Apart Christmas and my summer holidays, the Dublin marathon weekend is one of my favourite times of the year. I love the tapper, the registration, the atmosphere and dinner and few pints after the race. So needless to say I was very disappointed when it was cancelled, but I’m well aware that there is a bigger picture here and the right decision was made for the safety of all involved.
I had no intention in doing a virtual marathon, but four weeks ago some old triathlon club friends got in touch and told me they were doing it on the Sunday in Tymon park, so I said why not. I did some excellent training with Sportsworld over the last few months, but I have not done much long distance running lately. However, I felt in decent enough shape.
The route consisted of eight laps, starting and finishing at the basketball arena. Not a bad day, but was windy enough. We started out at 7.30am and the park was nice a quiet. It did get busier as the morning went on, and taking an educated guess, I would say there were other clubs doing their virtual marathon there too. The support was great, pockets of encouragement along the way.
I felt good until about mile 20, until I started to get some stomach cramps. These lifted at mile 22 and I felt great and put in some of best miles at this stage. Then bang, mile 25 I was a dead man walking, but knew the work was done at that stage and I just had to see it home. It was great to have my wife and two kids cheering me on at the end too. I finished with 3hrs 11mins, which was 11 minutes quicker than 2019 and two minutes quicker than my personal best, so I was a happy man. I put the improvement down to the training with Sportsworld and I’m hoping Emily can push me to crack that three hour barrier in 2021.
You must be logged in to post a comment.