Lets go round again.........

............one more time...............by the average white man.

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Maybe we'll............... life, at times, feels like a treadmill, with its repetitive and predictable nature where each day/week/month/year is indistinguishable from the next - you just get on with it without thinking of an end game. This is the frame of mind you have to get into when running a long distance - start thinking of the finish and you are setting yourself up for a very tough ride. Going into the Portumna 100k knowing that I was going to be on my legs for 9 hours or so I knew that 4 hours in I would get absolutely no comfort at all from thinking that I had only 5 hours left - so I had to get into the Forrest Gump mindset and think of running as a natural part of my existence as familiar as breathing, if it hurts, embrace the pain and make it part of who I am.

. Denis, our logistics man, having heard of our nights sleep before Connemara, booked a B&B 3 miles out of town, where Paul was staying. A 100m exclusion zone would have done, but Denis was taking no chances. . Breakfast consisted of a tin of ambrosia cream rice, courtesy of John, and a cup of coffee at the race briefing. The 100k was starting at 6 a.m., the 50k at 8 and the marathon at 10. There was also a 5k scheduled for 1 p.m. The course, a 5k loop through Portumna Forrest Park is shown below:- .

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Denis dropped Paul and I to the start line with John the official photographer.

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My nutrition consisted of 3 x 3 hour bottles of perpeteum (1 bottle premixed with water). coke, various gels, a flask of chicken noodle soup, endurolyte (salt) tablets, pancakes and caramel rice crispie cakes, percy pigs jellies and 2 bottles of vanilla ensure. Paul gave me a 500ml bottle of High 5 and 3 anti-inflamatories just in case (never took them before in a race). I ended up leaving most of the solid food in the bag, not because it disagreed with me but it just felt too much of a hassle to take and I was doing fine on the liquid refreshments - perhaps if I was going longer ;)

Before the off

And we're off

We toed the line at 6, no one pushing to get a quick start like you’d see in most other races. Then again with 13 starters it was unlikely that the potential front runners would be held up too much in the opening 100 yards. . Soon we were on our way and after 50 yards I found myself in 3rd place. However 50 yards later I had slipped to joint 6th, my only thoughts were on establishing my early pace of 8:50 miles. Paul had said beforehand that he would run the first 20 miles with me. I warned him that my early pace would be 8:50/9:00 dropping to 8:20/8:30 over 6 miles (2 laps). “That’s fine” he said. Yet within the first km he was gone – chasing down the three front runners – not wanting to be left behind.

Are we there yet? 1k done - 99 to go

I ran the first few laps with 100 marathon club wannabe Pat O’Keeffe, who’s plan was to get a couple of “fast laps” in before he slowed down, with his primary aim of just finishing. He finished last years 100k in about 13 hours. .

I stopped after every lap to pick up nutrition and walk the short out and back over the timing mat, depositing my bottle back in my bag before resuming running. After about 3 laps I parted company with Pat and spent the remaining 85k running on my own, except for a brief interlude with Ger O’Brien, where I accompanied him on the last 1.5k of his first 50k ultra - well done Ger.

Lets go round again - 17 more times

My first 5k loop had taken 28 minutes, reducing to 27 for lap two and then settling to an average of about 26 minutes for the next few laps. I was lapped by the front runner on completing my 4th lap – I couldn’t believe it – blistering pace for a 100k. I now had a marker for how the rest of the race would go for me compared to him. Assuming we followed the same progression curve he should lap me again at the end of my laps 8, 12 & 16 (laps 10, 15 and 20 for him.)

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I was halfway through my 5th loop when the 50k started at 8 a.m. As part of the loop was an out and back section I had a good idea where I was relative to others. I could see the opening stages of the 50k coming against me as I headed in to complete my 5th loop – only 15 laps to go.

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Paul was about half a lap ahead of me at this stage and we more or less remained in than relative position for the next 75km. The next 5 laps to the 50k halfway point were relatively uneventful. The lap pace was averaging 8:15 to 8:20 minute miles increasing to the 8:20s to take account of my “walking breaks” at the end of each lap. The second placed guy had lapped my just before the 30k mark (lap 6) – While this didn’t instill confidence I wasn’t upset as I knew I was still on target. If I felt good later I could always up the pace. Lap 8 came and went without the front runner passing me – I didn’t see him until lap 9.5 – proof enough to me that I was holding my own (relatively speaking).

