Athlete Name: Dwane Brennan
Race Name: Connemarathon Ultra 64k
Year: 2024
Firstly, I forgot to add my race plan – work was mental leading up to the race. Lots of travelling and long days 😕. Maybe grab a coffee as this is a bot long winded.
I didn’t have a great sleep the night before, I was sharing with a friend who snores like a freight train( even with earplugs in).
Race morning I was up at 5 am, ate my usual pre-race brekkie, got ready and left for the 20min walk to the bus @06:20. Even at this hour it was nice out.
An hour on the bus to the bag drop and briefing, got chatting with a few other first timers which is always good. Left in bags for post-race and drop station, the one more visit to the loo. Back on the bus for another 30 minutes to the race start – already starting to heat up.
My nerves weren’t too bad at this stage, I was just excited to get started.
09:00 race start – kept to my planned pace and got passed by most, but not worried – goal today was to just finish.
The first 25k went as planned – pace was spot on, hr wasn’t outrageous, but temps had gotten up to 18 C by 11:30.
Then things started to go south. My ankle injury started up, which slowed me a little but I could deal with this. 2k later I started to get stomach issues – felt nauseous, running was horrible – every step seemed to make it worse. At this stage, I walked for a bit with a few others who were suffering.
I got to the drop-bag station and took a few minutes to top up my vest in the hope things would get better. I also passed this again in 6k and did the same – taking the remainder of my fuel and putting it in my vest.
A few km later the stomach seemed like it was easing and then I got an ungodly pain in the outside of my right foot. Felt like I’d been stabbed🤣. I thought I might have gotten a stone lodged in my shoe so stopped to check and turned out to be the start of a blister. One of the lads helped to tape it. I rested for a few minutes and then walked until the pain was bearable enough to jog. Stomach issues never really went away, so all I could take in was water and electrolytes. I still had 27k to go.
