Monday, June 2, 2014

Tullaroan Marathon Race Report 2014

Last week ended up with the Tullaroan Marathon, but before running that I put in some miles so the week consisted of:

- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 10miles @ 8:22min pace
- Thursday: 12miles @ 8:13min pace
- Friday: Rest

Not kidding about the hills!
On Saturday I was using the Tullaroan Marathon as my last long training run before tapering for Portumna 100km on the 14th June. My idea was to add 4miles onto the marathon to make the daily total of 30miles.

So before the start I did a quick 2miles run @ 7:51min pace, once that was done it was off to the start line.

The start was bang on time and we were off, we were told there would be marshals at every junction and they'd have water so this effectively meant that water stops were around every 2miles which is far more often then you'd get at more well established events.

As I did the directors run at the end of April i knew exactly what to expect when it came to the hills so my plan was to take it nice and easy and just put the miles in, the day was also pretty hot so I was wary of that.

Many including myself see Kilkenny as a relatively flat county, this isn't helped by the fact that the 10-15miles radius of where I live everything is pretty flat.....Tullaroan is somewhat of an exception as you can see below when compared to for example the Clonakility Marathon course.


Tullaroan Course Profile

Clonakilty Course Profile

I took it easy on the first loop around and even walked the hills around mile 11, then upped the pace towards mile 13 and settled back to taking it easier after mile 15 even to the point of run/walking at times.

For the last two miles I picked up the pace finishing the last mile in a 7:04min pace......in fairness I was well rested from the walking :)

My marathon finish time was 4:04:20, which put me in at 22nd place (out of 56)
Course profile on Garmin can be seen here.

Given this was Tullaroan's Athletics Club first event I have to say it was very well organised and everyone involved should be proud.      Everything started bang on time and there was plenty of water, coke, jaffa cokes and food after.

Once I had the marathon done I completed the second 2mile run of the day...although much slower then the run in the morning as I did it at a much slower 10:46min pace.

Weekly Total:  57 miles
Miles This Year: 964 miles

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