One For Joy, Two For ... More Joy!

If I were still living in Kerry I would not even have contemplated driving to Monaghan for a marathon. That drive would just have been insanely long. From Dublin, however, it was just a bit over 2 hours, which by Kerry standards would almost qualify for a local race. A couple of months ago I had asked if there were any back-to-back marathons coming up, so when Les contacted me he did not have to do much to sell it to me.

Not that I knew much about what was in store. A quick search on strava pointed me towards some forest park and some hills, but that was it. So when just over 100 runners assembled on a glorious Saturday morning I still had no real clue where we would be going but I was looking forward to it nevertheless.

What was in store were 5 loops through Rossmore Forest park, and the way the road headed straight upwards for the first mile provided a clue what it would be like. To be honest, for the first 2 miles I hated it. I did not mind the gradient, I can handle a few hills. However, the stony gravel path hurt my feet with each step, and I'm a road runner, not accustomed to that sort of surface. In addition to that, my strength has always been to be a very efficient runner, getting bouncy energy back from each stride, which does not work on a softer surface (which is why I'm so poor at cross country), which meant I had to work a little bit harder with each step. However, the forest surroundings must have soothed me; halfway through the first loop the feet had grown accustomed to the surface and the forest park was just magnificent, I could not get enough of the views. The course itself kept zig-zagging through the park, up one hill, down another, past some lakes and rivers, and past a lovely meadow at the end. The very last bit was back on tarmac, towards the start/finish area before we got to do it all over again.

At first I was in fifth position but moved up to fourth by the second loop. One runner was right at my heels but never attempted to pass, so we just kept going. I could see one other runner not too far ahead, which made navigation easier as I could just follow him instead of having to rely on the signage (which, btw, was excellent, thank God for that with a dozen junctions at least per loop). It helped that it was a crispy clear sunny morning, which only helped to improve the magic of the forest.

The miles just flew by and the hills never bothered me. There was one steeper downhill section during the fourth mile which I immediately dubbed the "fun bit", just lean forward and spin the legs and hope for the best; it may have risked smashing your quads to smithereens for the later miles but I had far too much fun to worry about that now.

During the third loop I quickly caught up to the runner ahead and all of a sudden found myself in a podium position, which had not happened in a long while, and in fact I had started to doubt if that was ever going to happen again. It was not exactly a highly competitive field, true, but I still enjoyed being in the top three once more, absolutely. Just like in the good old days!

Anyway, I had a few minor problems during the fourth loop, including the fact that my glasses had literally rubbed off a piece of skin at the bridge of my nose. It did not hurt, but it bled quite a bit. I could have gone for a gruesome look but instead kept wiping it off - wearing an orange t-shirt help camouflaging the problem. The other runner, still on my heels almost 20 miles into the race, was worried about losing his pacer but I reassured him I was okay. The other, much more noticeable issue, was my asthma, which kept acting up. I managed to get enough oxygen into me with each breath even on the steeper uphill bits but I must have sounded like I was about to collapse. I'm sure I worried a few people, sounding like a steam engine on its last legs, but I felt a lot better than I sounded.

Anyway, we were soon on the last lap, which I did welcome because at some point past 20 miles the legs did indeed start to feel all the hills, though I managed to keep a good, relaxed rhythm going. I still had that other runner right at my heels, by now having exchanged a few words every now and again, and was wondering if I should offer to run into the finish together when he started to fall back. I wasn't trying to drop him and had not increased the effort but I guess he felt the miles a bit more than I did. Never mind, I just made my way home on my own and finished the marathon in a high 3:27. I had never once looked at my pace on the watch throughout the entire race; the first time I knew how fast I had been going was when I got to the finishing gantry. The timing was manual and they gave me 3:25 in a spreadsheet I saw the next day, but my watch definitely said 3:27, so that's what I'm going with. I finished in third place, apparently only a minute behind the two leaders.

