Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

Trinity Harriers run an annual fundraising event that involves teams of four competing to see who can run the farthest combined distance in 24 hours as well as raise the most money to fund club activities. I did the event two years ago and it was a lot of type 2 fun.

This year there were another ten teams competing. I was on Chariots of Tired with Clíodhna, Jack and Adam. Alas, I still don’t have a photo of me running in a DUHAC vest.

Race day report

I’m heavier and probably less fit than two years ago when I was still in IRONMAN form. But i had logged some long runs. And unlike my previous two 24-hour races, where I slept from 2am to 7am, this time I wanted to try going straight through.

Unfortunately, things did not go to plan. My stomach was unhappy from Saturday afternoon onwards (the race was on Sunday) so I was feeling crap to begin with and was running a slow pace with lots of bathroom breaks from the start. My mood was unusually low and I felt really sad for most of the night. I was originally running with an audiobook but decided to switch this off and just be present to see if that helped, which it did a little. As a result, by 6am I had only covered 35km which felt barely further than last year. I decided to abandon my attempt to go all the way through and opted for a 30-minute power nap.

As soon as I climbed into bed, fully dressed in my running gear, I decided I couldn’t face a 30-minute timer either so I cancelled it and just went to sleep. 90 minutes I woke up naturally and felt a little better so I switched into my super cushioned shoes. By this point it was daylight and I switched to my 1.3km loop around the green space. By 10am I finally made it through 50k. Not going to be finishing Donedea anytime soon, but I got it done. I was running in blocks of 10-15km at a time and did another 12km to take me up to 62k before taking a break for lunch.

I had a series of milestones to try and get myself excited about reaching a certain distance. Post-lunch running was a bit of a slog as once I was through 60k there wasn’t really anything until the double marathon at 84.4 so there was hours of running in circles with not much to celebrate. I think I around 50 loops of the green space in total. After each block I got on my foam roller to try and loosen up some of the muscles, especially around my hip that tends to cause problems.

My final daylight loop took me to 97k at which point I briefly paused to stick some tea in the oven before doing a final 3k to round up to 100. This gave me a new 100k PB of:

19:09

At time of writing, the world record is just over six hours so lots of room for improvement there. But self-compassion and all that: most people don’t have a 100k PB.

Unfortunately, dinner upset my stomach again. My previous experience of running ultras has been that some real food is helpful but I fuelled most of this on Haribo, Lucozade and gels. That was working for me so maybe I should have stuck with that. With my ongoing stomach issues for the past few years, eating and drinking anything is pretty hard at the moment so getting anything in was a challenge. In total, I got through 12 bags of Haribo, seven bottles of Lucozade, six gels, six chocolate bars plus some crisps, shortbread, strawberries and salted potatoes.

I took my time getting back out there but by now I was exhausted. My running was barely faster than a walk and my ankle was starting to wobble in a way that said I might hit the deck at some point. So, after a final 10k, I decided to call it. At this point, I still had two hours left and it was a bit frustrating to have done all of this work not to use all of the time. But I think I was physically and mentally done at this point and deciding to let myself stop here was a real sense of relief.

Results

My total distance was:

110km

Plus my shiny new 100k PB of 19:09 which is about 3.5 hours faster than two years ago. I also set a new single-day step record of 122,988. My total running time was 13:05:32 which is about two hours up on my two previous 24-hour races. I burnt around 7,779 kcals.

I managed to avoid any serious chafing thanks to copious amounts of vaseline and bepanthen but I did pick up a blister on one of my toes.

It felt a bit deja vu because two years ago Team Cool Runnings monopolised the leaderboard with 1st, 2nd and 4th, and this year again we took 1st and 2nd with Jack posting a monster 200+km 8-hour+ cycle that he traded in for running miles.

That final 10k managed to take us over the 200k mark for a comfortable victory but things were exciting close behind with just a few kilometres separating our second and third place. The total distance covered by everyone was 1,293km meaning that on average people ran over 32km each: a phenomenal effort given not everyone is a distance runner.

