oh dear...i am aching all over this morning and the official time is ever crapper than i thought: 4:39! there you have it...crap race, crap time :)

yesterday i woke up at 5.20am, in the car at 6am. I felt really exhausted and my eyes were closing. i was so happy i wasn't driving. evelyin though was very energetic. i don't how she does that. i should ask her what she's on :-) when we got to newry we met with some fetchie and once more i forgot to take pictures, silly me! there's one with me and eveylin but i think that for the sake of both of us i should NOT make it public! then off we went. i was supposed to run with geprig who wanted to finish in around 4 hours but wanted to take the first half easy. we knew about the hills, but maybe we didn't know them well enough. i lost him at mile 5 as i had to go to the loo. after that, i put my crappy mp3 on and i did the whole race on my own. at times i didn't see anyone in front of me. i tried to focus on the amazing views of the hills and valley surrounding us instead of the hills we were running on but that wasn't easy. they were tough and never ending. once i thought great this is done now we go down hill another one started. contiunously. i walked twice. i started to feel tired at the 10k marker!!!

half way through we headed back even though not on the same road (thankgod!). we run the second half on a beautiful towpath. we were a bit isolated, there were very few runners around but every now and then the marshalls on the bike would ride along you to ask you if you were fine if you wanted any water or gel. i thought that was a really nice touch. the day was beautiful, sunny, nice breeze and great temperature, at least for me. there was a nice shade on the towpath, which made it easier. well...a bit.

just half way through i started to get a nasty headache, which is very unusual for me, really. i started to think why that was. i was well hydrated, i ate properly for breakfast. i thought, maybe it's the wall, the dreaded wall is coming to get me. i was supposed to take a gel at 13miles but my tummy was a bit upset as usual. i had two choices: take the gel and run away from the wall but risking to upset my tummy too much; not take the gel and risking that my tummy could get worse anyway and the wall will hit me completly. it took me another mile to make up my mind and then i made my decision: take the gel and hope for the best.

my tummy strangely calmed down, but not my headache. my legs were getting tired, my glutei were very stiff. from 13 to 18miles i had to fight my demons. they were telling me to give up, that it was not for me, that i couldn't do it. but i kept going and i won. i crossed that line and got my medal! i kept running all the way through, slowly, grunting but i run. i walked very little, i kept going. the last two miles were hell. my ankles were hurting. the twopath was never ending. the last 800m was more than hell (what's more than hell i don't really know, but you know what i mean). we got into town again and the finish line was not in sight. at the last 200m i saw it. i heard people clapping, loud music and the speaker. i took off my crappy mp3 and i sucked in the nice atmosphere, people screaming when the speaker said my name. i run the bloody thing on my own, i run the last 200m minute on my own and on my own i crossed the finish line.

at the end HowFar? from fetch was waiting for me and that made my day. he had finished in 2:48 in fourth position! amamzing!!! the I met up with BS ans waited for eveylin to cross the line. and she did it in great style taking home her second best time. she and BS will be doing cork next monday....they're barking mad.

when i got to get changed i found out that my periods had arrived during the race. so maybe, after all, it wasn't the wall to give me headache and to take away my energy.

i am disappointed, but not defeated. the 4h mark seems far right now. but, since i've started to train for the 4hs in january i have improved so much. I took off:
3min my 5miles pb
4min my half marathon pb doing by best race to date
17' min my marathon pb

now i'll have to work on my speed and try to get my weight down to 60kg (now i'm 64.5kg). i know that i can do it. the 4h wall will be destroyed. i'm stronger. I WILL WIN, i know it :-)