2013 Marathon Thread

Crikey I thought what a chatty lot you are..but then realised most of the posts are Teks and the linky thing.. your patience paid off though Tek and wow you even looked up the dates !!

Kaz oh you poor things take care and get well soon

Jason 4.2 mile race ? unusual distance , so how any runs for you today ? just the 2 

Fiona  mud and water  ? that seems to be the theme for pretty much every run I have done the last month..nice run you !

AGF now thats what I call a new years day run...no hangover I take it ?

NP I am looking forward to reading about your race good luck.

OH nice training well done..was that sea swim or is your local pool open ? mine is closed 

SC  nice 71% run , are you still Hadding ?

Well just back from my first tempo session of the schedule  on News Year day of all days, I was good and didnt drink much last night at all. 3 x vodka and cokes...then stuck to coke  Still felt a bit delicate tho.mind you for someone who is virtually tee total apart from Christmas  and birthdays I guess 3 is more than enough

Anyway 9 miles in 1.19 tempo section was 7.43 ( legs thought WTF???) then 7.37..7.38 and 7.32  so glad thats over

Ignored HR and just ran like a mad woman concentrating on pace

I tend to use HR more for the long runs to make sure I a not running the too fast, must have been pretty well spot on as I only did my 17.5miler  2 days ago and managed to hit tempo pace today..albeit a bit of a shock to the legs

 

AGF- Nice start!

Tek- Not bad for a Fetchie

Fiona- 12.6m is good for NYD

OH- good running, swimming and race entering

Tempo effort at race over and done with- with an extra mile of tempo and a couple of easy ones. Well, that was fun! I was told that it was a fairly flat course- not! I was also told that there would likely be some water on the course. There was. Three lakes which were around a foot deep- welll over the tops of my socks- and around 10-20 yards across My feet were numb instantly!! Still, nice soup at the end. One more recovery run left for later  

Super running NN. Tempo can be tough so well done. Unfortunately the wine last night made the last few miles tough for me. All done now though.

Nice running OH, Tek and Fiona. You are all running well at the start of the year !!

Good running too Jason. Glad the soup warmed you up.

Kaz, really sorry to hear about your appendix. All the best and get well soon

NN- sorry cross post I find tempo runs tough on my own which is why today's race was ideal Had to rein myself back in at the start though and avoid getting dragged into racing it! Well done on your run and your moderation last night

AGF well done on the 20 miles great start to the New Year.
Fiona another great run in the back glad the snow has gone for you but you still ended up with wet feet.
Teknik nice line in the mud with your 8 miles.
OH same for you nice running.
NN well done on your 9 mile tempo run, nice to get it out the way close to your long run.
Jason well done with your Tempo/race around the lakes even if it was more like a paddle enjoy your recovery run later.

Well I got to Glenariff to find the road into the car park very icy after parking up I went and registered and had a chat with a couple of runners when the heavens opened and everyone headed back to there cars with 15 mins before the start the rain sort of stopped and I managed a warm up mile before stretching and heading over to the start line for the off.
The first 1/4 mile saw all the speedsters disappear into the distance before we turned off road and up the first of many hills. The course was very well marshalled and marked out at every turn. I felt quite good and looking down at my Garmin saw that it had packed in.....
At around half way I passed a chap from work who was out to watch this gave me a little boost just before another climb which was followed by a big big drop, I felt as if my legs where running away from the top half of my body......
After yet another hill we passed the finish area which was some 200m below the level we where on, at this stage the women who finished second in the FO race drew level with me and we ran up the final hill neck and neck before the trail turned and was down hill to the finish opening my legs I managed to put 50 m between me and her and managed to keep it at that to the finish line. I came in 37th and second in my age group. so having run a race on Saturday 17 miles on Sunday and a recovery run yesterday I'm very happy with the result

Excellent racing NP. Well done. Your hill run must have helped you in this race

Fantastic result NP, very well done! Bodes well for 2013!

F

Tek - Nice run

AGF - Good start to the year

OH - Well done

Fiona - Good running

NN - Good tempo run

NP - Well done on the race

Jason - Nice tempo run/race

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Garmin has thrown a wobbly again and is refusing to work. I think I ran 4.6 miles in roughly 40 minutes today, so a wee bit faster than I would have liked.

NP- excellent stuff!!! Just try to keep up with your legs!

Jason LOL think I set a new PB for 100m nearly fell HOT's.......

NN, yes I'm still Hadding I have another two weeks to go then I start adding some quicker runs into the schedule, Good tempo run, hopefully they will get easier, won't they

NP good race report well done

Jason, never thought of using a race as a tempo run,

10.8 miles group run today, the Criac and the weather was good

Happy New Year guys.

