It was back to Dublin for the second time this year, for the Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon on Monday 5th August. It's a fun race, with a difference - real party atmosphere, as there are 13 bands along the course, one every mile, and more music once you've finished! It was it's inaugural event, but the company behind it has been running races like this in the USA since the 90's are are well established, so I was looking forward to good organisation and great day - I wasn't disappointed!
I had a dilemma though - 13.1 miles was too short for training plan. With the marathon coming up and a 2 week holiday round the corner I really needed to get at least 16 miles in the bank. So took a bit of a chance and went for the following:
Saturday 3rd - 16.5 miles split into 3 parts: 9.4 mile run ending up at the lake for Park Run. Short 5-10 minute break then 3.1 mile Park Run. Another short break then run home 4 miles.
The first and second runs were fine, but after stopping to chat, fill up up the water backpack and get my chip time, my legs has seized up! So the last 4 miles jog home was really painful!
I tried to recover as best as i could, and spend as much time off my legs as possible, but I needed to catch my flight to Dublin. I arrived in Dublin at my hotel at around 6.30pm so took it easy and had pizza at an American themed restaurant and a couple of drinks (expensive) at the pub where I had a B&B room (there was live Irish music!) before having an early night.
Sunday I had a nice lie in then headed off to the Expo to collect my race bib and timing chip. Had a wander round the stands - compared to the VLM and London triathlon expos there wasn't much but it was great for visiting the stands of other races. I found out out about plenty of Irish marathons and half's that look tempting!! Plus they had a big stand for the Rock n Roll series getting people interested in their other European and American races! They do one in Edinburgh - I wanted to do this year's but it was the weekend before VLM so didn't want to trash my legs before that - so I'll think about signing up for next year which is a better date. Plenty in Spain, France and Portugal too. They also had some of the medals out on displays - they are awesome and i couldn't wait to receive mine for the Dublin Half!
Monday morning was an early start - left the hotel at 7.30am for the short walk to the start. Baggage and race pens were all quick and well organised - in fact I could have had an extra 20 minutes in bed as there was hardly any queuing! There was music before the elites set off just after 8.30am, with our wave about 10 minutes later. The weather was really good for running - cool and cloudy with a very light breeze. Nice change from the 30+ degrees I run in for the last 3 events!
I took the race very slowly after Saturday's 16 miles - no point in trying for good time so this was just for the craic!! - and some more easy miles in the bank whilst trying not to get injured or over do it. Still, it was a struggle to get going as my legs were still a bit sore and didn't want to play ball for a while (that could have been the long 2 mile straight uphill into Phoenix Park though!).
They felt a bit better after mile 5 - there was a great bank playing Irish folk music so we had a bit of a dance there to loosen up a bit. There was a downhill stretch after that and some sports drink too. I don't normally take the sports drink or gels unless I am familiar with them or are just plain desperate, but I was getting bored of my plain water and wanted to see what the drink was like. It was very good, orange flavour but not too strong and certainly not as sweet as lucozade which I normally have. It's by Iconiq, so will have to see if I can get these when i move back to energy drinks for the cooler weather. For gels, they gave out Powerbar gel in cherry flavour. I took one, but didn't end up having it. I'll save it for a bike or walk when it doesn't matter do much about whether I can digest it easily or not. I tend to scrounge gels when I do races and have a bit of stash at home of different brands and flavours!
Rest of the race went well - as in it was a lot of fun and my legs didn't kill me too much. So many Americans taking part! It was interesting to listen to where people were from and see the tee-shirts they wore from other races. I guess this being an US-based events company they advertise quite heavily to get people to jet set over to Europe to do their events over here (on their website there was a lot about it being "once in a life time" and tourism advice for spending a week or more in Ireland). Plenty of Brits and locals as well though!
At about 8 miles I felt quite sore and could certainly feel the effects of Saturday's 16 miles. However at 10 miles I managed to pick the pace up a bit (not sure if this was due to the up/downhill elevations - need to check the Garmin) and knocked off about 45 seconds per mile for miles 10 and 11. For the final mile I knocked off a further minute! In the end my time was 2.37.23 - which I was fine with considering all the miles from 2 days before. Faster than the Milton Keynes Half though!
Crossed the line happy and received my beautiful, heavy, shiny medal! It's a good one too - in the shape of a guitar! As I talked about in my earlier post, medals are my favourite race goodies and I not ashamed to admit signing up for the races that give out the best medals! Here it is below - it's my thickest medal by far and is excellent quality with lovely detailed engraving. Other good swag included nice Brookes technical tee-shirt (in lady fit sizes!!), and water and energy bars at the finish.
I stayed around for a while at the end to listen to the live music and recover, before heading off to the airport for my flight home.
The medal
Promo
Above - Promo pic - start line
Below - pics from my iPhone. The final pic is the Brookes tee-shirt you get with your race pack, it's pretty cool with an awesome graphic.
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