Iron Distance - 14th July 2012

After completing the maracycle I had no plans to do any more events as I was getting ready for my wife due a baby at the end of July. All things changed when on facebook on July 8^th after completing his own iron distance, I congratulated my good friend Eamonn Sheehan on his facebook page, to which he replied “Fella why dont u sign up during da deca, they have 7 days to go, do the 12th or 14th or 15th and I’ll stay out on the course and support as much as i can until ya finish, thats a good deal ;p Uve been training, u can swim, had a few long rides lately and ran a marathon not so long ago, mind over matter, u can do it!”

My friend Eamonn -

This got me thinking. I had initially no intention of doing a full distance this year. The babkins was due this month and I had recently completed my last race on this years checklist – the maracycle.

However, the idea of doing a cheaper and local iron distance event was very tempting. Especially as part of the entry fee was towards Cancer Focus Charity and I was familiar with the race course area having now completed two half iron distances there and also due to the fact that Eamonn quite rightly pointed out that I can cover each of the discipline distances.

On the other hand, putting a long swim, long cycle and maracycle all together in one go is another thing. I decided mentally to try to forget about that part. You have to have a good mindset sometimes when facing something that may be cumbersome. I have discovered this year especially that sometimes what you ‘don’t’ know, sometimes can do you great benefit and does you no harm! if anything it can prove benificial. Every time I thought about doing a full distance event I pretended in my head that I was merely doing another half ironman.

I tried not to think about it further than that and this worked very well for me. I knew that I would be out for most of the day. If i thought about strategy and nutrition etc too much I knew this would have freaked me out. So I decided the days leading up to it just to go with the flow and enjoy it as much I could. I kinda thought that I could try to do as much as I could and if I give up during it I would treat this event as a dry run for doing a full iron distance next year.

The other reason why I wasn’t so sure about doing the event was because things lately have been not the best. My nanny had recently passed away on 30^th June and just before going into the event on 7^th July my Uncle Terry had taken seriously ill with heart failure and was in a coma (passed away later on 18^th July). With these things on my mind and also the worry about my wife due soon (23^rd July) things were a bit hectic to say the least. I decided then to have a think about doing the event for a few days then sign up. After a few days contemplating I decided to sign up for the event that weekend on the 14th July.

Pre-race preparation with regard to following a training plan was nonexistent, however I had some base running experience from the half ironman in June and some cycling experience from the recent maracycle so I knew things weren’t that bad.

The Big Day

On arrival in Dungannon all things were pretty quiet as I arrived just after 6am with not a soul to be seen. The three deca guys i think stayed in tents and caravans on site -

I chilled out and checked out my bike and set out my race gear in the white transition tent which was beside the field car park. After 6.30 me and few other guys got changed in the tent and got ready for the swim. When chatting with them I found out that not all the guys were doing the full iron distance. Some were only doing the swim. The way the decaman 10 day event was running was basically that anyone could do parts of the event on certain days or do a full iron distance if they wanted. The three guys doing the deca (Robert, Keith and Andrew) would be doing the full distance every day for ten days.

Here is a picture of Robert and Gerry Duffy (Gerry completed  his first and won last years UK Decaman )

You could do a relay team event if you wanted. The course itself was pretty close nit whereby the swim was on the lough, the cycle would be 12 laps of adjacent road and the run would be 41 laps of route adjacent to the transition area beside the lough, there would be little chance at any time of being lost. The other benefit was that if you needed the loo or extra fuel, you were always close to transition. On the downside the run especially would become very monotonous as it was 41 loop laps.

Swim

We entered and started at 7am, however we were told just before the start off that we would only being doing 5 instead of 6 laps of the lough as the water temperature was slightly colder than expected at 14 degrees. If 15 degrees or higher we would have been allowed to do the full 6 laps, so to be exact we ended up only doing 2 miles instead of the 2.4 miles.

At the start of the swim I stayed with the pack of 6 guys for the first couple of laps however over the next couple I began to drop and eventually at the end I was dropped to the last out. The swim went okay. I used the group in front to keep me right ‘sighting’ what direction we were going, however in the later half I had to at intervals stop and take my goggles off to see where the next bouy was to see if I was going the correct way.

