Running

[orangeman]

Well, that's the first ever marathon done. I'll write a bit more detail about it tomorrow as I'm going to head for a feed and a few pints here now when the legs start working again. I said on here a few months ago that my 2 targets this year are a 20 minute 5k and a 4 hour marathon. Well, the 4 hour marathon is now ticked off the list - just about! Crossed the line bang on 3:59! The pints today are well earned!

How'd anyone else do?

Fair play to you. Well done.

[take_yer_points]

Brilliant!! How are you feeling after it?
Mr Rois came in around your time, think he was 3.52 or so. I was standing at a couple of different points and wore a Club Tyrone coat so had a few shouts from Tyrone runners along the route.

Such an emotional day. I hope you are very proud of yourself because you should be!

Haha, I've a notion I let a road at you then! On the Antrim road?


Left big toe is in bad enough shape but not too bad other than than. Legs were very stiff afterwards but a bath has sorted them out a bit

[Rois]

Yep, just at the Lansdowne 

[take_yer_points]

Yep, just at the Lansdowne 

Apologies for shouting at you then

[ballinaman]

Well, that's the first ever marathon done. I'll write a bit more detail about it tomorrow as I'm going to head for a feed and a few pints here now when the legs start working again. I said on here a few months ago that my 2 targets this year are a 20 minute 5k and a 4 hour marathon. Well, the 4 hour marathon is now ticked off the list - just about! Crossed the line bang on 3:59! The pints today are well earned!

How'd anyone else do?

Congrats, savage pacing to get it bang on your target.mighty achievement, you are a marathoner!

[imtommygunn]

Well done typ. Was out watching and was wet/ windy enough in places!

[Orior]

Thanks to all the runners who shouted "Fore!" as I putted on the ninth green. How original, lol.

[Bingo]

Fair play and congrats TYP. Super running.

Look forward to you report on the day.

I'm sure you are feeling it today but its a good sort of pain!

[laoislad]

Fair play TYP thats great.

[take_yer_points]

Thanks everyone for the good wishes. As promised here's a bit of an update on the marathon.

I started training just before new year with a 2 mile run. The furthest I'd ran before was about 8 mile or so but that would have been on a treadmill so getting out onto the roads was new to me. I took a plan off the internet and tailored it to suit me – there were long runs I had to move around to fit in stags and weddings but pretty much kept the structure of the plan.

I'd love to say I stuck to the plan but I didn't. I never missed a long run but did miss quite a few recovery runs. I also found it difficult sticking to a slower pace – on most of my runs I was going faster than I planned to run the marathon. If I were ever to do another marathon that's one thing I would force myself to fix. My longest training run was 20 miles. I went to do 22 miles the following week (actually just 5 days later) and I had to stop at 15 miles – I had zero energy left. That was my last long run so it put a lot of doubt in my mind.

Over this past weekend I loaded up on a lot of pasta. I got an early night on Sunday and slept like a log! Got up at 6am on Monday morning to get some breakfast and headed into the city centre at 8.15 or so with a friend of mine I was running it with (just as the rain started). I thought we'd be very far back with a planned time of 4 hours but was amazed how close to the front we were actually starting from. It took about 30 seconds to cross the start line. There were 3 four hour pacers so the plan was to stick with them if we could.

By the time we were starting the rain had stopped. We headed out towards east Belfast and a few hundred yards in two things happened – the lady who ended up winning the women's marathon came sprinting past on the footpath (apparently there was some mix up and she wasn't up at the front for the start) and some fella fell opposite the entrance to House of Fraser – a couple of hundred yards in and he went down with some force!

Anyway, we got the first few miles over us and turned to come back in the Sydenham bypass. Still no rain and the wind wasn't too much of an issue. The stretch from there back into town was boring enough but we were in good shape so were chatting away to people round us. It was one of the pacers' 50th marathon!! We came back into Belfast and got to the first relay changeover – what a disorganised load of balls!! We were nearly slowed to a walk – people were crowding in and there was no space to run. Then people were stopping dead in front of you when they found who they were looking for.

We got through town and headed up the falls – that was the start of about 7 miles of gradual uphill climbing until the top of the Antrim Road. I'd covered all of that on training runs so at least I knew what to expect.  As we came out from Clonard and rounded into Lanark Way some woman shouted "Keep going, the wee Kenyans are just round the next corner" – that got a good laugh out of everyone. It wasn't too much further to the next changeover and it was almost as bad as the first one.

We came round to Westland Road which is 10 or 11 miles and that's when I realised how most people are just simply really nice. People had stands up outside their houses with oranges, sweets, bananas, water, etc... One woman had a sign with an arrow pointing in towards her house with "You can use my toilet" written on it. My wife then met me at the junction of Cavehill Road with a lucozade sport and a few energy gels – we were about 40 seconds ahead of the 4 hour pacers at that point. We turned into the Antrim Road and things were still good – pace was fine and I didn't feel too tired yet. There's a bar on the Antrim Road called the Chester – they were giving out free half pints of Guinness to people running – I couldn't get my head around that. Just after the Chester was when the rain really started. The whole way up the rest of the road it pissed down – my clothes started feeling a lot heavier and my socks were soaking!! A few colleagues from work were on the Antrim Road and they gave us a bit of a boost to keep going.

