Dublin

#259 Dublin 5:11



This was my 13th Dublin and I am if I am honest getting a little tired of it. Having it on the Sunday definitely helps as the whole bank holiday isnt taken up with it.

I started of the Sat by volunteering at the local parkrun and saw lots of people there over from England that were getting another run on on the day before.

Start

I picked up my number at the expo on the Sat lunchtime. Its a pain in the neck to get to and I was lucky enough to find parking close to Sydney Parade Dart station and walked up. Registration was a breeze and we got a hat today as our special gift. The green bobbles were very prominent around town all weekend.




I didnt stay around too much but stopped off at the MCI stall for the chats with Vincent, Catherine, Maryse and Derek. Anto stuck his nose in for a bit of ribbing. That was good fun. I quickly went home to rest up.

Now I knew that from previous years that buses are a nightmare on marathon morning and there was works that meant the Dart was off as well. Lindsay left me into the IFSC and I walked up from there. I decided against the Cru! changing area as I like to get my gear as quick as possible after the race and I get very cold immediately after.

Straight into the baggage area and I met Lisa and Mairin from Cru! and Leonie and Miriam from the local parkrun who were working. Toilets were a disaster as they would only let you goto the toilet if you had stored your bag. It was very jobs worthy. I hid my bag, went to the loo and returned to the baggage area. Way too early I went to the corall. As I was hanging at the back of wave 1 a lot of people passed that I knew including Carolyn from WSR and lots of DBRC. I didnt see one Cru!.

Leonie and Muriel

At 9am we were off and I knew that I was well ahead of lots of the pace groups and they would reel me in for the race. It was freezing at the start but it did warm up to around 9/10 degrees , it was light winds and dry. Pretty much perfect running conditions.

I went off reasonably steady. I wasnt feeling that great but I still managed to keep things ticking over at a similar enough pace to Chicago. Support on the streets was great as usual and the Cru! were particularly good this year staying around and waiting and encouraging even us slower ones.

10 K was in around 1:04 with half marathon covered in 2:18. This was a few minutes behind Chicago but there is no way I could have a worse second half. I was being passed by many and slowly the 3;40 and 3:50 groups over took me.

Shines on Duty

Passing through half way I visibly slowed but knew that I was doing much better than Chicago and ran when I could. Being Dublin I was scared to walk in case anyone saw me. It was busy all the way with now 2000 entered and around 17000 actually running.

The second half turned out better than I was expecting and I was able to run large portions of it punctuated by walk breaks. Unfortunately I got caught walking by Mairead Cashman just around UCD but managed to get away with it with the rest of the Cru guys who stayed out until I was well past. There was a steady stream of people came passed me.

I was very pleased to come in at 5:11 which was the best for a while. The arrangements after were just as bad as before with the whole crowd directed away from the city center and not allowed the quick route up passed the dept of finance. I always enjoyed this part where you got to meet loads of people. I kept walking back to the convention centre and Linz picked me up for a very much appreciated lift home.

I have not entered Dublin next year. Not many photos taken this year.

Stats for the day