Bike

The bike I was looking forward to. This year I have enjoyed doing the cycling during the maracycle and I decided to just do the bike portion at a moderate pace. I drank plenty and ate every half hour to 45 mins and even declined an offer of a ‘tow’ from a cyclist who came across me on the course on his weekend long ride. I said to him that I wanted to do the hills on my own and didn’t want to get the benefit from the draft riding behind him. He praised my efforts and we chatted for ten minutes before he headed off in another direction. I was out on the bike for most of the day and had a lot of time to myself. I had time to think about my nanny and my uncle. I knew they would will me on in true ‘Magee’ fashion and this helped me during any periods I was feeling low.

Marathon  5 hrs. 31 min

The run was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to. Not that I was over worried but I knew it was going to be a long time out there and eventually the day would take its toll on me. Initially when off the bike I took my time in transition and then started running. Looking back now I realize that if I had followed a proper training plan I would have done better on the run. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to maintain the non-stop running strategy I prefer.

There was another guy completing the iron distance, not sure what his name was but here is a picture of him I came across (on the left) (well done mate!)  -

I ended up by about half way during the marathon by walk, running with increasingly reliance on walking the more laps that I covered towards the end. Thankfully I never stopped but seeing that the three deca lads had to resort to run walks, this helped me a little bit and I never felt so bad (I tried to forget the fact this was the guys 9^th Ironman in a row they had done, so no wonder they were walking at times! I have to admit these guys really inspired me and I got a real thrill when my good friend Eamonn came later and joined me for a few laps. This gave me a good lift as there were not that many spectators at the event, I think it was mostly volunteers and friends and family of the three deca guys. I alternated water and Gatorade during the run with using gels throughout.

Eventually my stomach started to suffer from all the sweet stuff I had during the day so I started looking out for some basic foods with no sugar but the aid station was lacking at this latter part of the day and I was lucky to get half a banana and a few pieces of caramel bar to keep me going. I eventually had to resort to running to my car and getting a banana and a few buns to keep me going.

As the day began to close I watched as the sun began to set over the lake. It was a beautiful sight. I recalled in the morning as I had been there since the sun had just risen in the morning, and now I was there as it began to get dark again. Although I had ended up walking quite a bit I was happy in realizing that I was probably going to finish ok. I was surprised that I didn’t suffer from any injuries and the weather throughout the day had been perfect.

As it got dark it ended up being just me on the run course with the three guys with only a handful of people around, with the day getting eerily quiet. They each had a few pacers with them to help keep them going and each time I passed I gave them the thumbs up in admiration. How they did what they did I will never know. Here is a picture taken of them the next day after completing 10 Ironmans !

Eventually I was on the last lap and I heard Paul from the race timing crew shout ‘last lap Philip, come on, nearly there’. I decided I was going to try at least to finish in style. I walked half of the last lap and ran the second half and ran through the finish line with a massive smile on my face. I was so pleased and my emotions were all over the place. As for time I later found out it was total time of 15hrs, 31 mins, 55 sec. I was so pleased I finished under the cut off time of 17 hrs!

Since the event my uncle has sadly passed away. I do believe however that both Nanny Magee and Uncle Terry were there with me on the day watching over me and helped keep me going through the darker periods.

Today it’s been a couple of weeks since the event and I have done a couple of short runs but nothing special. With all the stress of recent times I was on the smokes for about ten days but thankfully I’m off them again. As for what’s next, I have my biggest challenge yet to date. A baby! My lovely wife Caroline is due and any time now we should be ‘signing up’ for parenthood. I’m so excited, yet so scared; wish me luck!

Bearing in mind this might be my last blog entry for a while, I thought I would look back and review this year based on what I had planned initially. I had at the start of 2012 planned on doing a swimathon, marathon followed by the half ironman with a desire to beat my time. Unfortunately I didn’t beat my time in the half ironman, but I did achieve to get a PB on my marathon time and get just under 4 hrs. I also managed to do my first trail ultra 50k and do my first Dublin maracycle. And to top everything I even did a full iron distance! Yippee!