On the fundraising side, Lost In Pace (great team name!) flattened us all with €1,670 raised. In total, we raised over €4,000 for the club which might still be rising as the fundraising page only launched the day before the event.

Reflections

In the days leading up to the event, I was both excited to get started and nervous about how much it was going to hurt. And that was pretty accurate. But I would like more tired legs and less stomach issues. They’re really driving me crazy at this point. But despite all of that, I did make it to 100k, and past it for the first time, and that’s pretty cool.

I tend to get caught up in “X ran 180km when they did a 24-hour event” so I am going to stop and pause and reflect on 110k being a really long way. It’s more than two and a half marathons and most people will never run a marathon. I can be proud of what I achieved and how hard I worked for it, both in training and in those difficult hours when I pushed through.

A big thank you to everyone at DUHAC involved in organising the event. And to everyone who has contributed to the fundraiser. And to my wonderful team mates, my family, and everyone at Blackrock that sent encouragement over WhatsApp.

I did this lovely road race on Monday. It’s a two-and-a-half lap closed road circuit around Tallaght village and the TUD campus. Nice and flat. I decided to have a go at a fast one and should have started nearer the front to avoid the traffic. But even with that, I finished in:

21:24

That’s my fastest 5k time in three years so I was very happy. Plus they had a great spread of sandwiches and cakes the for the runners after.

I wanted to push myself on distance, so I allocated last Sunday as my all-day long run. I was out for seven hours, of which six hours was moving time, and covered 53 km. I had some junk food for lunch, thinking real food would settle my stomach instead of just bars and gels but it just made me feel anxious. I kept going though and was happy with the job. I think this is the longest training run I’ve done that wasn’t an event.

It’s been an exciting time to be running Marlay recently. First, Paul Sinton-Hewitt (parkrun’s founder) made a guest appearance a few weeks ago. A got a five-high and a handshake. Then last weekend, they celebrated their 500th event. I wasn’t in photo and there wasn’t cake but that’s understandable given they would have had 688 runners plus volunteers to feed.

Wouldn’t say it was the best year. The Eagles took care of The Chiefs easily so no historic three-in-a-row after all. Why couldn’t thir offensive line have collapsed last year when they were playing the 49ers?

Also, I really scaled down the amount of food I made and still ate too much.

Another Virtual Race Series has come and gone. Fourth this year. Just of the podium. Well done to JP, Paul and Naomi. And also a big thank you for JP to organising.

Since November I’ve been losing weight, mostly successfully, and getting back into longer runs. It has given me a chance to explore a bit further afield and while I still end up often doing laps of the park, I am at least lapping a different park now. So far, I’ve been feeling good, which has surprised me a little, so that has been lovely.

Last week I was thrilled to complete the parkrun obsessive challenge. Which is the achievement you get for completing 50 parkruns in a year.

It’s a tough ask, although New Year’s Day and Christmas Day mean you can miss up to four Saturdays if you complete those. I made it to 45 in 2018 and 2019 and then 46 last year. But around September I realised I had only missed two so far and if I could be consistent, I could get to 50.

That made for some nervous times with multiple storms, including Storm Darragh cancelling 16 of the 20 parkruns near me including all of my locals. But I made it! In fact, I managed to end the year on 52. parkrun has been such an important anchor over the last 18 months and I’m looking forward to plenty more in 2025.

For the final club swim of the year we did a video analysis session. It’s so much easier to work out where you can improve when you can see yourself swimming. So we did just that and took the footage to the pub for a Christmas drink and video review.

I’m really pleased with my overall body position. Lots to improve, of course, and some great action points for my hand entry, catch and pull.

On Sunday, Iveagh Sports Ground launched their junior parkrun. I was quietly hoping there would be cake. There wasn’t, but there was lots of very friendly and encouraging volunteers. The course is two laps on grass. It’s flat but still has a few lumps to make it interesting.