We had an easy flight into Dublin, and full day to settle in to our AirBnB. On race morning, both Kevin and I woke up early enough to have a light breakfast and a shot or two of espresso. We were sitting around counting down the time when I noticed there was a discrepancy between the time on my watch & phone vs the clocks in the house. Oops! Good thing it wasn't the other way around! So, after one more hour of nervous waiting, we made our way outside for an easy 1-mile jog to the starting area.
It was a chilly morning, but as we waited in the corral the body heat from the hundreds of runners surrounding us made for a comfortable wait. We were one or two rows from the front of the buffer zone, when the race officials removed the rope to allow us to move forward to the starting line. Somehow we found ourselves about 20 rows back from the front just prior to the start! I wasn't nearly as nervous as Kevin prior to the start, but when that happened I was ticked off since we'd arrived early enough to get into a good position.
Once the race started Kevin and I were immediately separated by the tightly packed crowd of runners. I felt like I was barely moving for the first mile or so, but in reality my pace was yo-yo-ing as I tried to find open space. After the first mile or two I was able to find the space needed to try and settle in.
For whatever reason, it took me quite awhile to to get into any type of groove. I saw my mile splits ticking off and I was generally in the low 6-minute range, but by mile 5 my calves and hamstrings were a little bit tight and had me concerned about late race cramping. That mild sensitivity likely worked in my favor - instead of being concerned that I wasn't quite at goal pace, I remained focused on staying relaxed and never pressed the issue. I had a Flanagan moment and stopped at mile 10 for a quick bathroom break, but my split was still 6:26, so...not bad! After rolling through Phoenix Park, I settled into a good rhythm for the next 12-14 miles.
At the halfway mark, Elizabeth and Mariani had walked a good 45 minutes to cheer on Kevin and I. I ditched some of my layers, and felt good cruising on through. Still not feeling totally confident about avoiding muscle cramps, I wasn't pressing the issue. In years past, my marathon mantra has been "always be willing to loosen the screws, and don't tighten them until after mile 20." In effect, I think that boils down to racing on feel. So, this year without thinking much about it, I think I did a good job of really paying attention to the signs my body was sending me.
Around mile 22 or 23, I was starting to really feel my left hamstring. I didn't fear cramps any longer, however the attachment point has been an issue for quite some time now, and I was starting to feel like an ice pick was scraping the bone...fun stuff! It wasn't hampering my gait too much, but it definitely had an effect on the later stages of the race.
Not counting my bathroom break mile, I had my slowest split of the race at mile 24. My feet were really beat up in addition to the hamstring, and while this was a mostly downhill mile I still split a 6:21. This is the more frustrating part of my race, because if not for my feet feeling blasted I would've been able to hammer this mile. I felt great as far as my cardio and breathing were concerned, but my body wasn't in that same state.Sometime around this point I started to do the math on my finishing time...but, my math was a bit fuzzy. I knew after that last split I had absolutely no chance of breaking 2:40. Instead I couldn't tell if I was in danger of missing out on breaking 2:45 or not. After a couple minutes of bad math I decided to just compartmentalize the pain and get as dialed in as I could - after all, it was only ~2 miles to go.
The final stretch from mile 24 to the finish went past where we were staying, and so I passed Elizabeth and Mariani again for the final time - though I'm not sure if I heard anything or not. I was focused on trying to get the last bit of speed out of my body, and I was passing runners in bunches at this point - then finally crossing the finishing mat in a time of 2:43:01...if only I had known, I could've found 2 more seconds somewhere!!
Conclusion: This is finally a marathon PR that I'm fairly happy with. I'm in no way disappointed, but....there is still some meat on that bone!
Splits:
6:20
5:57
6:10
6:03
6:02
6:09
6:166:04
6:08
6:26
6:18
6:08
6:11
6:19
6:10
6:15
6:09
6:00
6:04
6:09
6:10
6:11
6:13
6:21
6:17
6:00
2:22 (garmin showed the final distance as .42)
Final: 2:43:01
Place: 137, and 3rd American Male (makes it sound a little better, doesn't it?)
Garmin
Strava
