This was my third Cork City Marathon, and like last year I rode my motorcycle to Cork the day before the race. I was hoping for a new PB as training had gone well after the Barcelona marathon. The ride to Cork was tough, really tough as the wind and rain pushed against me all the way. I swung by the city hall to collect my number and checked into the hotel late in the afternoon. Once settled in I headed towards the city centre for dinner, the rain had eased but it was still blowing a gale.
Dinner in Isaac’s is always a pleasure and this time was no exception. After dinner I had a wander around the city to stretch my legs and walked back to the hotel to be tucked up in bed well before midnight.
I had an early start the next morning, there was a special breakfast for marathoners at 5.30am and I was there with a large bowl of creamy porridge, bananas, toast and coffee! Outside the wind had not abated and the rain had returned but we all hoped for a change as the morning progressed.
Change wasn’t in the air and the walk to the start line was line walking in a submerged wind tunnel. The weather did nothing to damped spirits though, the start area was buzzing and I got talking to a guy from Mayo who was running his 60th marathon, he must have been 160 years old himself. I was so impressed by him but when he told me that he would easily run it in under 4 hours I was in awe!!
The race was started on time by Sonia O’Sullivan, a legend in theses parts. The rain continued to trickle down as we wound around the city streets, but the weather did nothing to stop the Corkonians coming out in force to cheers us on. Mile after mile the weather was getting progressively worst. At one point we were running along the seafront where the wind was so strong that the rain was driving vertically towards us. Despite all the obstacles I was determined to achieve a new PB in this race and I stuck to my pace as best I could.
It was in the last 5 miles that I started to despair, ironically it was also when the weather eased off and the sun broke through. But my saving grace was when the 4 hour 30 minute pacers passed me by. I stuck to them like glue and kept up with them until the last mile where I lost them around some tight corners as we ran in parkland along the river Lee just before we ran back onto the city streets. What I didn’t realise was that they had picked up their pace to run ahead and stop half a mile before the finish to encourage us to keep the pace we were running and we’d make it in under 4 1/2 hours.
Armed with that promise I put my head down and stuck to my pace, later crossing the line in 4:29:44, that’s a pace of 10:12 minute miles. I did it, I beat 4 1/2 hours, a huge milestone in my journey to run a marathon in under 4 hours!
Here’s the map and stats of my run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36312197