 

Maracycle 2012 - June 23/24

Over the last couple of weeks coming up to the event I wasn’t really sure what to have for the weekend; so if in doubt, overstock :-)

Day 1-

Arrival at House of Sport – Start Point Belfast

Thankfully I had quite well prepared for the morning. The night before I had got ready all my bike gear, checked and re-checked the weather and re-read about twenty times the race pack info for each day. I was a bit worried about the weather as it had rained pretty heavy non-stop the Thursday and Friday, but it showed that the weekend held only occassional showers. I decided on wearing my heavy rain jacket, however in the last five minutes before the set off I changed my mind. The riders all pretty much were wearing light rain tops which although not heavy rain proof, are fine for light showers and provide an extra barrier for the winds. I ended up 3 layers on way down to Dublin and two layers (changing to one layer) on the way back to Belfast the next day.
Anyhow, getting back to the morning, I had a banana, 2 muffins and crunchy nut cornflakes before heading to the house of sport for the kick off. On arrival I dropped off my bag and went to the start point with my bike. The bag would be delivered to Dublin for me to collect when I would be checking in to Dublin City University halls of residence.

Set off -

The start started smoothy enough at just after 7.30am. I was using two waterbottles. I recently added a second waterbottle to my bike and my aim was to roughly drink one bottle of water/energy drink per stop with gels, protein bars and gels along the way. This worked well for me.

As I never was in a cycling club and only knew very little about cycling I never really contemplated group riding on the route down to Dublin. Every time a group came along I let them go on ahead and never jumped on (this would change on day 2). Pace was probably 2-3 zone level bearing in mind I didn’t want to over exert myself for tomorrow and I especially wanted to enjoy my first time at this event and knew my bike was prone to chain jumping or the chain falling off when pushing down too hard when changing late.

Newry Canal Path

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ivHu9RwoRA&feature=plcp

Lunch stop – O’Connells GAC

The lunch stops on both days I followed the same format. Toilet, sandwich and coffee before heading off again. 

At some stage after the lunch stop I got lost somewhere after Castlebellingham. At one point I rememember a marshall waving me on, twenty minutes  later it seemed I reached a roundabout with no signs with the only direction for Dublin was the sliproad onto to the motorway showing ‘no cyclists.’ As the maracycle makes a point of not going on any of the motorway, I knew I had took a wrong turn somewhere, or I had not caught a turnoff signpost somewhere. I started to think about the last time I had seen a sign or a cyclist and I started to worry. I rang the helpline number which was busy, so I decided to go back and hopefully I would get back on track.
About five minutes later I came across a fellow cyclist, waved him down and he said he had followed the marshall like myself and he thought he was going the correct way, but was worried like myself due to the lack of signs. He said he knew a route which is an old road which should take us to Dublin. Twenty minuted of hard effort of trying to keep up with big ‘Puk’ (I later found out his name) we came to Dundalk. At this point Puk gave up and he concluded he didn’t know where to go from here. He rang the helpline and the logistics folks gave him a route to take which I followed the big lad on for 6 miles roughly until we finally met the main riders at the next rest stop at Bennets Pub, Ard Cath.  I was also kinna glad to stop here for 5 minutes to catch my breath as I no longer wanted to do any more cycling with Puk as my guide – he was way too strong and fast. He may be a trusty  ‘St Christopher’ when you need him, but keep up with him you must, or he would drop you like a sack of potatos! He never at any stage looked behind him to make sure I could keep up with his pace and I remember at one stage he had said to me he was hoping to cover the distance in under 7 hrs! – I was pacing for 9 hrs! I then continued on my journey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ4kUnp39ZM&feature=plcp

After leaving this last rest stop I felt tired but I knew I could make it ok to Dublin ok, so I plodded on by myself. Soon my spirits were going to be lifted –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtMocJs0UoU&feature=plcp

After this I shortly came to DCU entrance and had finished the first leg; yepee!

After arriving, I parked the bike in the large hall

Day 2 -

Dublin to Belfast

After a tasty fry up and chat to a fellow novice cyclist I geared up and got ready for the off.

After ten minutes of riding I came across my first group ride and decided to give it a go and latched on to the group 'peloton'.