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My initial plan was to hold back until I had passed the 50k mark and up the pace for a lap and see how I get on, with the intention of starting the second 50k faster than the first 50 and holding on for even split race. With 4:26 on the clock at 50k I had a 4-minute cushion on my 9-hour target.

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The pace gradually slowed which only became noticeable when the lap pace entered the 8:50’s after lap 12 (60km) going over 9:00 pace average when crossing the timing mat after my walking breaks. I accepted at this stage that I would not make my 9-hour target and after making a quick allowance for slowing even further pushed my target back half an hour to 9:30 with the big 10 looming in the back of my mind – while I felt reasonably ok I just didn’t know what the next 40k would bring – I had escaped relatively unscathed so far and who knows how long that would last.

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I was surprised to see my heart rate, which had climbed into the 140’s, drop back into the 130’s suggesting that the “effort” wasn’t as tough as it had been. Was I taking it easy? Could I push the pace slightly? Just enough to get the HR back to where it was? I had never seen this in a race before – except in Connemara, but then only because I was injured and had to slow down. My legs appeared to be my limiting factor - as if the number of muscles available for recruitment was gradually reducing and there was noting I could do to change that. It would have taken a disproportionate amount of effort to increase the pace, not what I wanted to risk so far from home – maybe if the finishing line was within range but not 30 to 40km out.

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While I could feel the dull ache of fatigue in my legs there was no huge discomfort or any sign of tightness. A dull pain had developed on the inside of my left knee, but it did not get worse. When I completed the lap I rummaged around in my nutrition bag for the orange anti inflamatories Paul had given me – all I could find was the dissolved remains of what appeared to be one tablet. The weather varied from full sun to heavy rain – I remember feeling the heat of the sun during one lap and reminding myself to apply sun screen when I next passed the start/finish area but by the time I got there it had started raining heavily and it didn’t seem appropriate to be applying factor 50. I enjoyed the cooling effect of the rain. My mind also began to play tricks on me - I remember at one stage picking up 2 gels from my nutrition bag and putting them in my short pockets and feeling like I had just added 2 bags of cement - the additional weight almost too much to bear – luckily the feeling wore off after a few 100 yards.

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The marathon had started at 10 (4 hours in) and every so often runners would go flying past. I was also passing through the back of both the 50k and marathon field, particularly later on where quite a number of competitors were reduced to walking. John and Denis started crewing for Paul and I when they finished their 50k and we still had 5 laps to go (25k) – I was allowing 30 minutes per lap, telling John I had another 2 and a half hours plus to go - with 6:47 on the clock I was predicting a 9:20 to 9:30 finish.

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At 1 p.m. (7 hours in) the 5k race started, but I hardly noticed the runners pass me as they appeared from a different world and it was all over in 1 lap. As I was walking in to complete my 17th Lap (85k) the 100k front runner came through to lap me for the 3rd and last time to finish well ahead of the field in 7:46. I came through 10 seconds later to claim 2nd place – no such luck but at least my spirits were good – only 3 laps or 15k to go - single digit miles!

Coming in 2nd at 85km

By this stage my pace had slowed to a pedestrian 10 minute mile – still glad to be moving forward and within sight of the finish, churning out mile after relentless mile. Coming in for the start of my last lap I felt great, joking that I had just arrived for the 5k race after a 95k warmup – I had waited a long time for this - the last time I would pass the now very familiar landmarks out on the course. My pace quickened temporarily but my new found energy was primarily psychological, not physical. I counted down the last 5k with a smile on my face. At 97km I even had time to take a gel that I found in my pocket. I had planned on doing a little dance coming into the finish line and going down on my knees to kiss the ground. However I don't think I pulled it off as gracefully as I had anticipated - but at least I had a smile on my face -

I didn't even get a chance to compose myself before getting my finishers medal. Official finishing time of 9:16:28 - Well done to Seb Locteau and his tream for putting on a great series of races.

My recovery has been a bit chequered, partly explaining why this post has taken so long, but more about that later.

I think i'll sleep downstairs for a while!

Where do I start? At the finish I think as this is not going to be a long post, except for Ewen.

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I didn't quite make my 9 hour target, although I was on pace for the first 25k - 2:13:59, and the second 25k - 2:14:01 giving a first 50k of 4:26:00. I dropped off the pace from about 60k with my third 25k coming in at 2:21:19 and the final 25 at 2:29:27 giving a second 50k in 4:50:46 and a new 100k PB of 9:16:46 (8:58 pace) - the chip time may be a few seconds faster as I was well over the line when I stopped the Garmin. Delighted with my run particularly as I don't think I could have done anything better, except perhaps organise my nutrition bag a bit better - rummaging through gels, bottles of this and that, flask of chicken noddle soup (worked great by the way) and assorted congealed sweets & salt tabs in a pool of water (did I mention the downpours) after running 75k is an art in itself.

