2009 Great Ireland Run

This was a tough day, I had to wrap my 15 miler around the 10K race this afternoon. The race was due to start at 1.05pm and as we all know nothing starts on time in Ireland so I figured that if I parked the car near Collins Barracks Museum at 12.45pm I'd have a 2 mile run to the start line and arrive in plenty of time. When I got to the start area the race hadn't started and there were no signs of movement so I decided to make up a little more distance but running around the field between Áras an Uachtaráin and the US ambassadors residence.

Each lap of the field was a little less than 1/2 a mile and after my first lap there was still no sign of the race starting so I carried on and ran another lap. After the second lap there was still no movement so a third lap was in order. As I rounded the last corner I notice the elite women runners flying down the road, at that stage they had already ran 2 kilometers but it still looked like the main race hadn't started so to avoid being on the wrong side of the road when the race starts I decided to move over to the start line side of the road and ran loops of a small wooded area. After 2 loops I noticed that the crowd had started to shift, the race had started but I thought that it would take some time to get 11,000 runners across the start line so I ran another loop before crossing the start line myself.

As I finally ran towards the start area I was a little surprise to find it deserted, it didn't take as much time as I thought it would to shift that many people... As I ran down Chesterfield Avenue the was a sudden sense of urgency as I could see that the starting area was being dismantled. I could see that the timing mat was still in place and as I crossed the line I heard a beep that registered my start time.

It took about half a kilometer to catch up with the slowest walkers so I completely misjudged the start time, oh well! After another half a kilometer I began passing some of the slower runners and by the second kilometer I was surrounded by runners. I continued to overtake for the first half of the race. I slowed right down at the 5K water station, I had been running for 7 miles at this stage and was starting to feel dehydrated so I had to take on the entire bottle of water. However, just around the corner from the water station was a serious hill that seemed to go on forever so I clutched my unopened bottle, got my head down and ran until I reached the top of the hill before I took on water.

The remaining 3 or 4 kilometers were easy, I really needed that water. I had no idea what time I crossed the line in, I was timing the entire 15 mile run, but most important was the fact that I had covered ten miles when I did cross the line. Unfortunately it wasn't a finish line for me and after the briefest pause to remove my timing chip and pick up the all important goodie bag I was off again, this time down Chesterfield Avenue towards the city.

I ran back to the car to get rid of the goodie bag and had a little over 2 miles to run to complete the 15 miles. These last 2 miles were the most difficult, I had to fight hard to keep going as I ran through unfamiliar back streets, lanes and alleyways to gain critical inches that would all add up to make those last 2 miles.

Finally my trusty Garmin rolled over to 15 miles, I continued on into the Museum car park and when I found a suitable place to stretch I stopped running and stopped the watch. In the end I ran 15.23 miles in 2 hours 31 minutes and those all important 27 seconds. The average pace was 9:57, just about right for a long run. In hindsight I wouldn't wrap a long run around a race again, I should have run at a steady 10 minute mile pace for the entire 15 miles but it's difficult to run a race that slowly, not to mention crossing the finish line only to carry on for another 5 miles, that was a killer.

As for the GIR bit, I ran than in 58.12.

Here's a link to the complete 15 mile route: http://connect.garmin.com/player/2977743