I flew there on Saturday and spent some time in the city centre exploring the area and doing a bit of window shopping. It's s cool city and hopefully I will get to go back soon! Unfortunately, since I visited on my own and was about to run a race I could not fully enough the great pubs and drinking establishments of Dublin! Perhaps another time I will go back with a group of friends!
I stayed in a youth hostel which was excellent value and also meant I could buy food from the supermarket and cook there myself. The only problem, which was quite a big one, was the room was quite noisy as it was a shared room. People coming and going meant I found it difficult to sleep. The room was also extremely hot and the windows barely opened, so even when quiet it was difficult to sleep. I think I only got a few hours sleep that night.
The race was on Sunday afternoon, so I walked there after light early lunch. The walk however turned out to be quite a lot longer than expected - around 3 miles in fact! The race was taking place in Phoenix Park, which I didn't realised was huge! It was about 1.5 miles from the youth hostel and then that again to the start.
The race was really well organised, as expected of a "Great Run" event. I've done the Great North Run which was very well run indeed and this, although a lot smaller, was no exception. I had an hour or so after arriving to drop off my bag and warm up. We even got to watch (from very close up) the start of the elite women's race before getting to our pens!
It was a big crowd and popular with spectators, although nothing like the GNR or VLM. We had nice weather - warm in fact, surprising for Ireland! However very windy! I took the race very easy since I was tapering, and there was no reason to risk and injury or run myself into the ground now. I ran about 40 seconds faster than marathon pace - rather leisurely for a 10k! Needless to say I achieved my worst 10K race time ever! But this didn't matter, in fact I did not even look at my watch other than to check I wasn't running a too-fast pace. However I could not help but speed up for the final kilometre and go for a sprint finish!
Stayed around for a short while afterwards enjoying the food and drink from my goodybag. I have a nice medal and tee-shirt from the event to remind me of my first overseas race and final big run before the London Marathon.
Came back on Monday evening after a bit more time in the city centre. I also got a much better night's sleep as I had the room to myself so a lot quieter and managed to turn the heaters off so I wasn't too hot.
Nice weekend in Dublin, a really fun race and great day to fend off the tapering blues!
Below - pic from the GIR website of the elite women's start. A few Brits in there! Well done to Kenenisa Bekele and Lauren Howarth - the champions of 2013!!!
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