I’ve eventually located my Dublin marathon photos in the “Lost & Found” section on MarathonFoto website. Thought for a time that this would be the second race this year where there was absolutely no photographic proof that I’d actually run the race!

It’s motivating and inspiring looking at the photos – (even in the ones where I look more expired than inspired!). It’s amazing how quickly you forget the pain, the aching calves, the semi-delirious thoughts at mile 25 that you’ve only got 1 mile to go and you will never, ever have to run this far again. Ha ha… Now, what am I signing up for next……

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Registration at the RDS took some time to get to on the Sunday afternoon as there were already diversions in place for the setup of the finish area. Picked up number and goody bag, only later discovering that evening that number was in fact the wrong colour for the time zone I’d put on the entry form – later found out this seemed to happen to a some other postal entries as well.

Did a bit of carbo loading at Wagamamas and played “spot the runner” game .

Kind B&B lady let us help ourselves to breakfast at some silly non-existent hour in the morning. I’m a bit superstitious and always bring my own little box of cereal mixture for race day as I know it works.

Half hour walk to start – distinctly fewer portaloos than previous years, more runners than previous years, so distinctly longer queues. Perfect weather – no wind and overcast although the sun did appear later.

Deposited bag in baggage area, off to start area, rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann (Irish national anthem) and half a rendition of Molly Malone, a few cheers for someone who seemed to get engaged to his girlfriend just before the start and then we were off.

And then 4:23 minutes later it was over …. oh the in between bit.  Lots of running, sore legs and mind games. Won’t bore with mile to mile details (all a bit of a blur anyway) but it took me until about 8 miles to feel sort of comfortable. However, it was funny even by 20 miles I didn’t feel so much I’d run out of energy or heavy legs or anything, but just very tight sore calves (yes I know I need to stretch more….) and certainly by the end my calves were much sorer than in any previous marathon. Medal, usual quandry what size tshirt to take, and a nice cheese sandwich and apple in a bright red SPAR lunchbox. Then a shuffle/stagger to the Luas tram and back to the B&B.

Dublin marathon medal 2009

Then it was recovery time – shower, eat, post mortem, more eating/drinking etc etc.

Oh and then trying to fit an 18 pk of Tayto cheese and onion crisps (the original and best Irish crisps) into hand luggage without ending up with only crumbs! And no I haven’t eaten them all yet….

Tayto - Irish crisps

Dublin marathon website

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Just a timely piece of motivation passed to me by an elite runner the other day.

Think tired – feel tired – run badly

Think positive – feel positive – run well

Memorised for the inevitable part of the race where brain starts to scream “stop” and the negative thoughts seep in.

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Seven days and counting… actually 6 days 20 hours 57 mins….time for the butterflies to take residence in my tummy and the decisions on what top to wear, how many gels to carry etc etc. To be honest I’ve quite enjoyed my short taper runs last week – left the watch behind so no pressure or worrying about pace. The sort of fatalistic mindset that it’s all too late to do anything about it now anyway.

I’m not sure how I feel confidence wise about Dublin – on the plus side I’ve done the most consistent training I’ve ever done before a marathon which is good – on the down side I’ve felt a bit stale and lethargic the past few weeks which is not so good. As Mrs Tweedy tells Mr Tweedy “it’s all in your head” when he says them chickens are organised (fans of Chicken Run will understand!). Same could be said of marathon running or at least from mile 20 onwards!

6 days 20 hrs 54 mins now……. not that I’m counting you understand……….

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