Aware Christmas Run 2014

Run and Jump

Did anyone here do the Aware Christmas Run in the Phoenix Park this morning? I went up to it but decided against it - the roads were fairly icy and, while delaying the start to see of conditions would improve, the organisers were asking entrants to abandon any idea of racing or PBs and just run slowly. The organisers were unlucky with the weather and I thought they did well in keeping people informed at the start.

I wouldn't have enjoyed shuffling around in fear of slipping on ice, especially in the shady downhill parts of the Glen Road. But I didn't stick around for the (delayed) start as watching it would have hurt as much as falling on the ice

Anyway, just curious to see if anyone eventually ran/walked it, what the conditions were like, and if there were any serious problems.

Stevo1983

I ran the 10k. Whilst annoying having to wait in the freezing cold for half an hour for the race to start it was worth it in the end. The ice all cleared and there was no trouble on the course at all.
Managed a PB too so I'm chuffed.

TheBazman

Run and Jump wrote: »

Did anyone here do the Aware Christmas Run in the Phoenix Park this morning? I went up to it but decided against it - the roads were fairly icy and, while delaying the start to see of conditions would improve, the organisers were asking entrants to abandon any idea of racing or PBs and just run slowly. The organisers were unlucky with the weather and I thought they did well in keeping people informed at the start.

I wouldn't have enjoyed shuffling around in fear of slipping on ice, especially in the shady downhill parts of the Glen Road. But I didn't stick around for the (delayed) start as watching it would have hurt as much as falling on the ice

Anyway, just curious to see if anyone eventually ran/walked it, what the conditions were like, and if there were any serious problems.

Yeah I did it. Was a bit fearful at the start as it was actually difficult to stand on the road let alone run. Once we got going though it was grand... A few dodgy spots to be careful on but I was surprised at how well it was. Didn't see a single faller. I did the 10k and my wife the 5k and both had PBs so delighted.

Run and Jump

TheBazman wrote: »

Yeah I did it. Was a bit fearful at the start as it was actually difficult to stand on the road let alone run. Once we got going though it was grand... A few dodgy spots to be careful on but I was surprised at how well it was. Didn't see a single faller. I did the 10k and my wife the 5k and both had PBs so delighted.

Good stuff, well done. I would have been too fearful of hitting one of those dodgy spots to relax and enjoy the run, so I don't regret not running. Glad to hear that you saw no fallers or injuries.

chinguetti

I did the 10k too but have to say I was in two minds whether to do it as all along the avenue was like glass. Even though they asked people to go slowly at the start, some were flying off like it was the middle of summer. I decided to potter around and be sensible so it was just a run around for me.

I was very surprised that apart from the Avenue, the rest of the course was in fairly good conditions. I did see the ambulance picking up someone around 7 k but they were stewards warning people where there was any ice patches.

yaboya1

Sounds very similar to St Anne's Park this morning. I didn't see any fallers there either. Seems everyone was very sensible in their runs today . It was very, very cold out there. Marlay parkrun was cancelled for the first time ever.

pistol_75

Sean Hehir ran 31 minutes so must have been ok?

TheBazman

pistol_75 wrote: »

Sean Hehir ran 31 minutes so must have been ok?

Can only imagine what it would have been in perfect conditions. The 5k was won in under 14mins.

pconn062

TheBazman wrote: »

Can only imagine what it would have been in perfect conditions. The 5k was won in under 14mins.

Have you got a link to the results anywhere? Under 14 mins seems extremely fast unless the course was a touch short. Not many guys in Ireland capable of breaking 14 mins on the road.

An_Reathai

Precisiontiming seems to suggest 5k was won in 17:00

Unable to post link

pconn062

An_Reathai wrote: »

Precisiontiming seems to suggest 5k was won in 17:00

Unable to post link

That makes more sense!

KJ

Precision Timing also posted this on Facebook "aware 5 k and 10k results will have errors in 5k as runners did not obey official time starts causing their times to be off by nine mins. Some 5k runners started with 10k runners. This caused Inconvenience to those runners who ran official times and obeyed race start times.."

eager tortoise

KJ wrote: »

Precision Timing also posted this on Facebook "aware 5 k and 10k results will have errors in 5k as runners did not obey official time starts causing their times to be off by nine mins. Some 5k runners started with 10k runners. This caused Inconvenience to those runners who ran official times and obeyed race start times.."