Being a single parent, if only temporarily, meant I could not stay in Monaghan overnight and had to head back to Dublin and therefore had another early rise Sunday morning. I tried to follow a recovery protocol as much as I could (apart from sitting in the car for a couple of hours), and if you heard some high-pitched shrieking emanating from South Dublin direction on Saturday evening, that was me getting into an ice bath. That was probably the hardest part of the weekend. Give me a couple of marathons any time, but don't torture me like that!

Anyway, whatever I did must have worked because the legs felt surprisingly good on Sunday, even if my sleep had not been the best. It was deja vu all over again as I headed up the N2 again, ready to do it all over again. This time it was windy and raining, but what can you do. You don't get too many days like we'd had on Saturday in that part of the world.

This was the main part of the race weekend with well over 600 runners, including a half marathon. The course differed slight from Saturday as the first loop was to be through Monaghan town before we returned into the forest for 4 more loops of the same. Looking at the data afterwards I can see that I started a bit too fast, close to 7:30 pace for the first 2 miles, but eventually settled into a nice steady rhythm again. The legs felt so much better than expected, I was amazed! I had expected to suffer a lot today but instead I got to enjoy yet another marathon, rain be damned. After a few miles I had the same runner again on my heels, but this time I finally knew his name, Ken, after chatting for a while after the race on Saturday. He mentioned running a lot on trails in California, and I only caught on later that I should have asked him about Western States and some of the famous trail races there. Ah well, I might get the chance again some day.

Anyway, we kept churning out the same loops again, just like on Saturday. There was a hickup after loop 3 when I tried to pick up my drinks bottle, which I had prepared before the race, but the table wasn't where it had been before and I lost some time, getting frustrated with the situation and the volunteers who didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Three or four times I asked where that drinks table was, getting a tad louder each time, until someone pointed me to the re-positioned drinks table (right there, but it can be hard to see those things after a couple of hours of running). I didn't lose much time, probably less than half a minute, but for a moment I had let frustration get the better of me (probably not helped by the fact that just before that a truck had cut straight ahead of me into a driveway, making me run around him, which really annoyed me). I tried to put that minor hickup out of my mind and eventually got back into a rhythm.

I caught back up with Ken when he was walking up the first hill. I tried to goad him back into running but he said he had a cramp, and that was that. He would battle cramps for the last 10 miles on all uphills but managed to fly down the downhills, so it could have been worse, I suppose. My own race got a little bit more difficult as the hills seemed to grow with each lap and the asthma got worse with each hill but I managed to keep going. In fact, I'm pretty sure I made quite some progress through the field during the last 2 laps. I was still moving somewhat okay well for the final lap, the glory stretch, but was definitely getting closer to my limits now. Another lap or two might have gotten ugly, but I got away with it.

Once again, I finished the marathon without checking the pace on my watch even once and once more only saw my time when on the finishing stretch. It was a few minutes slower than yesterday, not surprisingly, at 3:33:45. The first thing I did was to seek out the volunteer from two laps earlier and apologised for raising my voice - they deserve so much better, especially on a rainy day like today. She was very gracious about it - thank you!

I was more than happy with all that. I was even happier later on when they calculated the times for the back-to-back marathons and I had moved up one spot into second. Not only that, they even had an actual podium there for us to stand on during the prize ceremony. Maybe it's not a big deal but I don't remember ever standing on an actual podium, and really enjoyed that moment.

I had expected to suffer through the miles today. Instead I got a prize and the glory of standing on a podium (I might have mentioned that before). Monaghan was certainly worth a trip. Two, even. As things stand, I can't wait to get back next year. You should, too.

28 Sep

9.2 miles, 1:13:52, 8:01 pace, HR 144

29 Sep

9.35 miles, 1:16:58, 8:13 pace, HR 141

30 Sep

Monaghan B2B marathon, part 1

3:27:55, HR 149, 3rd place

1 Oct

Monaghan B2B marathon, part 2

3:33:45, HR 145, 2nd place overall

2 Oct

5 miles, 45:42, 9:08 pace, HR 129