As we got up to the top of the hill there were a few funny signs – "It's all downhill after the next corner", "You're looking good random stranger" and the Riverrock one saying "it's just a hill, get over it". Having spent about an hour of constant uphill it's a bit of a shock to the system to turn the corner and see a massive downhill. In some ways it's almost as difficult on the downhill wet surface.

I had organised in my head where I would eat all the energy gels. That went out the window when I came down past the abbey centre – they were giving them out for free so I took two and started eating them a bit more than I'd planned. We got down to the Shore Road at about 16 miles and that's when I started to struggle. We came past the next changeover at just under 17 miles and it was perfectly organised – the relay people were split off from the marathon runners so it couldn't have been better.

The next two miles were in the towpath along the M5. It's very open to the elements and was like a wind corridor with the wind right in our faces. There's also no support whatsoever apart from people on the motorway blowing horns as they went past. We came up off the towpath at Dargan Road and there was a big crowd there cheering us on. Having said that we were still in the middle of an industrial estate so it wasn't as busy as the residential areas.

Another few miles brought us to the last changeover and another gel station – lifted another 2 gels and ate 1 straight away. This changeover was at Corporation Street and was perfect as well – i think it helped that the runners were a lot more spread out by this time. We were now down to 4 miles to go and my wife was going to be at the Ormeau Road so had only 2 miles to get to that.

We were back onto the towpath at central station for another mile and the boredom and wind started to take over again. I was really struggling at this point but I knew I only had a mile until I'd see my wife and then only had 2 miles left in total. The 4 hour pacers had passed us at that point and we couldn't stay with them – was starting to panic but if we could finish on 9.5 minute miles I thought we would make it. We got to the end of the towpath and the crowds were great – saw my wife and some other family and mates - got a big cheer there and that pushed us on a bit.

We passed 24 miles at the bottom of the Ormeau Road. Looking up that hill was so daunting – it was slow going but again the people were great. People of all ages were giving out fruit again, sweets, etc. There was a full on party outside the Parador and a fella with a microphone was shouting out encouragement and people's numbers. We somehow got to the top of the Ormeau Road and turned the corner onto the Ravenhill Road. I was calculating what we needed to make it in 4 hours and it was looking like we were going to struggle. Brute ignorance took over at that point and we picked it up a bit. We did the next mile in just over 8 minutes – round about a minute above average.

We turned into the embankment and the crowds were great – so many people shouting encouragement. There was a group of us then aiming for 4 hours and we all helped each other for the last bit. We passed 26 miles and could see the finish line in Ormeau Park – I started seeing a few mates who had came to see us and they all seemed to be spread out perfectly to cheers us on.

We crossed the line at 3 hours 59 minutes 16 seconds – the chip time was about 30 seconds faster than that. We hugged each other more to hold each other up than anything else but what a relief it was to finish. Went and got the medal and pack they give you and met all the family. I headed off home for a bath and went out for a feed and a few pints. Still in recovery mode today – the muscles are recovering well but one of my toes is in agony.

As soon as I finished I said I would never do that again. This morning I said I'd love to do a leg next year just to be involved. Who knows what I'll be saying tomorrow!

Finally, just want to say thanks to ballinaman, imtommygunn, bingo and all the lads who've been very good with advice on training, etc.. over the last few months – it's all appreciated!

[laoislad]

Excellent report TYP. Fair play.

[Bingo]

Great read TYP, mighty finish to get in under the 4hrs, takes a lot to pick up the pace at that stage of a marathon. The pints where well earned.

You'll be back 

[imtommygunn]

Good man TYP glad some of the stuff I posted could be of some help- great report!

There is a good atmosphere round belfast but they need to sort the course out - it's shocking - and get plastic bottles for water. Going out to newtownabbey and back in a towpath is ridiculous. I think you could do dublin a bit faster again - I'll bet you do another one too!

The mind forgets pain so you will forget about the tough parts and do another one I bet!

[Milltown Row2]

Well done TYP, hmmmm might have a look at Dublin sometime. Hate my competitive streak sometimes

[majestic]

Hi

First time poster here, but I have been having real problems with my shins not the bone, the muscle running down the outside of the leg. After about 5 minutes running the pain becomes unbearable, and ill have to rest to let the pain subside and start again. I have also noticed that I have very limited movement of my feet because of the pain. I've seen a number of physios over the years and most have said shin splints. I have also gone to a podiatrist and have the insoles and Ive been wearing them for three years now. But I'm still getting the pain.

The latest physio I have seen mentioned something called compartment syndrome, he is recommending I see a surgeon about an operation to help with it. Has anyone ever heard about this or suffered from similar? I'm just trying to learn more about the condition.

Thanks