Dublin Marathon 2014

NorthEnder

Pete Holt wrote (see)

Hi Northend, I was a little p*ssed with some of the inclines which I felt were damn steep, two in particular were quite bad and then there were the ones that were less steep but quite prolonged in distance.  the run through the park being one in particular that seemed to go on forever.

Did you manage to get your 3:39 target?

Hi Pete.

We must have been on the same piece of road.  I missed 3:40 (which was always going to be a big stretch)...  finishing in 3:49:23.

Maybe I was so focussed on pushing myself to the limit, that I didn't really notice the conditions/course.   I've been blaming myself for going out at 3:40 pace, when I knew I was only fit for 3:45 at best.   On reflection, maybe the course/conditions could take some of the blame.

Thanks Jonners for the link.  Despite also slowing significantly in the closing 7-8 miles, I see that my position was 4312 at half way,   3726 at 30K and 3378 at the finish... so that does improve my confidence.

I've been thinking Manchester for my 5th marathon.  Time to experience something really flat.  (and I am a Lancashire lad).    Perhaps see you there!

Redjeep

Pete Holt wrote (see)

hi Jeep, Manchester is nice and flat.  Comparing the garmin graphs of Dublin and manchester in terms of the terrain is chalk and cheese. Manchester's is like a snooker table in comparison to the Dublin graph.

Thanks Pete. I ran it this year and can confirm how flat it is. It's also my home town , so gives me a chance to stay at my mum's.

My time was almost exactly the same, which is one reason I think Dublin was my strongest marathon of the year, as it was much tougher than Manchester. I reckon I'll be at least 5 -10 mins faster in Manchester than Dublin.

Hardest part as a lifelong City fan was having to run towards Old Trafford !

Pete Holt

Hi North End,

I missed the start and went off with the ten past nine group so may have finished about ten minutes behind you with 3:49:19.

Redjeep, don't lie you love running towards old Trafford. 

 

Redjeep

I've just downloaded my splits and realise that I did exactly the same time in Dublin as I did in Limerick earlier in the year, to the second.

There was also only 27 seconds difference between my times for Dublin and Manchester and less than 90 seconds difference between all of the 4 marathons I did this year.

Freaky.

NorthEnder

That is interesting Redjeep.

My last 3 races have been 3:46  3:45 and now this 3:49 (which is probably a very similar performance, given the conditions).   Now I really can point to reducing training with each of the last 2... but if that was not the case, I would be looking hard at the training regime.

Do you know why they are so similar?  Might there be some staleness in your training?

Redjeep

NorthEnd wrote (see)

Do you know why they are so similar?  Might there be some staleness in your training?

 

I don't know, as I've only just realised how close they were. It could be the training for the first 3 which were only about a month apart, but my training's been completely different coming into Dublin. I only got 1 long run in, had done a tough Adventure Race three weeks before and a multi day cycle a few weeks before that, both of which were disruptive to my training.

I also think that Dublin was a completely different race to the first 3 as they were all very flat in comparison.