Does anyone know what this means? It's not very clear. I don't understand how the times can be wrong if everyone was chipped

TheBazman

Makes more sense as the "old" winning time was something like 13.40. It's now been updated to c17mins

http://www.precisiontiming.net/result.aspx?v=2324

eager tortoise

I did the 5k and am trying to figure out my time. I don't understand where the 9 minutes come from...is that how much ahead the 10k'rs were? I definitely didn't start with them. To put it like this, the clock read 44 mins when I crossed (a very slow couch to 5k'r here!) but my time is given as 35. I thought myself I'd broken 40 mins but now I don't know what to think

chinguetti

The 10k people had to stay left and the 5k people had to stay right going up the finishing shoot. I'm guessing that may have caused some of the errors even though they has big signs telling people this when side to go on. Also the 10k started at 10.30 and not at 10 as planned as they were waiting for the ice to melt so people may have just ran in the wrong race.

As for the times, personally I did some of the course as a warm up and that made up my mind that it was too dangerous to do any speedy stuff. Also I would say that I don't find the course to be a fast one (I've done it a few times in various races) even though I have always clocked it about 100 metres short every time I've done it so I wasn't that worried about my time regardless of the morning. I was there more to run a charity race for a good cause.

TheBazman

eager tortoise wrote: »

I did the 5k and am trying to figure out my time. I don't understand where the 9 minutes come from...is that how much ahead the 10k'rs were? I definitely didn't start with them. To put it like this, the clock read 44 mins when I crossed (a very slow couch to 5k'r here!) but my time is given as 35. I thought myself I'd broken 40 mins but now I don't know what to think

The 5k'ers were supposed to start 10minutes after the 10k'ers but it appears it was 9 minutes. The guy who I thought had won the 5k at 13.40 ish, is now down as having run 23.37. That would seem to suggest they corrected the times by 10minutes not 9 minutes. Your time confuses me as I can't see how you would have been impacted if you started in the right group.

TheBazman

chinguetti wrote: »

The 10k people had to stay left and the 5k people had to stay right going up the finishing shoot. I'm guessing that may have caused some of the errors even though they has big signs telling people this when side to go on. Also the 10k started at 10.30 and not at 10 as planned as they were waiting for the ice to melt so people may have just ran in the wrong race.

As for the times, personally I did some of the course as a warm up and that made up my mind that it was too dangerous to do any speedy stuff. Also I would say that I don't find the course to be a fast one (I've done it a few times in various races) even though I have always clocked it about 100 metres short every time I've done it so I wasn't that worried about my time regardless of the morning. I was there more to run a charity race for a good cause.

I was actually coming up to the finish line after 5k of my 10k at close to 23mins and some guy took the right hand lane for the 5k finish, which thought was a bit strange alright. There seemed to be a fair bit of confusion with the officials at the finish.

eager tortoise

TheBazman wrote: »

The 5k'ers were supposed to start 10minutes after the 10k'ers but it appears it was 9 minutes. The guy who I thought had won the 5k at 13.40 ish, is now down as having run 23.37. That would seem to suggest they corrected the times by 10minutes not 9 minutes. Your time confuses me as I can't see how you would have been impacted if you started in the right group.

Well maybe I wasn't and 35 is correct! I will take it

mugs11

Remember there being a good few photos from last year posted somewhere, any photos from yesterday floating about?

king size mars bar

A big thank you to all the stewards at the race yesterday not a day to be standing around so fair play to them. The course was very icey in parts but had thawed out a little by the second lap. Happy with my time considering the conditions.

bman

I did the 5k. As others have said, there were a few slippy places in the more shaded areas of the route, but wasn't near as bad as I thought it might be when we arrived into Phoenix park at 9:30.

My garmin says the 5k was actually 4.89km. Makes sense as my time was well inside a PB for me, but I didn't feel I had run full on due to been worried of slipping.