This was my first proper time trying this 'peloton' out. Group 'peloton' riding as far as I know has different formats but we generally operated two abreast with an anti-clockwise format at change-overs. I made a few mistakes early on by after being domestique I jumped all the way to the back instread of merely taking a step back a turn on the left side while someone took my place in the front. The principle behind group riding is that the front two take the force of the oncoming headwind and create the all important ‘draft zone for the riders behind to fall in behind and thus the riders behind use less energy and power to maintain the same pace as the two riders at the front. When you are part of a goup ride it is important to call out things that are coming up in front (eg call out ‘ pothole, car up head, on your left, lights, right/left turn/stop etc) these call out help prepare riders way behind you be prepared fro what is up ahead of them. As part of being in behind, it is important to stay close, but not too close to the rider in front. I aimed to be roughtly 6 foot at the most behind the rider in front, however at times I needed to brake or speed up according to what the riders in front were doing. You need to pay careful attention when traveling at average speed of about 17 miles an hour not to hit the person in front of you. Peloton riding is pretty cooll I have to say. For about half the ride up to Belfast I was part of various different made up groups, few of which were set groups. Some I lost due to rest stops, or some I caught up with and I joined. I became acustomed to the call outs and quite happily did my fair share of the work up front. I formed groups of just me and another person taking turns, other groups were roughly about ten with the largest about one hundred it felt like! There is something unique about the sound of so many bikes flying along at synchronised speed. It is almost like a train.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUbecrtBB5Q&feature=plcp

The second day lunch stop came a lot quicker than yesterday I felt, probably because i was going slightly quicker average speed and output of probably Zone 3. Apart from the half mile severe gradient getting up the hill to Lislea Community Centre.

So far I had travelled 63 miles. I had my sandwichs and coffee and was off again.

After another stint at group riding I was feeling pretty good and strong and came across the beautiful Camlough Lake in Armagh

I knew the finish was near at hand when I reached the Moira Demesne last reststop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtsH5wV2z_Q&feature=plcp

I cycled on after this along some back roads for about ten miles before jumping onto another group for the last 5 miles right up to the finish via Lisburn and Malone Road leading back to House of Sport finish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGh8VHLYW5g&feature=plcp

The rest stops were well manned. There were a lot of volunteers and these were even supplemented by the irish defence force in the republic. I also have to say both the PSNI and the guards did a great job of helping direct us. A first time maracycle for me that I really enjoyed.

OFFICIAL TIMES -

Saturday
Started at – 7.39am
Finished at – 5.09pm
Stage 1 – 4.54
Rest – 24 min
Stage 2 – 4.11
Overall – 9.05 hrs

Sunday
Started at – 8.16am
Finished at – 4.02pm
Stage 3 – 4.21
Rest – 17 mins
Stage 4 – 3.24
Overall – 7.28 hrs

Tour de Family - 9 June 2012

Just a wee update on where I am after the last event. Have been doing a few commutes to and from work and have studied the Maracycle training schedule. I noticed that I should try and get some long cycles in before the event and also I should try the cycle two days consecutively aspect also.

Last Saturday I went out with intention of doing a cycle to either Ballynahinch or Saintfield from Belfast depending on how I feel (approx. 30 miler). This should take me approx. 2 hrs so all I took was one bottle water and a small piece of banana bread for nutrition along the way. As I set of within the first half hour I began to get into my stride and felt really good.

The weather was perfect with mild breeze, overhead cloud and forecast had said no rain all day, temperature about 12 degrees.  I noticed as I cycled into the countryside roads I was really falling in love with biking again. The night before i had watched Lance Armstrong documentary DVD about tours and his life and it had me all pumped up to go. 

I decided to plot on and try to make a stab at going to Newcastle. As I passed Ballynahinch I began to get an idea in my head of idea of visiting not only my parents’ house in Newcastle, but also my sister’s house in Lisburn and then my brother’s house in Belfast to end off the journey.

As I was passing through Clough I noticed a turnoff towards Castlewellan which is beside Newcastle. I then thought that it might be useful to try the gradient on the ‘Mill Hill’ road that comes into Castlewellan. For me as an amateur cyclist this was pretty hard and steep, but I plodded up it and eventually got to the top before turning off to get to Newcastle where I briefly stopped to chat to my folks and steal a banana sandwich and a top up on liquids before setting off again.