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My legs held up pretty well, with no cramping - just succumbing to fatigue as the miles wore on. I remember completing lap 12 of 20 and thinking that I was on the home straight with only 8 laps to go until it dawned on me that this still amounted to 40k - it's all relative I suppose.

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The winning time was 7:46 - I just happened to be crossing the finishing mat at the same time, but alas with only 85k in the bag.

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Clubmate Paul Daly came in about 15 minutes ahead of me in 4th position (he didn't wear a watch or check the time but thinks he didn't get under the 9 hour mark) - I was 6th. To put this in context there were about 19 starters. My time would have got me 2nd place last year (less than 30 seconds ahead of the guy who actually came second)

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Clubmates John Desmond and Denis Looney completed the half (50k) in 3:48 and 4:40 with John taking second spot after the two front runners pulled out due to injury. This is on the back of his win in the marathon here last year. So a great day out for the Eagle Ultra boys (code for crazy old men).

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My legs are naturally stiff and who knows how long recovery will take but the afterglow of completing my first 100k will hopefully last longer.

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I don't know if the race report will be much longer as there's not a lot you can write about running around in circles, without the risk of repeating yourself.

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I must go off now and find a quite place to lie down for a few weeks.

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The six mile cut-in and other stories

A while back Kevin Sieveright from the club dropped over a box of "Marathon and Beyond" bimonthly publications from the States he had been keeping in his attic. I read an interesting article in one of the them about a pacing strategy for a marathon involving the "six mile cut-in" which recommends starting your marathon at a pace that is 30 seconds per mile slower than your target pace for the first two miles, 20 seconds per mile slower for miles 3 & 4 and 10 seconds per mile slower for miles 5 & 6 and running the final 20.2 miles at target pace.

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For me this advice is the opposite of what I (and most others) instinctively want to do for the first six miles of a marathon - lose all that time for no reason, you got to be kidding me. All you lose is 2 minutes - obviously the target pace for the final 20.2 miles has to include making up these 2 minutes. For example for a 3 hour marathon the average pace over 26.2 miles of 6:52 would have to reduce to 6:46 per mile for the last 20.2 miles to allow for the 6 mile cut-in. I can hear you say "6:52 is difficult enough to maintain and you want me to run 6:46 pace - for the last 20 miles - you're joking right?". Well perhaps if you are thinking this you're not in 3 hour marathon shape (or 3:30/4 hour whatever the case may be). Certainly if you adopt this approach you'd be running against the popular tide - and this is why I think it is one of the best pieces of advice I have read in a long time - because the success rate of the popular tide is not very impressive.

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Think about it - for most races below the marathon distance we warm-up over a few miles with the last few 100 yards at race pace - same as the six mile cut-in (elites can warm-up for the marathon and can therefore do without it). It beats the hell out of stressing about getting on pace during the first 30 seconds of the race - you can relax and enjoy the opening miles and let those around you fight over the square yard of road in front of you. If you find that when you reach target pace you can't sustain it for 20.2 miles, you've lost nothing as it goes without saying that you couldn't have maintained a slightly slower pace (6 seconds per mile for 3 hour marathon pace) for a further 6 miles. This in-race "warm-up" becomes more and more important the longer the distance as it introduces race pace slowly, gets your body gradually used to the effort with a gradual increase in HR. Ever notice that if you go out too fast in the opening miles of a marathon your HR will never recover even if you ease off on the pace? Anyway my opening 6 miles of the race on Saturday will be a six mile cut-in experiment of 1. Now if only I could decide on a target pace!

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In unrelated news Abina continues to amaze me in her continued interest in my well being although the focus is shifting more towards my nutrition strategy.

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"I got you foamy ice creams (sweets) in Aldi" she said to me on Tuesday.

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"They melt in the mouth more easily than the Percy Pigs I got you in Marks and Sparks and they have more carbs".

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Sure enough they did - 80% to the 78% in the Pigs. I'll get her to crew for me yet. although....... .

Things turned more sinister last night when she said out of the blue

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"Will you have to poop in your shorts on Saturday"

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"What!!!"

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"No, it's not a requirement of the race, why???"

