This was my first MCI event since LaHinch in 2014. The club has grown since then and this event formed part of a b2b in Offaly. This was also my first run in Offaly making it county 32 of my 50 county challenge.
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Miserable at the start |
The venue was unusual to say the least. It was in and around the Mt Lucas wind farm which was a huge facility, with many of giant wind turbines in operation. We basically had the facility to ourselves. There were three starts at 8am, 8:40am and 9am. I choose to start at 8am as I had to travel on to Galway city after before returning to Dublin.
I left Dublin early doors and it was very easy to find. Registration was straight forward and a big crowd of us waited patiently in the pouring rain for the race to start at 8am. Vincent gave us all a stiff talking to about litter and how previous MCI events had been a disgrace. Johnny then gave us instructions for the day. It would be one 7K lap followed by 7 5K laps and a bit extra to make Marathon.
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Time for a jig |

I found the wind turbines very unsettling and spooky. They were very silent and towered over us. It was highly unusual.

I started off slow enough but had a good 2nd 10K to bring the half marathon up in 1:56. I held a thought for a while of a sub 4 marathon but that faded as I did later in the race. The 8:40 starters headed by Eimear Hurley started as we finished lap 1 and the 9am starters with Marie and Leslie started as we finished lap 2.
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Catching up with Marie |
The aid station was fabulous with plenty of water and coke and sweets and sausages. At the end there was a beautiful cup of sweet tea. Very good, and all for a €10er.
By 20 miles I was a couple of minutes off 4hrs and it stayed that way to the finish when I came in at 4:03. Satisfactory enough give the 100 mile effort earlier in the week.
All in all it was quite some time since I stopped at marathon distance and I felt the whole thing go very quickly and this report is probably not as colorful as normal.
I hung around for a while to see Tiger come in on his 100th and chat to Leslie and Marie before getting on the road to Galway.
All in all a very pleasant morning.
Photos courtesy of MCI Pro and Elma McEvoy.
Strava for today
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