As I left Newcastle I worked out in my head the direction I would need to go to get to Lisburn from Newcastle. I knew that it would probably be quicker to go via Hillsborough but I thought I might come across a duel carriageway so I decided to go via Carryduff back roads.  I picked up the pace as I knew my time was running out before me and the wife were heading out for dinner that evening. I eventually got to my sister’s house where I caught up with my little niece.

Refuelling once again (banana bap this time – I love my bananas!), I left and knuckled down for the last stop in Belfast to spring a third surprise visit to my brother and his kids.

After leaving here I had only a few miles to travel to get to my local leisure centre were my car was parked. When I arrived I checked my imapmyrun app on iphone to see how far I had travelled. Unfortunately the battery had run out. When I got home I checked the logged route after recharging the phone in addition to a manual mapmyrun distance calculator online which totalled 84 miles. Before this my max was 66 miler doing an annual cycle sportive I have done in last couple of years, so to do 84 miles and still feel pretty ok afterwards. as for the planned dinner outing i just about made it in time. Result!

Half Ironman - 2 June 2012

Half Ironman Triathlon – 2^nd June 2012

Pre - Race Preperation



Since the marathon in May I have only done a couple of runs and a couple of short cycle commutes to and from work. To check my fitness a few nights ago after my cycle back from work (14 mile) I did a 10 mile run later that evening with fitness partner McGregor (our dog). We both enjoyed and I knew I had a reasonable chance of achieving the half distance ok. Unlike last year I have not done any other triathlons to test things out or even tested out pre - race open water swimming. The closest I got to open water was the odd surf session with my brother and a few friends during the year.

I tried to go into this event with a relaxed mindset. Although in previous events I noticed that I always tend to freak myself out, over thinking things and also on the day of events let the morning preparation stress me out. I realised that I ought to try the cool, calm and collected approach and merely just go out there and ‘enjoy’ the event, after all, no one was insisting that I do it. I later realised that this helped me during the day a great deal to have a calm and positive mindset.

In the morning I had the usual bread and peanut butter with crunchy nut cornflakes and set off for Dungannon. Arrived ok and registered and got ready for the set off. After registering I briefy met a friend from facebook I got in contact with Eamonn Sheehan who is doing a great upcoming Autism charity event '212 in 2012' https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002287336105#!/212in2012. Great to meet Eamonn, a real down to earth guy.

The weather was perfect. Slightly sunny and minimal winds with water temperature perfect. I set up my bike and kit in transition area and got changed into my wetsuit. The bikes in transition were as usual all very cool looking and a lot better than my mudguard setup basic road bike. Anyhows I didn’t let it dampen my spirits and made my way down for the swim.

 Swim

The swim got off to a good start but after about 5 minutes I felt my left goggle filling up with water. Not sure whether this was due to poor fitting or if it was because they were an old pair of goggles I haven’t used in a long time. This resulted in me every few minutes stopping and re-adjusting. I made sure that I didn’t fiddle about too much in case they broke – I didn’t fancy a mile open water swim without any goggles. Unfortunately halfway done my second swim cap came off when I was fiddling so I tried to be extra careful from there on in. Only once did I go slightly off course and thankfully a canoeist support team member kept us right. I did notice that some of the folk did cheat a bit and cut the buoy markers a bit short instead of going around them fully. I felt great during the swim although I struggled to find anyone who I could draft behind this time around. Felt as if I could have gone faster during the swim but I purposely held back as I knew it was going to be a long day. On the way out onto dry land after the swim I had a funny moment when I fell over coming out of the water as I was pretty unsteady.

Bike

After the swim the transition went ok. I took my time, got changed and set off. I started my garmin cycle sensor to keep track of milage but quickly realised it wasn’t working – dam it! Nutrition on the bike I ate a couple of flack jacks, a gel and caffeine tablets. Throughout the bike ride I drank plenty. Feeling well filled up with fuel and drinking almost 2 bottles of fluid on the bike section I felt ok with no periods of low energy. The course is mostly country roads with minimal ups and downs throughout which was to be appreciated. During the ride I thought about the upcoming Belfast Dublin Maracycle; this I have wanted to do for years since secondary school when I heard about it. It’s always been an ambition of mine.

