up lots of your thoughts. At least running gets me out on my own and clears the head. Training's going fine, doing tonnes of running/ swimming/ lifting weights but feeling tired mostly. I think I'm at the stage I always reach in every marathon training where I just wanna get the damn thing over with. I've done the training already, let's "bring it on". But of course I have another month to go. I always, at this stage, say things like "I want this training/ marathon over with and I want my life back" and then as soon as it is actually over, I go and enter the next one.

We had our annual family weekend away last week in Ballinasloe (by family I mean my siblings, I'm the youngest of 12). In order to get my long run out of the way I got Tony to turf me outta the car 20 miles from Ballinasloe (before Athlone) and I ran the rest of the way. It meant the weekend could be more enjoyable. It also meant I had 20 miles facing into a headwind (and sleet and snow and hail showers but that's the west for ya!)

Since I blogged last I've been to the blog awards, great fun! Met loads of people. Really enjoyed it! All I wanted was a photo in the TGU t-shirt and here it is.

Kids are now off for two weeks which will drive me mental cos I won't have the freedom to zip off to the gym each morning so there'll have to be a couple of days when I get up at 6am and go then. Just to keep me sane. My training plans for the year are possibly changing but more about that later.....

Happy Friday and St. Patrick's Weekend

Training and blogging...

I haven't felt much like blogging here lately. I don't want to write about the kids because this blog's not anonymous and because the kids are fostered there are other privacy issues I suppose.
I'm still training extra hard to build muscle, that's what I was told to do after the physiological tests. I average 3 to 4 days per week in the gym and that's including a little bit of swimming (plus all the running!). If I didn't have to breath the swimming would be going eh....well swimmingly. I'm trying to keep injury at bay by getting regular massage which is painful but I keep telling myself it has to be good for me!

Met some more of the 4nine£ gang last Saturday in Jo's house. Great night, I haven't laughed so much in ages. Great to put some faces to the names especially Jo's little girl!

This weekend I'm doing the Women's Cycling Event in Blessington. Never having even sat on a road bike I hope I don't get left behind....

Blog stuff

I'm taking it easy today. It's one of those days when I'm not able to run, go to the gym and none of my friends are available for coffee. So I have a morning at home, blogging (over at TGU and 4nines).

I've signed up to be a judge at the blog awards, thanks to Damien, Midget Wrangler and Someone Living for the prompt. I know I don't blog that much myself but I read lots of 'em and thought it would be fun to get involved.

Training is underway for Rotterdam Marathon. Well one long run down anyway. The reason I can't excercise today is because I'm having some physiological tests done in Trinity tomorrow and you're supposed to be rested for those. I've heard words like "you run till you drop" so I'm suitably worried. There's needles and blood tests involved too apparently. I'm told that what I'll get from the tests will be that "the heart monitor will become my best friend". I've never been a runner who used a heart monitor. When I race I just run as hard as I can and when I train I just jog. So it will be interesting to see if the heart monitor changes any of that. If I improve then that will be a bonus.

Since I last posted, in our household, there has been 4 birthdays, a Christmas, a New Year and a trip to Disneyland Paris. All has gone well so can't complain. Well aside from the stomach bugs and colds.....and that was just me.
So the focus now is on the Rotterdam marathon in April. I have to knuckle down now to some serious training and stop eating so much rubbish (which is compulsory at Christmas). Im back in the Gym regularly and took my first swimming lesson today. I swim like a person who's panicking. Panicking or drowning. Each time I put my head in the water I flail around like a complete lunatic. I thought swimming was a graceful sport, all muscles and smooth moves. Not in my case obviously.
I'll miss my second lesson as I'm off to France on Friday for our annual trip to the Snow Race. I'll be blogging next week about waste deep snow during the race and my success on the piste (my skiing is comparable to my swimming so that was a joke.....

Plans for next year...

