The 2019 edition of the Limerick City Marathon—the Great Limerick Run—took place on Sunday 5 May. It was a perfect day for Marathon running: bright and sunny, but not too warm, and with little or no wind. Normally, I would hope to make the most of such conditions, but as this was my first ketogenic Marathon after just five months of training on my new diet, I couldn’t afford to take any chances. My target was to run with the three-hour pacemakers and hopefully maintain my twenty-five-year-long record of always breaking the three-hour mark.
The course is by no means easy. On a calm day, the most accurate description is undulating. While none of the hills is particularly challenging, the course goes up and down relentlessly, with hardly a single level stretch. This makes it impossible to settle into a fixed rhythm or pace. Continually altering your stride in a Marathon is very tiring. Thankfully, though, the lack of wind made this a considerably less challenging course than it would have been on a windy day.
It was quite a novelty for me to run a Marathon without having done any carbo-loading—not that I’m complaining. Far from it. Stuffing myself with rice over the last three or four days before a race has always been one of the least enjoyable aspects of Marathon running. It is great to finally get that particular monkey off my back. Instead of force-feeding myself with carbohydrate-rich food, I spent the final week of training eating pretty much what I had been eating for the previous seventeen weeks: ketogenic foods (ie high in fat and low in carbs). I did slightly reduce my calorie intake due to the tapering of my mileage, and I did also avoid fibre-rich foods, but other than that, I just continued to follow the Ketogenic Diet.
I took a bus down from Dublin at 12:30 and settled into my 3-star hotel: Pery’s on Glentworth Street. I chose this particular hotel primarily for its location: it is only about 200 m from the start line, 400 m from the finish line, and 300 m from Colbert Station. The rooms are very large and comfortable, the staff are friendly and approachable, and the food in the restaurant is of excellent quality. I couldn’t have been happier.
My last supper the evening before the race was more or less the same as I had eaten before the Wicklow Gaol Break Half Marathon in March:
A corned-beef sandwich made with keto microwave bread: almond flour, sesame seeds, melted butter, eggs, salt, baking powder and xanthan gum.
Four buns made with fat-head dough (mozzarella cheese, egg, almond flour, salt, baking powder and xanthan gum) and filled with butter or peanut butter.
On the morning of the race, I drank 1 litre of still water in which I had dissolved one serving (7 g) of Dr Berg’s Electrolyte Powder (raspberry-&-lemon flavour) and one serving (13 g) of Perfect Keto’s Exogenous Ketones (chocolate flavour). I had not been taking electrolyte supplements during my training, believing that a well-balanced Ketogenic Diet should take care of all my electrolyte needs, but I may revisit that policy.
Exogenous ketones are also something that I usually only take before a race or, occasionally, before a long run. I don’t see any reason to change that.
Finally, when I left my hotel for the start of the race, I carried with me 500 ml of still water, in which I had dissolved another serving of both the electrolytes and the exogenous ketones. In addition to these, I added two tablespoons (30 ml) of MCT oil. I had been experimenting with these medium-chain-triglycerides for several weeks, so I thought it would be safe to include them in the mix. MCT oil is notoriously laxative, giving one the runs (diarrhoea) if one is not used to it, but it is easily digested and absorbed and provides the ketogenic runner with a ready-made fuel source. I can’t say that 30 ml would make much difference to one’s performance—there are only about 300 kcal (1200 kJ) of energy in two tablespoons—but I didn’t want to take any chances. I may increase the dose in future races.
My 500 ml of Keto Konkoction kept me hydrated for the first 25 K of the race. Although it was not a hot day, I was possibly too conservative in my hydration. With hindsight, I probably should have drunk more often and finished the bottle by the halfway stage. When I did finally run out—actually, if truth be told, I dropped the bottle around the 25 K mark, when there was still a mouthful left!—I switched to the natural spring water on offer at the water stations. Ishka Water is sourced at a spring in Ballyneety, County Limerick. It’s rather bland as mineral waters go, but it gets the job done.
And the race is on! I’m number 552 in the yellow vest (on the extreme right). Note the bottle of Keto Konkoction in my left hand. The Dooneen runners in the red vests, Numbers 1388 and 912, are the three-hour pacemakers, Dermot Power and Dermot Kearns.
Limerick is the fourth largest city in Ireland, but the Great Limerick Run is quite a small Marathon. There were only 776 finishers in the full Marathon. We were joined on the day by a further 2185 participants in the Half-Marathon. There were also 5427 runners taking part in a 6 Mile race, but that did not start till 12:30 pm, more than half an hour after I had finished the Marathon.
As happened in the Pisa Marathon in December 2017, the official photographers only covered the opening and closing kilometres of the race. So while there are about three dozen photos of me near the start of the race and another two dozen near the end, there are none for the stretch between 5 and 40 km. This is a pity, as there are plenty of picturesque spots along the course—particularly in the grounds of the University of Limerick and along the River Shannon.
The second half of the race was quite difficult. The constant up-and-down nature of the course eventually took its toll, and there were moments when I thought my record of always breaking the three-hour mark was in jeopardy. But I dug deep and hung in there. Finally, with less than three kilometres to go, I found some hidden reserves and pulled away from the pacemakers. I increased my pace to around 4:00/K and passed out several other runners. I even found myself sprinting over the final 100 m with one of the Half-Marathon runners. He had no intention of being beaten by a veteran Marathon runner—but I kept him honest!
My finishing time of 2:58:13 made this the slowest of my twenty-four Marathons to date, but for my first Ketogenic Marathon, with only five months of preparation, it was just what I wanted. I did also have the consolation of winning the Over-55 category, for which I received a prize of €150. The people of Limerick are very generous!
So, another Marathon under my belt. Roll on number twenty-five. My next big race is the Clonakilty Half-Marathon on 30 November 2019, and I have pencilled in the Galway Bay Marathon for 3 October 2020.
Finally, a big go raibh míle maith agaibh to the people of Limerick, who put on an excellent show. It was fairly quiet out on the course compared to, say, the Dublin Marathon, but the organization was excellent. I must also thank the two pacemakers, Dermot Kearns and Dermot Power, whose pacing throughout the race was spot on. We went through the halfway mark in 01:29:58, which says it all!
Image Credits
- Start of the Limerick Marathon 2019: © Great Limerick Run, Fair Use
- Limerick Marathon Course Profile: Redmond Burke, MapMyRun, Fair Use
- Pery’s Hotel (Glentworth Street and Catherine Street): Map Data © 2019 Google, Fair Use
- Dr Berg’s Electrolyte Powder: © DrBerg.com, Fair Use
- Perfect Keto’s Exogenous Ketones: © Perfect Keto 2019, Fair Use
- Three-Hour Pacemakers: © Great Limerick Run, Fair Use
- University of Limerick: The Living Bridge on the Shannon: © Luke Curley (photographer), Lukemcurley, Creative Commons License
- Sarsfield Bridge: © Limerick Leader, Fair Use
