The Beyond.

As the guy in the A-team used to say, 'I love it when a plan comes together'.

The forecast for Monday morning of the race was initially poor. Somehow, it changed about 12 hours before, and on the morning conditions were almost perfect.  No rain, temp about 11 degrees, and a fresh breeze. I had gone to bed the night before at 9.30 having not slept very well the night before.
I drifted off to sleep pretty much straight away, and aside from a few toilet breaks during the night due water loading that day, I slept very well, being woken by the alarm clock.
Had the breakfast, did the required morning routine, off for the bus.

We got there in good time and made our way to the bag drop. We headed to the start area mostly together, but found our own places among the masses of eager runners. I made my way to the 3.10 pacers to say hello to Thomas Bubendofer as i said I would. I had been expecting to pace a 7.15 but Thomas told me the garmin measures long, so it would be a 7.10 pace on the watch, and i reset my virtual partner. The virtual partner is pretty much the only thing I use now, set it and forget it, follow it and you are on pace.

At the start, there was the usual bottle necks and the first mile was very slow at 7.40. Over the next few miles, once the crowd had thinned out a bit, the pacers made up the time with 3 6.50 pace minutes. I didn't really mind the faster pace, although it was noticeable, and it was probably a bit challenging for some of the fellow 3.10 group.  Once the time had been recouped, the pace then settled again towards 7.10 or so.

I made sure to follow Gary's advice, and drank water from the very first station, and every one there after. My plan was just water and sports drinks provided, no gels, so it was important that I got my drink at every station.  The miles ticked by beautifully for the most part, and at times up to about 15 miles as I was amongst the group, it was almost that I could forget I was even running, the pace being very comfortable. There were a few sections where the breeze was quite stiff and that woke me up pretty well.  As we got into the high teens, and started to drop some people, I started to think about the wall. Would I fall apart at 18 to 20 like I had done at the other 3 marathons?

Mile 18, 19 and 20 went by, and I still felt really good.  I spotted a fellow club runner, Brian C, would had gone off with the 3 hour group, but had fallen off the pace, up ahead and I went ahead of the 3.10 group to pick him up and maybe encourage him to join with me, but he was suffering with a recurring injury, and he knew he couldn't maintain the pace so I kept going.

21 miles alert on the watch, I was still feeling good, no wall yet, ok now or never, if I wanted to run for negative splits I had to try now, so I went ahead of the pacers. At 22, there were some fellow club members out to support the runners and it gave me a great lift. I felt like I was flying along, the adrenaline was pumping, and I felt strong.  23, 24, more club members cheering me on, I was maintaining a 7 min pace. The finish was in reach, and although the effort was definitely much harder at this stage, I knew I was not stopping and was confident I could maintain it.

The support in the final stages of the Dublin marathon is nothing short of mind bending.  My last mile was exactly a 7 min mile, and I was passing out runners at a huge rate, alot walking, I even passed the 3 hour pacer who had obviously fallen off pace. The energy I was drawing from the crowds, as I ran at what felt like 100 miles an hour to me, was massive, with my arm raised coming around the last bend, shouting "come on", probably looking like a raving looney, but absolutely savouring and enjoying every last second off it! I had done it, I had ran, non stop, at my target pace, or faster, for 26.2 miles, and finished strong and excited and amazed, and every other emotion that every other finisher felt on that day, at that finish line, and I loved it!

My time was 3:08:51, a new pb by almost a full 30 minutes.
Almost every one of us in the club who had trained under Gary's plan and coaching sessions achieved massive pbs, and the others were as good as their previous pbs.

When I started writing this blog I said, I would either have to adjust my ability to match my expectations, or vice versa.  Each and every one of our club members who achieved their pbs under Gary's training, also would not have done so without putting in the massive amount of work required. I think for previous marathons  I may have felt that i was putting in sufficient training, but probably wasn't doing enough for what I wanted to achieve. Well done to all my club mates, and particularly the supporters who came in on the day.


Now I just need to shave off  another 9 minutes or so... GGARYYYY.....