I'm Back

These photos are courtesy of Racepix365.com

Just got back into town from my running vacation to Dublin. Things went pretty well, I brought my training down quite a bit. The jet lag and the lack of sleep due to looking after the young fella was started to take its toll. I did manage to get some training done in the week leading up to the race, as well as do quite a bit if eating to make sure I had enough carbs in.

The Race itself went well, although initially I was disappointed in not breaking 2:40 I did manage to take almost 3 minutes off my previous best marathon time, so any disappointment was quickly over taken by that. Looking through the results/splits I can see that I had one of the slowest 10K time splits in the race followed by a fastish (for me) Half way split and then it was only at around the 1 mile point that we started to make inroads on the guys that started out fast. I went through the 30K split in just under 1:53 and then I started to slow down at around the 23 mile mark. I think though I had started to fall of the pace closer to the 32K point as the 5K splits took a little longer each time (last 2 5K splits), I did end up finishing in 2:40:22. Everybody slows down, its just a question of how much, so I didn't really slow down that much.

I felt great right after the race, as both myself and my family ended up doing a lot of walking, but even the next day I did a fair bit of walking and the legs didn't really complain that much. I did have one problem, but that seems to have sorted itself out, my big toe on my right foot wasn't bending as much as it had the day before the race. This is the same problem I had just before leaving for Dublin. I'm not sure what is causing it, it may be the shoes but then it may not be.

The Dublin marathon also doubled as the Irish marathon championships, so this year I joined a club in Dublin called Dundrum South Dublin to be eligible for it. Two of the club runners finished ahead of me, the first guy finished with a 2:30 something and the second guy finished in 2:37. Both of the guys finished in the top 50 overall, with me finishing in 52nd place. The three of us managed to win the gold for the team competition, which was a real surprise both to myself and to the club as I kind've ran under the radar as I wasn't wearing a team singlet I also managed to take a bronze in the M35 age group. I had decided that I would wear my FastTrax vest as its what I'm used too.

So what do I take from this race? - I believe that I can and will go sub 2:40, how far below I'm not sure. I think that my training wasn't the greatest in the lead up to the race, but instead of adding more and more mileage I have to start thinking that I need to do more quality workouts rather than the quantity of workouts.

Where to next? Its a little early to be thinking of another marathon. Plus the next one I run will have to be closer to home, so I have some time yet before I run that distance again. In May there is a choice of 3 marathons in Western Canada (that I know of) Vancouver, Red Deer and Calgary. I ran Vancouver in 2007, that is the place I first went sub 3hrs. Red Deer..... I'm not that sure about as I ran the half there in May and I didn't really like the course. Calgary was the provincal championships last May so if its that again in 2010 then I'm kind've leaning on Calgary.