For me this is post number 117 and a year and a month since I started this blog. I started really because I was getting old (in running terms) and felt I wanted to record the running events I was doing. Of course then it became more of a personal blog but you can't help that really. It's not a traditional running blog anyway because I don't really record how much I run (too much probably!)
Anyway I haven't been racing and that's because things have been busy and once you get out of the habit of racing it's hard to get back into it. I ran in the Dublin Senior Cross Country and the Gerry Franham and after that it was just the Duathlon. I've gone and entered for the Rotterdam marathon next April (and the snow race in France in January). My plan was to give the ultras a break for a while and try and do a fast marathon. I know I'm yet to do the marathon I'm capable of. I feel I can get close to 3 hours and now is the time to try. After that I'll go back to the ultras as I already miss them! I won't be running Connemara next year (my favourite ultra) and I'll probably not be on the mountains afetr my experiences this year. One of my ambitions has always been to try an ironman. Just because I've never done a triathlon doesn't seem to bother me (maybe it should). The day I decided to start running I wanted to do a marathon and that worked out ok so I'm hoping that it will be the same for an ironman. I'm in the gym swimming most days but I'm so bad I'm gonna get some proper lessons. I feel that with the kids at school I have the capacity to at least train for it. The UK ironman is in September and that gives me a number of months after Rotterdam. Friends have been encouraging me towards the glamorous ones in France, Austria etc., but they are all in the Summer and I feel that's too close to Rotterdam in April.
Anyway this isn't a post looking for pats on the back, it's more about wanting to get things out of my head.
This year was mad in terms of goals. I ran two ultras early in the year and trained for the Wicklow Round. Then ended up in the European and World Mountain Running Champs, not the most pleasant experiences and not ones I'm likely to get a chnace to run in again but they were totally unexpected so new expereinces are always worth a try. Jungfrau Marathon was probably the highlight but still felt I should have gone faster.

Anyway on the personal front the family has grown from 3 to 5 and that has been crazy, good crazy. Christmas will be completely different with a 5 year old lunatic in the house. He gets excited about having dinner every day so you can imagine how wired he is about Christmas! The house is lit up like the Griswalds and presents are wrapped and ready under the tree.

I've made new friends on other blogs: Team Geared Up and For Nine Pounds and of course our running group Wednesday Night Runners and of course the bloggers who comment here. Thanks for all your encouragement, it's been great to log on and realise someone has dropped by and said something, it's been a real lift.

Team Geared Up has allowed me to write lots about adventure kinda stuff. Things I wouldn't have written about here. I've loved every minute of it and the hard work put in by Robin over there has meant the blog seems to have changed recently and become even more vibrant. He's worked so hard at constantly thinking about what's needed to develop the blog and move it forward.

For Nine Pounds was something I came across via the lovely Midget Wrangler. I first commented over at MW's blog when she wrote a post about her new Party of 5. I loved the fact that she was the most un-traditional-Mummy type I'd ever read. It was hilarious and serious at the same time! She eventually dragged me into the For Nine Pounds cult and I haven't looked back. I don't write as much over there as I'm afraid I'm not as funny or witty or interesting as the rest of them! Anyway we all eventually had a meet up and a great night was had by all!!

WNR is our running group and we've become a very close bunch. You don't go through tough stuff without realising who you can count on and they're a great bunch. We're getting hoodies made up with our newly designed logo and we had a great run and lunch last week, even exchanging kris kindles!

Wow this turned into an epic post! I doubt anyone will read this far!!! Happy Christmas!

Happy Birthday Grace!

Grace is 16 today! Happy Brithday Grace!

Magic 4

I got tagged by toniimarie at Next to Last chapter. And since I'm so bad at blogging these days I thought I'd give it a shot.

What 4 jobs have I had?

1. Worked in a bar at the age of 16. Really liked it but so badly paid and not a good job if you're trying to get up for school in the morning.
2. Typesetter.
3. Architectural office: what I trained for.
4. Construction site work; best job ever. :-)

4 places I've lived.
1. Dublin
2. Dublin
3. Dublin
4. Dublin

4 places I've been on holiday:
1. Jamaica for the all you can eat holiday
2. Virginia/ Washington: the museums, war memeorials, what a place!
3. Italy for everything, food, history, sun, breathtaking scenery.
4. Paris, as a poor student with no money and the sheer romance of it all....

4 favourite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Shepherds Pie
3. Milka Chocolate
4. Duck

4 places I'd rather be:
1. Virginia, or somewhere in America with mountains and sun.
2. The Alps, with nothing but a bag on my back and nothing planned.
3. On the orient express.
4. Disneyland Florida on Thunder Mountain.

Can I tag Midget Wrangler? Cheers Tonii!

What I'm Up to......

I ran in Marlay park this morning and it was the most gorgeous morning ever. Stunningly beautiful. (A lot like that image above, that's not mine!) I had a few of those "great to be alive" moments! Although I'm still running in a little pain but I seem to be ok when I race and in pain when I train. The last thing I did was a duathlon.

Also had a sparkly dress occasion last week for the Athletics Awards of Ireland! Makes a change from mucky runners and tracksuits!

Tomorrow me and the girls head off on a little adventure on the ferry to the UK shopping outlets. Christmas shopping here we come!! Woohoo! I love buying presents!
Ugly Betty is on in a minute.....

Dublin Marathon 2007

I was heavily involved in all things "marathon" last weekend. I've been blogging about it over at TGU and Wednesday Night Runners also.
Firstly there was the expo, then the international breakfast run, then the Kenyan athletes Ugale party in my brother's house, photos here, then the marathon itself. Baggage area photos here.
It's a great event, really professional and so many people give so much of their personal time and effort to make it that way. Tony ran a PB of 3:44, Rob ran his first in 3:42, Niall ran 2:43. I have to do it next year! Fatmammycat has a brilliant account of her first marathon here. Congrats to her!

