Friday, December 15, 2017

EOI B2B Howth Marathons, Part 1

This is not a race report. I'll wait for tomorrow's race before I start writing one.

There's a hill in Howth. Actually, Howth IS a hill. I can see it very clearly all the way back from my balcony in Cherrywood. It's just one single hill, thankfully. Except that we got to climb it 4 times on that loop course.

I survived the 4th loop only because I told myself that I'll never have to climb the ridiculously steep bit ever again because tomorrow's race would be held in reverse direction (though I was already dreading running downhill on that). Except that Gary told me, after I'd finished, that they will have to change the course because of tomorrow's Christmas market in Howth, so we'll just go over the hill and back several times, leaving out the flat bit. On already dead legs from day 1. That's going to be ... interesting.

Have you ever found yourself at a junction in central Dublin (actually, any very busy junction anywhere in the world will do), the light just turned green but you can't move off because your left calf is just about to cramp violently and you can't operate the clutch, and you're starting to panic because of all the cars behind you, except that due to your rising panic you forgot which way you have to move your foot to release the cramp, because if you move it the wrong way the cramp will get much, much worse and you're already screaming in pain? It's not a good place to be in.  Seriously.

Well, if you do find yourself in such a situation then the answer is to dorsiflex the foot, which I thankfully managed to remember before an irate driver behind me would have taken me out. The drive home was a rather uncomfortable one. Interestingly, it was only the left leg that gave me troubles, even though when running I almost always cramp in my right leg only. It's operating the clutch that was the problem. I'm tempted to hire an automatic for my next marathon.

Which is tomorrow. Oh F...!

My right knee hurt on loop 1's downhill section, the balls of my right foot REALLY hurt through laps 2 and 3 and my right calf was very painful on lap 4; not a cramp, some muscle pain. I need a new right leg!

Second place today in a very modest 3:38:54. I tried to take it easy, with tomorrow weighing very heavily on my mind.

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