2008 Dublin ½ Marathon!

The night before the ½ marathon was Culture night in Dublin city. This is a fantastic idea where museums, galleries, and an eclectic collection of anything remotely cultural stays open well into the night, or some cases opens to the public for the first time. Needless to say I was out there and spent much of the evening walking between events. With the ½ marathon the next morning I managed to get home before midnight but also polished off a bottle of wine that someone foolishly left in the fridge.

Next day I arrived a little late, as usual. Why am I always surprised at how long the walk from registration to the start line. It was 10 o'clock by the time I got within shouting distance of the start line, luckily there was no sign of the race starting. I had time to fiddle with my Garmin 405; I wanted to use the virtual partner function to keep me on target for a 2 hour ½ marathon. After much effort I finally got it working and set it to a pace of 9.01. 10 minutes later there were some rumblings on the start line and soon we were off.

As usual (there's a pattern emerging here) I took off too quickly. My Garmin reported that I was several seconds ahead of my virtual partner. Every time I glanced at my watch that lead had grown... and I wanted more. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly I forget the pain and distress of running out of energy having peaked too soon in a race. But here I was building up to exactly that.

The first 3-4 miles were fine, I was sticking to the grass as much as possible and although the pace was fast I felt comfortable. The next 3-4 miles were a little tougher but manageable. I picked out a runner who was running a little faster that I was and attempted to keep up with her. I managed it for a little over 3 miles but had to let go around mile 8.

The next couple of miles were a little tougher but I kept the pace up. Things changed when I hit mile 10; I could feel something sucking the energy out of me... the same thing happens to my wallet every time I go shopping. From then on it was work... hard work to keep going.

As I approached mile 12 there were a couple of medics working on a runner, he was exhausted but looked OK. As I approached mile 13 there was a similar scene but this guy didn't look so good. There wasn't much I could do so I said a quick prayer and carried on.

With a 100m to go I spotted one of the fetchies cheering us on which gave me the boost I needed to get across the line. 2 hours 4 minutes and 27 seconds after bolting across the start line I stumbled across the finish line. I didn't beat the 2 hour barrier but this is a brand new PB. Fantastic!! My average pace was 9:30, if I could keep that pace up for the first 20 miles of the marathon I'd be home in well under 4.30.

Exhausted as I was I had a little more to do. I wanted to get 16 miles in today so I walked the very long mile back to the car to drop off my gear and ran back to the finish line. I carried on running for another mile before turning around and running back to the finish line to make up 3 miles. It was a slow 3 miles, I ran it in 32:05, that's a painful pace of 10:48.

Here's a link to my route and stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/899692