I ran in my longest running event to date, 19.344 miles or 31.644km, the Ireland West ¾ Marathon in Swinford County Mayo, which is about an hour’s drive from home.
We were blessed with good weather as there was torrential rain before and shortly afterwards. I thought that I could run the race in 3hrs 30 originally but decided to attempt 3hrs, which would mean that I would have to run at about 5:40/km. There were pacers there for anyone running the Dublin Marathon and the times were based on that distance, which was very confusing initially.
The start of the run happened all too quick, I don’t think anyone near the back where I was heard the start and just reacted when they saw people running in front. I just laughed and went with the flow. There was a bit of jam running through the start barrier and then we were off. I realised after about 1k that I didn’t pick any music to listen to, I took out my phone and chose a live concert to listen to and also decided to play the NRC 20-mile guided long run. I have been listening to them during my training plan and have found them a great help.
As usual I tried to find a pacer to follow, I couldn’t find one at first so just stuck to using my watch. I was passed by someone a few k into the run and decided to follow her as she wasn’t going to much faster than I was. There were times that she was running close to 5min/km and I matched it. We were gradually catching up to and passing other runners. We passed a frequent Parkrun runner (not the same one from my last 10k run) at about the 10k stage, he looks about mid 60s and runs with no effort. I have tried to keep up with him a few times at the parkruns but have only ever managed to do it for about 3k before I just tire out and have to slowdown. I had no doubt that he would pass me before the end.
This was the first run where I had attended where a way relay race was also taking place. I passed 3 lots of coaches and runners waiting to run when their teammates arrived. They were all clapping us when we went passed, which was great.
I continued to follow my pacer until about the 26k mark and had to give up when the hills got a bit too much for me. I was more or less uphill from there to the end of the run. I slowed to a very small walk twice but kept on telling myself 3hrs and forced myself to go again.
I reached 30km at nearly 2:49 and thought it was getting close distance and timewise and tried to pick it up a bit. I thought that I was running close to 5min/km and doing quite well, I was However running just over 6 min/km. I started to recognise a few buildings including the Tesco store from the beginning and tried to go a bit faster, we then turned left, and the finish line was about 200 meters away. I ran over a rubber strip and the announcer called out my name (correctly this time), another I could see the clock getting close to 2:59, I tried to run faster to beat it but finished with 2:59:11 on the clock. I beat the 3:00hr time and was very happy with that.
Overall, the run itself was great. I have been following a mixture of marathon training plans for about 4 months now and felt prepared. I also caught covid in early August and was out of action for a week. I should have waited longer but didn’t want my training to come to nothing. I had already missed a running event during that week because of it.
There was a point in the 2nd half of the run where the NRC coach asked me to look back and see how far I had come. I qualified from C25k end of June last year and started this sequence of running events with my 1st 10k 26th December 2021 and have now run about 15 now, including a 10ks, 10 milers, ½ marathons and this my longest run to date. I just let out a massive smile and felt so good to be running. It really does feel great.
I might have a day off tomorrow or do a small recovery run and then rewind the Marathon Plan by four weeks because I will be repeating it all again on October 2nd with another ¾ marathon in Donegal. I have 2 events in between, a rather unique 5km next Saturday 10th where I will be running on the runway at Knock / Ireland West Airport (I had to go for that) and a 10 mile coast to coast from Strandhill to Rosses Point in Sligo 2 weeks after.
The net time on the run was 2:58:43.
I also had PRs according to Strava
20k - 1:48:27, Half-Marathon 1:54:50, 30k 2:48:42 and 2nd best 10 mile 1:26:53.
Ran my first half marathon and first trail run!
I finally beat 4 hrs!
Milton Keynes Half Marathon 
My first (solo) half marathon 😁🥳🤸🏼♀️