During the ride it was good that Eamonn came across me. We cahtted for a while and advised me that I had done 29 miles so that gave me a rough idea of how far I still had to go and also guided my decision making for nutrition for the rest of the ride. I noticed that quite a few people overtook me on the bike ride and I think I was one of the last handful of people in towards the end. I have never been fast on the bike, so maybe this could be something I could work on in the future. To be honest towards the end of the ride I was looking forward to it to finish as I had a pretty sore back and my poor bum cheeks had fallen out with me after three and a half hours on the saddle!

Run

In transition after the bike, I took my time and then got running. Unfortunately this time I made a mistake and after starting the run I quickly realised it. I had not changed from cycle shorts to running shorts. I knew it wouldn’t be a big deal as I would be returning to this transition area at the end of each of the 4 laps so after the first lap I had a quick toilet stop at the portaloo and changed into my run shorts and off I went again. The run went pretty well and my garmin watch worked with my footpod for distance and my HRM read an average of 167 which I am happy with. Of the three disciplines I had looked forward to running most of all this time. Thankfully I ran with little difficulty throughout. Fair enough I was slow, but I was steady and I felt my form was fine without strain or breathing difficulty at any stage. My nutrition plan ran well with a couple of gels and a few caffeine tablets to carry me through the run. I also actively tried to drink water at three of the four laps which I think helped. Throughout the run I overtook more people than those that overtook me. I finished feeling tired but strong and with a smile on my face. What a great day!

Big thanks to Bob and the rest of the lads from Tri- Limits that organised the event. I have to say they did a great job in every manner despite there being probably twice the amount of people taking part compared to last year. Big thanks to them

Here I am with good friend Eamonn who finished shortly after me: -

Eamonn had a very tough day with quad injury playing up and his leg seezing up during the swim, so hats off to the big fella for being able to complete the race. Eamonn told me that Bob and some of the other guys are doing the Newry Marathon the next day after this race, now that’s crazy; I would love to have given it a go I admit.

As for my total time I think it was about 6.47. A lot more than last year but last year I did cut the swim route short. Also at no stage did I even try to push myself during the race. I merely wanted to enjoy it to the full, and indeed I did, what a ‘beautiful day’ as the song by U2 goes.

That’s that for now. In three weeks time I have the maracycle to do. Hopefully this new event for me will go well.

2012 - Swimathon & Marathon

Since last entry I planned to do another couple of events, the April Swimathon and the Mayday Belfast Marathon.

Swimathon – April - 2012

Well bearing in mind recently before the  ultra I’d been doing a lot of running, I have not done much swimming concentrating on the morning runs pre-work.  Unfortunately even at the weekends as I was doing a long run I had rarely spent a decent half hour session to start to train for the event.

Eventually I realised I should try and do a long swim before the event to see what the endurance levels were like. Thankfully I managed 100 lengths with little difficulty with a week before the swimathon, so I thought I should be ok. On the day itself despite the last minute panic by organisers (due to 6 volunteers  pulling out the day before the event due to a big ulster rubgy match) the event went quite well.

During the swim l was fine; I was busy counting away the number of laps I had done in my head. When I got to what I thought was 150 laps I had a quick drink stop and asked the guy how many I had done to which he said ‘182’ in a startled questioning manner to me. He was clearly unsure I thought. So I decided to just do what I thought was the right amount. I continued until I got to 210 laps. The actual amount u need to do is only 200 but I calculated that a proper 5k is more like 210 laps – ok call me presice! Also  thankfully the guy didn’t encourage me to stop at what he thought was 200 (which technically is what the guy was supposed to to I think according to previous yrs when I did it). Final time after i got out was 2.15.

Belfast Marathon - May - 2012

Pre-Race Injury -
Following the Causeway run I had  week break and then the following Saturday during  a weekend break in Notingham visiting friends on the 7 April I decided to go for a run along the beautiful canal path. I had intended just to do about 6 mile, but as it was turning out really nice I ended up doing 10 miles with ease…..or so I had thought. The rest of the day we planned to do the usual tourist things and our friends Hugh and Becky were brilliant in taking us around the sites. However a strange thing happened. After a few hrs my right foot began to get a bit sore. Over the rest of rest of the day it got gradually worse resulting in by the end of the evening I was in agony basically hobbling badly back to their house. I was seriously worried. It was pretty sore and I was stressing out about the upcoming marathon. I decided to do ditch the remaining training plan and take every day as it feels. A week later after it getting a lot better with eventual no pain I went out on another run. However stupidly I was in too minds – one half of me was worried about lack of training going into marathon and the other half of me was worried about damaging my foot again. Sadly my ‘lack of training’ mindset got the better of me and I ended up doing another 10 miler, once again with ease. I was running the lagan tow path beside shaws bridge with my training partner McGregor; so I thought I would give him a good wash and shampoo after all the running he done. All was going ok until we decided to walk back to the car…….my right foot totally friggin seized up. I was in agony and with with every step it was getting sorer – a lot sorer than last time. I ended up hopping into to car.

