Dublin marathon - 26.2 mile, 31st October 2011 (results):

Sean - 04:03:10

Tom - 04:22:46

Joe - DNS

 

Unfortunately Joe is out of action with an injured knee, which left Tom and Sean to join just over 11,000 runners for the run. Starting in a tight pack which stayed cosy the whole time Sean took position just behind the 4 hour pace makers, leaving Tom to weave through the masses nearing a 3.50 pace.

 

The crowd were in full force, helping the winner Geoffrey Ndungu set a course record and personal best of 2:08:33, which should help him qualify for the Kenyan national team. Meanwhile Sean and Tom were over halfway, still relatively fresh, and soaking up an excited crowd with music and high fives.

 

After hitting the 20 mile marker there was more of a struggle, Tom putting in some 15 minute miles and Sean eventually losing the 4 hour pace with some 10 minute miles. Sean kept up the running where others were starting to walk and crossed the finish line in 4,959th position. While Sean was receiving assurances that childbirth is indeed still worse than the 25th mile, Tom was over the line in 6,734th place.

 

It was a welcome GUINNESS and crowd for the evening celebrations!

 

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Many thanks to all those who have donated, we are over £1000 including gift aid now, the day was great and all the donations have made the whole experience that much better!

 

Joe will hopefully be running a different marathon soon, the theme so far has been to pick the wet days for our runs, but our luck may start to run out on this point.

 

Previous training runs:

 

 

Keep Your Eye on the Ball - 10k, 5th June (results):

Joe - 37:20

Sean - 45:37

Tom - 45:46

 

The first organised run after the start of training is a 10k, with the Edwards brothers both seeing off the first mile or so at the front of the pack. 

Joe soon found a fellow pacemaker to see him through to a respectable 7th place, with Tom slackening the pace. Sean caught up with Tom and it was nip and tuck with an exciting sprint finish to leave Tom only just behind.

 

We were supporting testicular cancer, check out the page.

Spitfire 2011 - 20 mile, 4th September (results):

Joe - 2:20:27

Sean - 2:59:29

Tom - 3:07:49

 

A big step up from the 10k gives us a good taste of the marathon distance, needless to say the day was eventful, and started with us finding an undulating course.

"So I heard this is a flat course?" - Us

"Haha, in Surrey? You were conned!" - Fellow runner

 

We had two laps of 10 miles, with Sean bringing up the rear, Tom a half mile-ish in front, and Joe going for a 7 minute mile pace, so well in front again!

Joe made a typically massive effort to stagger over the line, and facetiously regrets that it wasn't 2hrs 15. By this time it was heavy rain and more jelly babies for Tom and Sean while Joe was being checked over. Tom was playing a waiting game with Sean catching up after a morale boost after passing halfway.

 

The second half meant a slowdown, with some experienced runners passing an ever slowing Tom and Sean. Tom slowed down more, with Sean overtaking at about 16 miles.

It was a welcome lunch at the Fox Inn, and a lot to think about before the big day! Joe made a full recovery.

 

We were supporting Events to Live, the organisers of the event.