Northern Ireland Running

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  • James,

    Hi. No, I don't race more than 15 miles or (more usually) half-marathon distance.

    I live near Northolt RAF base. Very handy for long runs around Hillingdon woods. Prior to that used to run around Wanstead: handy for Epping Forest.

    Miss Ireland though. I didn't start running until about 7 years ago, long after I moved away from Coleraine...pity.
  • Hi everybody - Not long to go now. Make sure to hydrate well and carbo load. I got the runner's pack - over 1700 taking part. I hope you all have a great day. I think it will be around 16 degrees C but there's a chance of showers. It should be OK though.

    The best of luck to you all and I hope you all have good runs.
  • Hi everybody Went up and got running pack this morning taking it easy carboloading and drinking plenty of water.

    Good luck on Monday see you at the end
  • Hi everyone went out for an easy couple of miles this morning at marathon. Warm and dull had agood stretch when I got home going to relax for the rest of the day.
    Take it easy see you tomorrow
  • Congratulations to all the Belfast runners. You've completed the longest marathon ever run in Belfast
  • Well I did it in 4:15 suffering tonight but the ackes and pains will disappear with a good nights sleep.
    Hope you are feeling a bit better Seamus it was tough going out there in that heat.
    What about the rest of you how did you get on and did you like the new course.
    Congratulations to everyone who finished.
    I would like to know exactly how far we had to run.
  • dont really care for the new course. too many long boring bits and no support ie, shore rd, coast path, duncrue, sydenham by pass, airport rd - pants:-((

    how did the rest of you do??

    I was going great to 12m 79.30, then going down the grassy bank during the detour tweaked groin when i slipped. uncomfortable during the coastal path and nasty breeze, then sore round twisty bit at 4th changeover. not good up the slip road at 20, 2.23.30 and then down hill agony after that. had to result to walk run after 5th changeover, hobbled over in 3.15 ish.

    the detour was noticeable as i had walked the real bit on sat afternoon. fighting through people going all directions there was hellish.

    still i have a nice glow and a white vest thanks to the sunburn. and i have now done an Ultra!!!

    If anyone wants comments passsed on to Davy Seaton the race director i will gladly oblige on mon night.........
  • Hi everybody - I hope you all had a good run. I finished in 4hrs 21 mins. I was very sick at the end of it - I think I took to many carbo gels during the run and I had a very heavy breakfast at 5.00am.

    Then I cramped very badly when getting into the car - but when I came home I did a mile run and it loosened me up and I did another mile run at dark. I feel fine now and am celebrating with a few glases of red wine.

    Kenny - You had a good run and you finished strongly. I tried to stay with you for a 100 metres or so but I had no energy left.

    James - How did you get on?

    Did any of you see mile markers from 10 - 20 miles. I didn't - I thought there would be a good marker at the 13.1 mark but I couldn't see any.

    Ian - I found the long stretches of road boring - I enjoyed last year's course better.

    Maybe I had higher expectations this year as it was a flatter course.

  • Hi everybody

    I enjoyed the run but I think the organisation could have been better

    Walkers shoud all be behind the runners at the start - runners cannot get into the stride because of this

    Too many bollards to avoid in the first half mile or so - these are dangerous

    Brightly coloured mile marker placed accuratelt to the nearest lampost and at about 15 foot high up the pole to be vandal proof.

    More stations with energy drinks

    Some of the cycle paths were too narrow especially at relay turnovers

    Relay runners should get off the track immediately - many just chatted and reversed into other runners

    Not enough portaloos around the course

    To finish on a positive note - the medal is an improvement on previous years.

    I heard a wheel chair participant complaining of the rough surface on many parts and too many sharp inclines - he said he will not be back next year.


  • Hi everybody glad I finished and because of the extra distance robbed me a PB. I ran 4.12 in London 3 years ago. Was running realy well but not knowing there had been a detour my mile times went ot the window and I though I was slowing down. Missed quite a few of the mile markers but did see some between 10 and 20. Last 9 miles difficult with the lack of support.
    Marshaling especially at the turn over was bad it was difficult forcing your way through.
    Can't comment on whether last years course was better as I didn't run it but the long straights were soul destroying.
    Ian I've also tweaked my groin it was sore about the last four miles. Quite difficult getting into the car this morning.
    Give us a few day and we will forget all about it and start planing for next year.

  • Congrats everybody on making it round - managed 4.16 after making the classic novice blunder of going off far too fast and at 20 miles having to walk/run the rest of the way........however, the lack of mile markers made pacing very difficult, and the extra bit just threw me completely....it was fantastic though. Having said that, found the Sydenham by-pass, Holywood dual carriageway, armycamp, airport road stretch absolutely soulless and boring - just when you need a lift, there's nothing......

    My friend was running with a guy with GPS - at the finish line it indicated more than 27 miles....but I think it was brave and right of the organisers to adapt the course quickly so the race could continue.....

