So I did it....my first Ultramarathon, 50km done!

So the big day arrived and it was a early start as i was up at 3am to get ready on the road at 5am and arrived at 7am to register and collect my number.

My wife was supposed to be working today but last min plan changes yesterday meant she wasn't so she came along to support me which meant a 4am alarm call for her (I was very glad of the support).

Felt good if not perhaps abit nervous, the 100km race had already started at 6am and could already see the 20 or so people taking part in that passing the line every 20-30min or so. So 8am arrived and off I went, initially started much faster then expected and upto around the 20km mark I was doing an average pace of 5:17min/km which was faster then I had planned but I felt pretty good so kept it up.

Photo thanks to Peter Mooney

As I approached the 35km mark however I started to feel it in the legs and although had it been a marathon I could have easily pushed on and actually very easily beaten my time for Dublin City Marathon (3:58), for this event I still had another 8km to go after the marathon distance so I didn't want to take the chance, instead I hit the marathon distance at around the 4hour mark which wasn't bad I suppose.

All in all I found the last three 5km laps hard going and this can be easily seen in my garmin log as my average pace increases from 5.30min/km - 5.40min/km mark to 6-7min/km mark from around the 35km distance.

I was determined to cross that line properly at a decent pace so about 1km out from the finish I picked up the pace which felt great and I finished strong across the line.

All in all i really enjoyed the race and whilst I wouldn't do it again next week I certainly would do it again next year, it was well organized and met some interesting people along the route and it was great to support each other. Having my wife with me was a big plus as I was very thankful of the support esp when the laps got harder, of course she thinks I'm nuts for running a 50km but hey its was worth it :)

The all important Garmin log of the race

...and finally proud owner of the 50km medal.

What have I gotten myself in for?

So I've jump in feet first and I've signed up to the Portumna 50km Forest Run on the 16th June of this year, it'll be the longest distance I've ever run but I'm reasonable certain I should get though it just fine based on my current level of fitness and the course profile.

Of course this is all just part of a much much bigger long term plan which I came up with during the Connemara Marathon on April 1st last, as the hills were making bits of me I decided I wanted to do that Connemara Ultramarathon next year one way or another.

Ok, so people may think I'm mad doing that and perhaps the hills in Connemara have made be become somewhat unhinged but I just want the challenge of it all. But thats a long time off yet and i still have to improve alot of last years Dublin Marathon.

A little introduction...

So let me introduce myself, my name is Barry and I initially started running back in February 2010, when I first started I used the couchto5k plan which is popular plan amongst beginners.

It wasn't easy at the beginning as I suffered from awful painful shin splints but I kept on going and eventually they went away.

As time progressed I stopped using the couchto5k plan and just started to run non-stop instead of constant start - stopping which the plan looks for you today, as time progressed I upped to trying for a 10km run and it nearly killed the first time I did it.

However I've kept at it and competed my first half marathon in September 2010 and have since gone on to two numerous other half-marathons as well as the Cork, Dublin and Connemara Marathon.

I hope to document my progression finally in a blog instead of just using my garmin, so here goes...