Today was spent at the kids Dublin cross country and Dublin Senior Cross Country. I think I ran ok, second scorer for Clonliffe, which was a suprise so I'm happy enough. Photos here.

Busy Weekend of Racing!

I swore I was gonna take it easy till about December but I couldn't resist! I did an adventure race on Saturday as a team of 4. A standard adventure race involves mountain biking, mountain running and canoeing (there are variations), all with navigation., You're given co-ordinates and you have to go find controls at them, like a treasure hunt.
Basically I'm no good at navigation, rubbish at canoeing and a complete wuss on the mountain bike and unfortunately for my team mates there was very little running but I really enjoyed it anyway. It's a team thing and you have to look out for each other and work together. We had some problems but that's all in the nature of adventure racing. I was blogging about it over at Team Geared Up and at Wednesday Night Runners.
I then did a cross country in Phoenix Park, well we had to go out there anyway as one of the kids was running a race so I thought "what the hell" I might as well give it a go.
So it was a hectic weekend despite my plans to take it easy.

Good things on telly tonight and tomorrow night about Adventure! Looks like they are well worth watching

stack overflow at line 0

I was organising some photos in flickr (and it got real slow) and it said something like:

"stack overflow at line 0" or whatever.

I thought that sounded very Simpsons.......

Update!

Haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy.
I'm running slowly and painfully these days which doesn't matter much as I'm not training for anything. Be nice to be running better for the cross country season but I know I didn't rest up enough after my last big running events and I'm feeling the effects of it now. It's hard not to run at all, but that's probably what I should do for a week or two. Can't bring myself to do that though.

I'm doing Pilates on Monday mornings. Not finding that much use, but it's getting better.

The kids are getting on great at school, well the little boy is getting into litle bits of trouble but I think he'll settle down soon. He's not used to so much structure, sitting down all day etc. Grace is at Traffic school today! Not sure if that's what it's called but basically she's getting a driving lesson even though she's a year away from even getting a licence. The young girl is running in lots of cross countries and reall enjoying it.

Had a great time at the For Nine Pounds party! You can read all about it over there. It was my first time meeting the gang of bloggers and it was so much fun, I really need to get out more, I actually enjoyed myself.

Still having trouble with noisy neighbours in the holiday home in Wexford so will be avoiding that for a while.

The two girls and I are going on a shopping trip to Cheshire Oaks at the end of November. It'll involve an overnight stay in a hotel and the boat trip so should be good for bonding!

High School Musical Party

Tomorrow night we're throwing a High School Musical party for the 11 year old (girl). Hopefully the new friends she has made in school will come and then they will know where we live and then maybe they'll call round and be lifelong friends. Easy.

We're busy making GO WILDCATS pennants and microphones and trying to theme things. The movie is apparently about basketball so we've bought little hoops to decorate the room and are making t-shirts and little party bags containing lip gloss and the like! I'm heading to the Square to try and get some red and white table cloths (Wildcats colours) and red and white streamers or ribbons but with all the shops taken over with Halloween stuff it's getting hard to find these items.

Any other ideas would be most welcome! (I haven't even watched the movie yet, that would probably help me with the theming.......)

World Mountain Running Champs 2007

Just back from my second trip to Switzerland in 2 weeks! I'm glad to be home and get on with normality for a while as it's been hectic lately. The race itself went ok for me, would love to have done better but at the same time I had something to prove. I had debated pulling out of Jungfrau marathon in order to be fresh for the World Mountain Running Champs the week after. But I had trained for a few months for Jungfrau and was looking forward to it and really didn't want to not run. It's probably odd to some that I thought much more seriously about pulling out of the World Champs and allowing someone else run. But that was how I felt. I was looking forward to Jungfrau and dreading the other!

So I decided to do both.
So I had something to prove.
Because I was second in the Irish trials I wanted to be second Irish home.
And I was, so that initially made me happy and relieved.

But coming 69th in a race of 86 women wasn't going to make me happy for long, but maybe next year I would train properly for the trials and do better on the hills (and not run a mountain marathon the week before, if I did qualify!)

Anyway back at home all is good. Grace is gone to an adventure centre in Fermanagh. I miss her already. Grace is much more like an adult now and I can talk to her about the kids and what she thinks of certain things to do with school or whatever. When she comes home from school it's like another adult in the house, not a kid, and that's kinda reassuring.

The above photo is of me with Jonathan Wyatt, 3 times world mountain running champ, and winner of the Jungfrau marathon the week before. I must put it next to my Paula photo!