Well done on everyone's training.  I managed to get out today also!  (Did just over a mile.)

 

Well done HM4 nice start to the new year.

SC- Races are great for tempo motivation  Trouble is that they don't normally coincide- lol!

HM4- Well done on getting the year's running rolling

NP- That's the definition of running- a controlled fall. just remember the control- we don't want you breaking anything else except PBs this year!!!!

Just over 4m recovery run for me this evening. Lovely dry and still evening- weird

Crickey! This thread is fast moving! Apologies for this long post!

Fiona C wrote (see)

 That makes sense Emmy! Great list of races!  Have you done Frankfurt before? I'm looking at either Amsterdam (again) or Frankfurt at the moment.

F

I've not done Frankfurt but heard really good things about it! I work quite often in Frankfurt so I know the course a little bit. It should be a great race. I've done Amsterdam this year and was impressed by the starting organisation but i didn't like the course or the end organisation too much.

Other Half wrote (see)

Emmy - we're at the other extreme where even a UK mainland race means a ferry/flight with consequent expense in time and money. But Orkney's a beautiful place to live

That's true. I love running races in the UK as everyone is so friendly and it's more an 'all inclusive' deal. In Belgium - it's still quite elite and the time cut offs for some of the cheaper races are quite steep (4hrs for a marathon). So I choose to move around a bit and explore more of Europe! I love exploring a country through running it. My favourite race so far was Marathon du Medoc... and not just for the wine 

Johnas wrote (see)

Fiona - having done Amsterdam before I'm doing Frankfurt in 2013. Apparently faster than Berlin and a lot more interesting than Amsterdam's industrial estate and suburbs!

I've heard that although Frankfurt is flat - it's not as PB potential as Berlin as there are some open parts of the course which can be very windy (just like Amsterdam). It'll be great support though - every German race is fantastic for support and post race beers 

jason d wrote (see)

Emmy- Who's going to be a busy girl then?

I'm better busy than bored!  Running is my only vice. No smoking, very little drinking - we all have to one quirk!

No Pain wrote (see)

Lol think it takes that number of pages just for Emmy's marathons. Will look at one in Oct or Nov not sure just yet.

I apologise for that.... I've got a few friends that make me look dull in comparison (racing every weekend).

Kaz - Get well soon! How are you doing today?

No Pain - What a great race report!

HM4 - Well done on the miles! How are you getting on?

No running today, got to sort some paperwork for appraisal and weather's cr@p

NP LOL

jason - it's been dry and still round here for a few days now, which is very welcome and pleasant

NP - impressive racing on top of some big miles, nice one

Emmy - being relatively new to racing i've not done anything abroad but the idea really appeals to me so it's something i'll look to doing at some point. Maybe in a few years when the kids are old enough to stay at home and me and mrs M can chill for a long weekend

Into week 4 of P&D here and this morning's 14M MLR was a real psychological battle what with today being back to work and having to get up at 5am to run. Fortunately the weather was good which helped.

After 5M i started to feel a rumbling in the old belly  and from then on it was a case of not thinking about it and making it home to sanctuary  ..... then just as things started to get uncomfortable  with 2M to go, a kerb stone decided to trip me up and i was tumbling through the air before landing in a heap in the gutter with my palms bleeding and a hole in my wind jacket  Strangely the experience seemed to do me the world of good and i felt a lot more comfortable ( but a tad sore ) for the run in.

And i even managed to kid mrs M for a few minutes that my wounds were the result of an attempted mugging by 3 yoofs before the rumble started up again .......

hard core getting up that eary...... that Good tough mental running mace. thats the spirit that will get you a marathon PB   I hope the wounds clear up and your not too  sore.

@Mace - I can really recommend running in other countries - it's a nice way to explore and see how 'other' countries do it. I love German races - it's efficient, well marshalled and they always have a great after party/refuelling station. The one at Cologne is legendary - it's sponsored by a supermarket and you can get whatever you want (beer, sausages, pate, nuts and fruit, coffee, soup etc) for free. Last year - we spent over an hour in there drinking beer and eating sausage sandwiches! 

I've looked at P&D and was planning on using it for Paris but I'm going to focus it for Berlin in the latter part of the year. Sorry to hear about your fall - how are you now? Any bruising?

mace- the tough runs are the ones that really count Hope you're ok now

14m done and dusted with 0.6m warmdown to finish. I could still feel yesterday's hills in my legs 14m in 1.38.55 (7.04 av) splits: 7:21 7:30 7:30 7:24 7:20 7:21 7:17 7:08 7:06 6:41 6:40 6:34 6:36 6:28 All good at this stage