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"Angela ran the Cork marathon and she said there were loads of people in front of her who had pooped in their pants - and you'll be running for a longer than them on Saturday and you'll be eating more"

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"They will have portaloos"

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"Oh! I thought you couldn't stop"

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She spent the rest of the evening cracking jokes with Keevsa on how I could wear incontinence pads or carry a poop scoop with me. The joys..................

Finally, a few marathon photos

The Marina - Mile 15.5 (Heel Striker)

Respect to Ian (755) - Who held on all the way (There were other - promise e.g. the three guys on the left in the previous photo - Gearóid(309), Stephen (377) & Mark (1345)

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1492

"The world is flat and if you head west you'll fall off the edge" Mr Columbus was told before he headed on his first transatlantic cruise in 1492. All that awaited him and his crew 20 miles west of the Azores was certain death. Luckily he managed to avoid the edge of the world despite the fact that the low cost carrier he was travelling with dropped him further from his intended destination than he bargained for - no change there then in 500 odd years.

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With 6 days left to my first 100k run (freudian slip there using the word "first") Abina is getting a bit agnsty, dropping hints over the last few weeks that my heart might not be up to the task, despite the fact that I am following a well trodden path. I tried to reassure her that my heart will be more than capable of dealing with the relatively low effort and that it will be my muscular skeletal system that would be under pressure. I don't think she was convinced. "What about the guy who died on Mount Everest, he thought he was up to the task and what good is he now to his wife and newborn child who he will never see". Did I mention that Abina predominantly operates on a emotional plane - balanced by my logical disposition - making for a perfect schizophenic match.

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Her next plan of attach was the fact that we have only so may heart beats in our lifetime and that i'll have used all mine up before my time - maybe I should take to my bed and wait for the inevitable, although i'll have a longer wait at my resting HR. In the interest of giving her the benefit of the doubt and to be quite honest she is probably (always) right I replied that for the 10 or so hours a week that my heart is working at 70 or 80 beat per minute (BPM) higher than normal the benefit is that it is working at least 10 BPM lower than normal for the rest of the week (158 hours). While this makes perfect sense to me it was like white noise to her as she replied with "well you're no use to me dead" or some such thing. I could have mentioned the life assurance and death benefit that she would get but thought it best not to mention it.

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Abina got me thinking about the theory that we have so many heartbeats in our lifetime - anywhere between 2 and 2.9 billion according to this site. Based on this theory I calculated that if I exercised for 10 hours a week at an average of 70 BPM higher than my normal HR and the benefit of a healthier heart was a lowering of my normal HR by 15 BPM I would save enough heart beats over 20 years to give me an extra 2.83 years (assuming a normal HR of 70 BPM). Alternatively my 10 hours a week would add about an hour to my life, which could be seen as a poor return, if you'd rather spend those 10 hours watching the telly or reading a book. The following table shows the "theoretical" extension to your life in years after 20 years of exercising for 10 hours a week for various combinations of normal HR improvement and average gap between normal and exercising HR. You can see that your life expectancy reduces in the unlikely event that the benefit is outweighed by the exertion. A load of old bull really but a good counter argument should you ever be challenged by the flat earth society.

Postscript: 20:49 hrs -

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I neglected to mention that 2 or 3 hours a week would be all the exercise you'd need to keep a healthy heart and therefore the optimum training level for the ultimate endurance event -life, as you'd be keeping unnecessary exertion to a minimum - don't tell the missus (I reckon i'd get another year with her).

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Clock - 3:29:52.........

.........Chip - no bloody chip. Left it at home this morning in my eagerness to remember to bring everything else. Chip about 3:29:25 as there were 2 runners between me and Frank, the other 3:30 pacer. A good day for running a marathon, generally overcast and relatively cool - the best since Cork restarted in 2007 - although it was a bit warm for the first hour or so.

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To be quite honest I didn't feel great, with slightly tight calves from pushing the pace a bit on yesterdays 34 mile bike ride and a reasonably full bladder from the start. I contemplated stopping for a whiz, but with a baloon strapped to my singlet and "Sub 3hrs 30" emblazoned on my back, I thought it might be a bit unprofessional - pacers are not supposed to be human ;).

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Despite the 7:54 average pace on the Garmin we passed the 8 mile mark, 7 seconds in deficit (1:04:07) - we changed this to a 10 second surplus by the half way stage and over the next 4 miles we extended that to about 40 seconds. There was a sizeable group with us but it was difficult to know who exactly was "with us" as the field was still reasonably congested. I began to feel good after about 15 miles, with the urge to pee gone and bio feedback indicating everything in good working order. My HR fluctuated between 125 and 140 - rising above the 140 on some of the "hilly sections".