    Roll on next year....now I know whatit's like!
  • I agree Chris it would have very disappointing if they had a stopped the race after all the hard work we put in in training.
    A guy at work called in this morning, he was running with a few guys with GPS watches and they recorded 17.3/27.4.
    I made the same mistake as you and went off too fast it hard to hold back when you feel good. I suffered between 22 - 25 but picked up for the last mile. When we needed support there was none. When I ran London the last six miles was packed with spectators cheering you home and it drives you on and gives you the boost when you need it most.
  • I did the relay and was actually starting at the changeover point where the bomb was discovered. Some runners had already come through when they rerouted the race, hence the chaotic changeover. I actually felt sorry for those running the whole race as the path between waiting relayers on either side of the road was often less than 1 m wide.

    Comparing this year's course to last year's (what I've seen of it) I can imagine it would be very difficult to run the last miles in the middle of nowhere. At least the weather was reasonable, on a bad day it would have been much worse.

  • Having had a day now to recover, and get over disappointment of going off too fast, want to have another crack soon. Anybody any thoughts about/experience of Dublin in October?
  • Kenny and Co - I'm glad that it was possibly 27.3-4 miles. I thought I ran the race as well as I did Connemara and my time in Connemara was 4hrs 16 mins.

    My time off 4hrs 21 mins doesn't seem so bad now as I probably ran an extra mile.

    This has heartened me as I know I can improve.

    Kenny - You could have broken the 4 hour barrier if there hadn't been a diversion.

    James - You still did a very good time

    Are any of you going to do the Ballymoney 5 on Friday?
  • Sobering thoughts from you all.

    I think the markers were all in place, from people saying i saw this one and that one and not the other. With the exception of the coastal path!!! However with all the election posters they get missed, a nice bright flourescent orange/green would have stood out more.

    Chris glad you havent been put off and are up for more you lunatic. Dublin is an easier run there is much more atmosphere and support, i have done the last two and am heading down again this year just to enjoy it. I am off to Cardiff 3 wks before.

    James, Edinburgh also has a few long lonely bits, the cycle path, protabello seafront and the last uphill 3 miles, good luck. at least they took out arthurs seat this year.

    me, am resting poor groin for a week or so then aiming for a few good races form the callender before Longford Mara at end of August.
  • Feeling a lot better today, the legs are easing up. The pain in the groin is still there but not as bad as yesterday. The achilles is still swollen so I am going to take at least a week maybe two off to recover.

    Seamus the Ballymoney run has been postponed due to the elections and will now be held on Wednesday 27 July at 19.00 so we will all have recovered by then and hopefully do a better time.

    I don't know if I would have broken the 4 hours Seamus but would have been a lot closer as I struggled between 22 & 25 miles.
    I was a bit down at the end because I hadn't beat my 4:12. Early on I was on schedule to do it but when I heard we had run extra it helped. We can only go on what people are saying it varies from a few hundred yards to 1.2 miles. It a bit like the fisherman the more the story is told the longer the distance will get. I don't think the organisers will ever tell us the exact distance. I can't understand why they don't put a timing mat at the start to give you an official time. The difference between my time and their time is 1 min 22 surely when they go to the bother of using chips this would be simple.

    Chris I may look at Dublin in a few weeks.

    James how are you put the disappointment of your time down to experience and look on it as a long training run in preparation for Edinburgh. Maybe look at what you ate before the race to see if there was anything which may have upset you.

    Baldy I think Dave is going to get a hard time about the new course a lot of people not very happy.
  • You could try and use the immodium on your next long run to see what happens. Or forget about using it again.
    I know that if I am pushing myself realy hard that my stomach cramps up. Maybe you were pushing a bit too hard and this was your bodies way of telling you to slow down. It always worrying when something like this happens that it will happen again until you go out and have a good run without any problems.
  • John Glover on the Belfast 2005 thread measured the detour yesterday and says
    Update on distance - surveyor's wheel taken round detour today measuring 1580 metres - take away the 400 metres which should have been run through Gideon's Green and you get an extra 1180 metres run.
    The official line from the Belfast Marathon Office is that extra distance was a third of a mile.
    Runners wearing GPS watches say it was 27.3-4 will we ever know.

  • What does anybody think about the Lisburn half-mara in June?
  • Hi Chris you must have recovered if you are think about doing another race.
    Lisburn is a tough course run mainly on closed road are bits that are closed off to traffic. Unlike Belfast it is not flat but as I always say if you go up the hills you have to come down sometime. A large field doing the half and more doing the 10K with a lot of kids doing the fun run.
    I have never had a good run at Lisburn but maybe this year all being well I'll have a good crack at it.
  • Hi everybody - I hope you are all recovering well after the strains of the marathon

    I was talking to a friend of mine after the marathon - I think it was his 36th marathon. Guess what? He forgot his trainers and he ran the whole marathon in a black pair of Clarks shoes. Now that takes some doing.
  • Seamus, thats a repeat of a regular from dublin. In the past when the race coincided with the train from the south arriving and no shops open, he turned up with nowt but is brogues. Went on to finish the whole thing.

    Not too concerned with extra bit now, irrelevent, you cant change the times, how would you do it and what would be the point.

    But how do we get rid of morons that caused it to happen, especially in sport??

    Lisburn is great, tough but well run adn well attended. Will be running with work folk at their paces. May set up a timed pace group, any thoughts??
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