|
Donal
|
 |
« on: October 30, 2008, 07:15:34 PM » |
|
So, from the 15 or 16 mile marker, I was thinking about how much of an eejit I was for doing this again, about how I could be spending my bank holiday Monday in a recliner or jogging an easy five, about how bad my blisters were, about how many people were overtaking me, about that fact that I had actually paid to do this and so on.
When I crossed the line at 4:24:17, which was fifty odd minutes faster than 2007, I said, out loud, "Never Again". I repeated it like a mantra as I collected the medallion, the goodie bag, my gear and got changed, as I hobbled back down Nassau street. I said it into my pint of Guinness in the Foggy Dew, and as I took ten minutes to negotiate the stairs to the toilets. I swore it as I tried my daily bicycle commute the following morning.
And today, I've forgotten it and I'm thinking of October 26th, 2009.
I'll need to start a training programme soon if I'm going to manage to run an enjoyable marathon like I've heard people describe. I've always been told and read online about the euphoria of crossing the line. I certainly didn't experience it. Instead, I had relief, followed by the realisation that the pain wasn't over. Not by a long shot.
I only have myself to blame. I didn't train. I'm amazed at my time, considering how hard I trained last year, and how it all fell apart on the day and turned into an abhorrent slog for the last 13 miles. This year, my saving grace was the Race Series runs leading up to the marathon. I can't really say I trained for them, but I did turn up to them. From the half-marathon on the 20th of September, I only did one 4.5 mile run. That was sheer laziness, to be honest, and I had five weeks there which I didn't take advantage of.
This year, I managed steady 10:07 minute miles, which included walking 50 paces at each mile marker. I feel I could have run faster, significantly faster, if it wasn't for blisters. By the five mile point, I could feel one forming on my left foot. I did stop and bandage it, but it was ineffective. By the half-way point, both my feet had horrible blisters. In the end, each foot had five Euro note sized sacs of loose skin hanging from them. The left was a blood blister. I knew of this problem in advance, from the 10-miler and the half-marathon. It's undoubtably due to my trainers, but I was on a budget this year and didn't manage to replace them. I paid for that!
So, enough about last Monday, and onto next year! I'm betting that I can knock another fifty odd minutes from my time, so I'm going to set a ludicrisly ambitious target of sub 3:30. Not too sub 3:30, I'd happily settle for 3:29:59! This will required a real commitment, far, far more than I've managed up to now, but as Richard Branson would say, "Screw it, let's do it!" Lots of other people have managed sub 3:30, and I'm sure I can. By putting it in black and white (albeit online) I'm commiting myself.
I'm going to keep this thread as a training log of sorts, just so I'll be obliged to do some running just so I have something to write!
Roll on '09!
Donal
|