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Crowd support was very good particularly as we passed through relay changeover areas. The group remained reasonably intact, as we crested the last rise on the Model Farm Road at mile 21.5 and dropped down to Inchagaggin Lane and the Straight Road. I could see clubmate, Paul Cotter, ahead who had paced me on some of my looooong training runs over the last few weeks. Following his strong 3:34 finish in his debut Marathon in Dublin last year, Paul was targeting something in the low 3:20's. With about 3 miles to go I pull alongside him, but can only keep him on my shoulder for about 3/4 of a mile - complaining about going too fast after the tunnel f#ck*ed with his Garmin (my words not his) - the mind does funny things when faced with data that conflicts with it's own reasoning. He didn't fall too far behind as I could still see him 100 yards back as we ran along the Mardyke towards the 25 mile mark. Over the bridge along the UCC river walk and into the last mile with about 9 minutes to spare, still a good crew with us. Out onto the north quays, scooping up a few stragglers on the way with those with a bit of spare energy pushing ahead, right turn onto Patricks Bridge and the last 400m to the finish...stopping briefly before the finish to scoop up 2 more sub-3:30's - job done and legs feeling great, the best they've ever felt after pacing 3:30 (3 to-date).

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A half mile jog to the Lee Hotel with previous pacing partner, Tony (now promoted to the 3:15 slot with Thomas), a quick shower, share some ultra nutrition tips with Tony (who's coaching the Irish team for the Trail World Championships) and off to the Long valley for a well earned pint of plain - carbs never tasted so refreshing.

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Well done to all those who raced today, plenty of PB's out there.

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I'm a bit pissed off that I won't have an official result, but then again I'm not looking for membership of the 100 marathon club (The annual sub is hardly worth another medal, no matter what it's made of - I can always fabricate my own) and will just add today to the 7 other "unofficial" 26.2+ mile runs this year - only 2 "official" ones.

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Mile 3.5 - Early Days

Pickup

With a marathon to pace in 2 days, today was a good day to break from my 50 miler training programme. I managed to keep my date with the twice weekly speed sessions on Tuesday (ladder session at the track) and Thursday (Tempo 5k) and my day off on Friday. With the weekend long runs cut back to 2 hours each, I wasn't missing out on much. Still I got just over an hour and a half on the grass of UCC farm this morning with clubmate Dennis, who is also pacing on Monday. I spent the rest of the morning putting a second coat of paint on the spindles of the stairs a home, a job I started a few years ago (Tapering is very handy for finishing odd jobs, so much time!).

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As I was dropping Keevsa to school, yes school on a Saturday - supervised study for the Leaving Cert (state exams) which starts on Wednesday - seems like only yesterday when I was doing mine........ the flashbacks are less frequent now. Anyway as I was dropping Keevsa to school I decided to continue on into town, with Ani in tow, to pick up my race number for Monday. I had to go to a special desk at City Hall as I didn't have the necessary paperwork for priority processing, what with I being a pacer and having the luxury of being registered by the Hunnymonster. I met Gina who promptly gave me level 1 clearance and went away to get my pacing gear (yellow singlet and black shorts - cool) while I picked up my number and goodie bag, which contained another technical t-shirt - unfortunately I found it was a size too big when I got home (They gave me an XL instead of an L).

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Met up with the Beirut taxi and his family as we browsed the food stalls across the river on Lapps Quay, his state of arousal suitably in check. My carb loading started with a spicy beef kebab and continued throughout the afternoon with anything that took my fancy. All that's left now is to wait up and relax until Monday morning. Looks like it's going to be a good morning for running with temperatures lower that yesterday and today and little or no wind.

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Best of luck to all those running the relay, half and full marathon, have a great day.

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C'mon the 3:30's.

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Taper Week 1 (Run 28.3 miles, Bike 60.9 miles, Swim NIL)

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May (Run 349 miles, Bike NIL, Swim 1.3km)

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Blogger Bother

For some reason I can't post comments on some blogs and can on others. Is anyone experiencing the same problem?

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Blogs I can't post comments on include Pauls (over trails and hills), Robs (Running still), Martys (For the t-shirt) and Bobs (Training blog), so well done to you on your recent races/ time trials and good luck in your upcoming events. Funny thing is that some of them have received comments from others but I just get caught in a continuous loop that goes nowhere.