Hopefully coming back

Clonmel Blueway

It's been a long road, getting from there to here and it's been a long time, but my time is finally near.

No updates in ages and no races in ages and I've had to cancel my planned running of the Wild Atlantic Way Ultra (50mile) twice (excluding Covid) because very simply my body would not allow but things do finally appear to be on the up!

Since Covid in 2022 this is the longest time I've not been unwell or desperatly tired as I've been ok since October 2023.     Although I've been fine since Oct I didn't want to end things badly by trying to training for the 50mile event in May so instead I opted to just do 5mile runes and occasional longer runs and so far so good.

I'm not fast anymore considering back in 2022 I could bang out a 1:35 half-marathon as a training run but at least I can run. 

So what are my plans? 

I've set a target of a very slow training run at the end of April as I'm going to do the Marathon Club Ireland Clonmel Blueway marathon.  I'm looking for miles under my belt at a slow pace so I've even planned to start with the walkers and I must finish under 5:30 or its counted as a DNR.
I suspect the over 5:30 time won't be a problem for me given my lack of speed these days.

I've longer term plans but I'm going to keep them under wraps as I want to see how the next few months pan out.   I also have a few adventures planned which don't involve running like touring around parts of Ireland on the bike.

Finally, if you've spotted the Star Trek reference in this post then well done!

Dublin Marathon 2022 Race Report

Way back in 2019 this was supposed to be a goal race when I signed up to it, I had previously aimed for a sub 3:20 marathon but only managed 3:29 and the 2020 marathon was going to be another sub 3:20 attempt.

But fast ward to March 2020 and the world changed and we had a worldwide pandemic, I was still running and I even clocked up some very good runs like a 3:45 marathon around a 220metre loop by my house and a 40mile run from Kilkenny to Tramore, Co Waterford.

But despite the good condition I was in throughout 2020 there was only a virtual Dublin marathon which I did and I also did the half-marathon on the same weekend because I signed up to both but didn't see that they had to be both completed the same weekend!

Coming into 2022 I was in great shape and had a number of races lined up including a 50mile Ultra in May and the Cork marathon, I started the year off with the Ballyhoura moonlight challenge in January and then I got covid and the rest of the year has basically been a write off.   

When I had Covid it didn't really effect me symptom wise massively but after I was completely wiped out energy wise, even doing a 1mile walk weeks after would exhaust me. When I did get back to running doing a 3mile slow run felt like doing a 15mile fast run. The effort was crazy.

Things have improved bit by bit but I find I have good and bad times energy wise so Dublin Marathon was never going to be a goal race anymore. Instead my aim was just to run it and treat it as a long run and maybe manage it in 4hours.

After the hectic week I had with Daniel being sick the week before and then a trip for work this was always going to be "fun"!.

As usual it was a early start for the drive to Dublin and I parked in the usual spot, headed off to the start line and on the way met some familiar faces which is always nice.

I had tried to avoid the baggage area since I didn't intend on dropping a bag but I did have a race vest on me. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do this and when I went to go through the area one of the staff refused me entry saying I couldn't come through with my bag. I explained it was a race vest and not an actual bag and I'd be wearing it running but they weren't having it.

After explaining it a number of times and also explaining there were literally other people wearing them passing by they still wouldn't allow me pass and they eventually said they'd have to talk to their supervisor after a min of back & forth.

The supervisor took and look and let me through so it does seem like there's a knowledge gap given how common running vests/packs are these days.

Annoying but once that issue was addressed I headed to the start line and even though I was aiming for 4hours ish I headed off between the sub 3:20 and 3:30 groups and off we went.

I kept a comfortable pace and now and then got chatting to people, I actually kept a decent enough pace with the 3:30 pace group only passing me at around mile 15. But by around mile 20 I was flagging energy wise and I knew the idea of a 4hr marathon might not happen.

Unlike other Dublin marathons where I was focused on my own race I did my best to encourage others in the last few miles, especially in the last mile and I eventually crossed the finish line in 4:12:16.

Not my fastest Dublin marathon by any stretch but given I decided to do it as a long training run it still had its use. Another top and medal for the box.

It's certainly not been the year I had planned.

A global pandemic will change things...

The world has changed so much since my last blog post on the 4th of February so I'm going to detail some of those changes below as since January the media reported the covid-19 outbreak in China and as things moved into March we heard about it in parts of Europe.

I kept on doing my training runs in preparation for the Tralee Marathon on the 11th April but back on the 13th March due to the covid-19 global pandemic things drastically changed in Ireland as the Irish government starting closing schools, colleagues, pubs and any unessential shops and business.

This, as it turns out, worked well for running as I was able to run some normally very busy roads to do some nice long runs up around Co Tipperary including a marathon distance up around Ballingarry, however then further restrictions came into force on the 28th March meaning any non-essential travel including for exercise beyond 2km was not permitted or encouraged.

Due to the 2km restrictions, I've been doing longer runs by taking in a few of the local loops and out and back sections to reach 8 and 10miles. But I still wanted to do a marathon distance since basically all races between now and July are postponed or canceled (No Cork or Waterford marathons for me either).

Last week I decided I'd run some loops of the estate I live in, specifically I'd keep running the

0.28mile loop outside my house until I hit a marathon. I started off at 8am and to the bemusement of neighbors I kept on looping and passing my water station outside my house and I hit marathon distance in 3hours 47nmin.   Not bad overall.

But even before I hit the marathon distance I decided I wanted to hit a nice even number of 30miles, so while I slowed down a lot I kept on doing loops until I eventually hit 30miles in 4hours 42min 59sec.

All in all not a bad day really.

But back to the pandemic.....right now as I type there are 2,329,651 confirmed cases and 160,721 deaths with the USA being the number one country in the world for infections and deaths (740,557 infected, 38,979 death) much of which can be put at frankly disastrous handling by Trump and his administration. In Ireland, there are 14,758 confirmed cases and 571 deaths and right now they are reporting that we've flattened the curve.

Overall in Ireland restrictions came in quick and we were certainly much more pro-active then our next-door neighbors in the UK which went ahead with events like Cheltenham which result in about 60k people a day mixing in close quarters.

There have been a few infection cases locally and even deaths from health staff in the local hospital which is worrying and extremely sad for the families affected. There is a big focus on protecting elderly and vulnerable groups from the virus and on that note, my parents have been on lockdown since this all kicked off so they've not gone further than their garden.