Dublin City Marathon
Marathoning is like cutting yourself unexpectedly. You dip into the pain so gradually that the damage is done before you are aware of it. Unfortunately, when awareness comes, it is excruciating.
-- John Farrington
I think that it's almost inevitable that you go out a little faster than you planned on your first marathon. Months of anticipation and the thrill of the start are hard to combat in a race run at training pace. But I calmed down after 4 miles, and fell into the 7-minute/mile pace I had tentatively planned.
The first twenty miles of the Dublin City Marathon seemed like a breeze, but I realize now how much they wore me down for those last all-important six-point-two, when the race really begins.
I finished in 3 hours, 0 minutes, and 3 seconds, which made me the 207th runner (out of the 8000 enterred) to cross the finish line; (official results.) I'll spare the details here -- you can read my race report on Running-Log.com. I was a little disappointed with the 3 seconds, but have gotten over it, and am pleased with my performance. I should be counting my blessings that my over-anxiousness at the beginning didn't cause me to hit the wall earlier, or harder, (any harder would've surely meant hands and knees on the pavement...)
Nothing can quite compare to the way my legs felt in the last 800 meters (which were psychologically longer than any 10 miles of the rest of the race,) but each day since the marathon I've felt worse than the last. My body is destroyed and I am sensing the beginnings of what I've read about a kind of post-marathon depression. But, a kind of satisfaction lies behind everything; I'm happy for what I accomplished, and am glad to finally put the race behind me, and start looking forward to something new.