After this, panic was all I could think of. I ended up over the next couple of days consulting GP then getting an XRay and going to get some treatment at the local Belfast Sports Injury Clinic (Noel – Big thanku) Unfortunately the student girl at xray dept said I had to wait 10 days before results – which ended up not being an easy 10 days to wait! Anyhows, I had no choice. Noel froom the clinic told me to rest, elevate and ice. It was suspected stress fracture of the forth metatarsal on right foot. After this i rested for several days.

With a week to go before the big day I was thankful that my foot was feeling very good so I decided to do a couple of 3 mile runs. These went well so the big day was on.

Marathon Day -

The day itself was fun. For a start the weather. Rain. Then after that……more rain…….non stop pretty much. This was ok as I prefer running in colder conditions as opposed to heat, so this suited me ok. The odd blusterly wind especially around the Whiteabbey Lough pathway area. That few mile was very windy. 

My pacing was almost spot on. Even by 18 miles i was only off by about 1 minute. After that i began to slow down a little and the last 5 miles was a bit tough due to GI issues. 3 gels in me with caffiene tablets ultimately led me to almost having a emergency number 2 stop towards the end. :- ()

A big hats off to the volunteers and crowds out. They did so much to help us around the way. Unsung heros.

My family as always did so much to support me. Firstly my brother Stephen ran the last few miles – despite only a few months ago breaking his leg.

Bearing in mind my lack of interaction with him and my faster pace this yr Stevo did really well. Thanku bro. Also big shoutout to sis Carol and wee Matthew and Lara who stood in the freezing cold to clap and cheer me on towards the end of the race. Also my tireless parents and poor wife Caroline who waited at the end for me.

Funnily enough poor dad missed videoing me running, but managed to get 5 minutes of guys walking out of toilet portacabins as waited for me. LOL.  After this we headed back and sis in law Sarah gave me a great feed of bacon and sausage baps and endless cups of tea to re-heat the body.

As for what my time for the marathon was, I’m awaiting the results at the moment. Last yr was 4.07 but I think I might have beat that….i might have even broke 4hrs!...i hope!

So, that’s the report on the recent events.

ps. got my medal of recent Causeway Coast 50k Ultra -

……until the next time……Half Iron in June……cant wait!

Causeway Crossing – 50k Ultramarathon

Follwing last entry I have continued to follow the 50k training plan which as stated before included two weekend long runs of 24 mile. I found these reasonably hard but glad that knowing if I could do 24 mile, then a marathon distance should be do-able and an ultra of 31 mile should be just about achieveable with a bit of effort.

I went into this causeway crossing knowing that my legs should be fresh after tapering and my only major concern was the fact that it was a trail run. Trail runs for those not familiar to the comparison to road running are different depending on the trail conditions and the elevation / gradient. To be honest I was poorly prepared for trail running with only a mere 6 miler Cavehill trail run done before this event.  With hindsight I overlooked the significance of this big time. I also overlooked the fact that my Garmin HRM footpod calibration is slightly incorrect when doing trail running too.

The run got off to a good start at 11am (at the rope bridge overspill car park shown above) with great conditions, mild weather with a light cool breeze occasionally.

The run was road, grass for the first few miles then went into the beach and rocks for a few mile after this, before the majority of the rest normal trails. Have to admit the scenery was spectacular with approx 40 participants there appeared along the route good atmosphere with plenty of smiles and occasional cheering on of each other ‘good job’ etc. I saw a few participants taking stops and regular photos taken using there phones. The causeway coast is absolutely beautiful I have to say. We started at the Carrick a reed rope bride car park and the route took us to Dunluce Castle and back.

