Connemarathon

[colm]

Late notice but I've an entry to the Connemarathon full marathon up for grabs if anybody is interested.

It's this Sunday (22nd).

Good luck to all those taking park in the half, full and ultra.

[bboyle]

Good luck to all the Midlanders heading West for tomorrows race.
Brian

[Killian]

Comprising of a Half Marathon, a Full Marathon and a 39.3 mile Ultra Marathon all taking place on the one day, Sunday 22nd March, the 2009 event attracted a sell out of 3,600 entries with representation from 30 Countries. On the start line at 12.00 in Leenaun were around 1500 people, among them Tri-ers from Wicklow, 3D-Tri, Pulse, Athlone, Limerick and of course a small contingent from MTC, Aidan Daly, Darragh Caffrey, Jarlath Mahon, myself and Edith.

To register, we had to travel down the day before to Galway. Having watched the gladiatorial battle in Cardiff and roaring ourselves hoarse at the incredible victory that we almost managed to make a total balls of, we rather reluctantly headed for Oughterard and our B&B. We were greeted by Edwina at the B&B, who must have been one of the few people on the island who was interested in the match, but who hadnt seen it yet. She had video-taped the match to watch it with her husband! With both mine and Edith’s phone bouncing off the table with text messages from friends and family celebrating the Irish Grand Slam, we decided one drink couldn’t hurt and headed out looking for an ostán. Naturally enough, we met fellow Midland Triers on the street, Darragh and Jarlath. I had felt a bit sorry for myself with the size of our bed in the B&B, but felt most re-assured when I saw the camper van the lads had, and the parking spot in a flood-lit carpark on the main street. No problem for Darragh, you could sense a little trepation from Jarlath, a little of the ‘Not sure about this’. After a couple of refreshments in the local, we retired to the luxury of our beds and tried to get some rest.

The morning broke, clear and fresh, with a hazy sunshine. Topped up with brekkie, the car packed up and our race stuff in the bag we made for the shuttle buses. Straight on, and down the road. Fortunately, we were driven along the half-marathon course in reverse, from Maums Cross to Leenaun. We had been warned of ‘The Hill’ starting at mile nine, and continuing for ‘a while’. I feared the worst, but after running up that god-foresaken hill in Kilkee (ok, I walked a good bit of it) I knew anything bar a mountain path wasn’t going to utterly freak me out. Arriving in Leenaun village, there was already several hundred people waiting for the start. There was a chill in the air, and looking west, dark rain clouds in the sky, so the faster we got going the better. We lined up about 15 minutes before the start. After some words of encouragement from the race director and Ron Hill who has run ever day for the past 40 years (yeah Ronhill sports wear) we were off – on time too!

Our first few hundred metres were pretty packed, but the field spread out remarkably quickly and myself and Edith found space to run and got into a stride. Usually when we’re out running together, we’d chat for most of the time, and during the paltry amount of training we had done, this was the norm. This time, he didn’t say much, actually, there wasn’t a huge amount of chat from the throng, well except for Jarlath who talked the full way round I’m told. It seemed a massively social race, so much to see, and as we were always catching and passing people we always had something new to gawk at. The kms seemed to drift away fairly handy, and we crossed the bridge after 13km feeling mighty fine. On further, we eventually met ‘The Hill’. Remembering the ‘hill’ in Kilkee, this new ‘The Hill’ didn’t seem all that bad, at least I could see where the flamin' thing ended. Off we went, still passing people on our way, enjoying the landscape, and with a cool breeze keeping us from boiling in the sun, it was actually pleasant. If you saw this ‘The Hill’ after completing three-quarters of a full marathon, I’d say you wouldn’t exactly be happy, but for us mere mortals it was not a bridge too far.

Having conquered ‘The Hill’ we set our sites on home. At this point, I do confess, our legs were beginning to ‘question’ our decision to run this Half Marathon, but still a polite ‘Are we still expected to run?’ rather than ‘Are you feckin jokin me, ya dirty lookin eijet, MORE running!’ type of question. It was with about half mile to go, Edith’s base competitor kicked in – years of competing internationally, coarsed through her veins, and she decided. ‘I can catch them!!’ She kicked, I responded, and we passed about 50 in the last quarter mile, including a squad of about 25 army cadets and their trainers. Not having the adrenaline burst, nor warning (I think she was trying to beat me home too) I was a tad surprised to see her inject the extra pace (if she would do this in training, I’d be more than happy). Still, we crossed the line together, just under the two hour mark in 1:57, well happy with ourselves.

Post race, having collected the treasured medal and coveted T-shirt, we met Aidan, who finished in a remarkable 1:45. Wolfin down some pasta, he said he was off home, probably to do some more training. Having done some pasta scoffing ourselves, we met Darragh and Jarlath, who finished in 2:05 and 2:10 respectively and mighty happy with their days work! One thing that we clearly shared was a total enjoyment of the race; the venue and course were fantastic, and the weather obliged. I couldn’t recommend the race strongly enough for anyone looking at the half marathon distance. One last thing, was the organisation, over 3000 runners and walkers were accomodated, shuttled to starting points, watered through-out, feed well at the end and had their gear bags brought from the start to the finish with no fuss. Phenomenol stuff! Oh the men’s half marathon winner, did the course in 1:06, now that’s holy moley!!!

[gduffy]

K

You def got an A1 in the Leaving Cert.

Great write up. More of these I say. This is what we train all the time for so why not record it. I still recall Erics report from UK last year and how well it was written..

Brilliantly job Killian, Edith, Aidan "Seb" Daly, Dara and Jarlath Gebrassaille !!

Congrats to all the gang who represented us so well.

GD

[shaneoneill]

Hi Guys,

I am a new member to the club.

I completed the Full Connemarathon on Sunday as my first ever race in a time of 3:58:57.

I stayed in the Marriott hotel on Saturday night. We were woke at 4am by the sounds of fire alarms and had to be evacuated until after 5am. So I was a bit tired and crancky when I got to the start line but the weather was fantastic and a brilliant day all round.

Shane

[gduffy]

Hi Shane

Sincere apologies...wasn't aware.

Congrats on a great achievement and breaking sub 4 hours must feel fantastic on such a difficult course.

Look forward ot seeing you at some of the training nights.

Gerry

[gor]

great read killian, very good report, well done to all who competed in conamara