I had 3 gels which I planned to take at 9 mile, 16 mile and final one about 25 mile to carry me through last few miles.

I was beginning to find it tough at about 12 miles according to my Garmin, but I knew that in 3 miles was the turnaround and return leg, so I knew I could rely on this to give me a bit of a lift knowing that soon I would be returning back. The only thing was at this part I couldn’t see any signs of Dunluce Castle and at one stage at the top of the ‘tourist’ causeway area rocks area, I didn’t see a turnoff sign. I ended up running the wrong way leading me to run for a mile or so before I realised I made a mistake and had to ask a few tourists for directions and got back on track. Later after this mishap I checked my Garmin again and was showing that I covered 17 miles – still with no sign of Dunluce Castle and my turnaround point! I was beginning to dismay!

My concerns were also not helped with the fact that I had used my second gel with only one left – with over half the route still to go. The only consolation to a degree was a reminder to myself was that I had dropped off my lucozade bottle at a 7 mile point into the race, so I knew that on the return journey that toward the end I would have some much needed energy liquid to boost me. Unfortunately I didn’t read the pre-race info re feed stations as it stated that only at approx 6 mile and 15 mile points they served banana, fruit cake, juice and water. for some reason i thought there was twice the amount of feed statiopns.

Looking back at the race now I maybe should have took a hydration pack as I only took 3 cups of juice at the 15 mile mark and my bottle of lucozade towards the end.

Finally I reached the halfway point and checked my Garmin which showed that I covered over 19 miles! When I saw this I compared this to my longest ‘road’ run done so far – 24 mile. I knew at this stage that the remaining half, if I managed to get through it was going to be very difficult, as it would equate to 38 miles (some difference than 24 mile!)

At the half way point I gulped down 3 cups of juice and took a banana and a bit of fruit cake to eat along the way back. As I started back I tried to eat the fruit cake but only could manage a couple of bites on my dry mouth, I was more able to eat the banana, which was a welcome solid food in my stomach.

On the way out I forgot to mention a had for several miles a pain in stomach similar to as if you have eaten something dodgy, with sharp pains in stomach. Thankfully they cleared up before the half way point where I got some foods in me. On the way back I decided to try and take in some of the views a bit more along the coastal route. The route was mostly a trail type along the cliff edge. Watching the sea coming in crashing against the rocks and the lovely inland where cattle grazed was very nice with the odd walker and seldom fellow participant in the race.

On the way back my body began to break down. My legs were increasingly getting heavier and sorer and with the sun in full swing and I think dehydration was setting in a bit. Thankfully I wasn’t getting any GI issues making me want to do number two’s but only the odd water stop behind the bushes a couple of times. Also I was very thankful that I had no injuries but my right knee definitely didn’t like the downhill’s very much. I quickly decided to take interval walks. These initially were only on going down hills to avoid the knee pain, but the uphills quickly reverted into walks as well. On the way back I did go through about 20 minutes of having a stitch, so eventually I was walking about a third of the time. I have to admit the return part of the run was pretty difficult for me, however I think this was down to poor planning (nutrition, hydration, lack of trail running, reliance of unreliable Garmin footpod mileage calculator). I think the most difficult thing to cope with was the mileage difference between 24 and as I thought 38 miles. I later found out that I really didn’t do 38 miles, I only did 50k / 31 miles, but my constant checking of my Garmin at the time of the race watching it climb eventually up to 38 really mentally drained my willpower. That was tough more than anything else to deal with.

Thankfully as I stated earlier I finally picked up my dropped/stashed lucozade bottle at around 7 miles before the finish which gave me a bit of an energy and hydration lift to carry me towards the end. After this as I ran/walked toward the end I was looking for the last marker /end point which for me was the carrick a reed rope bridge island. This seemed to take a long time before I eventually reached it and passed the finish line – at last! Thank God! My first ultra – yepee!

ps - got a couple of souveniors - a 100k tshirt (even though i only did 50k), whats with that? and a runnning vest sunburn ! i have emailed and asked for a medal, not sure if i will get one.

my messed up garmin reading  -

If you want to get a good idea of the event check out this youtube clip of similar event the normal Causeway coast marathon - basically same route and organisers <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3NKgFdZSEl0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

my splits -