"Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them"

RedRunner wrote: »

Thanks a lot. You actually look very familiar. Must have seen you at other races?

RedRunner wrote: »

Sunday 2nd March -Bohermeen Half Marathon

I'd been looking forward to this. Marathon training for London has been going well but this would be a real test of whether the effort in training could produce some results. Recent sessions seemed to suggest I could go for 1:40 or better today but I wasn't as confident of that as some on here but said I'd go for it and if it didnt work out, well it just didnt work out. It was very important though that I went sub 1:45 to give me the confidence that 3:45 was on the cards for April.

Pre-Race Build Up

Had my second pasta meal in two nights last night and drank 3 litres of water yesterday.Finished off the day by hitting the sack at 10:30pm. My OH was in shock as I'm usually last one to bed. "God you're taking this running awful serious..." or words to that effect. Well I suppose I am a bit but just wanted to give myself the best chance of putting in a decent performance today.

Up at 8 bells after a good night's rest and had a nice big bowl of porridge followed by two slices of toast and cup of tea. I'm not a coffee man. Followed this shortly with a Beetroot shot. Well if it works for AMK..why not. I was willing to try anything just short of witch doctors tomake things go my way today. Overall was feeling good, some pre-race nerves but in a good way. Set off about 9.30ish as I wanted to get down early as I hadnt a clue of layout of Bohermeen and wanted to get my bearings. Stopped off at shop to grab some bananas as we were all out at home.

On the way I chewed on some sports jellybeans and had a few sips of lucozade sport. On the way I reaslised that this was actually the first race I've taken part in outside of Dublin. I was injured for Athlone Half last year so couldnt make that so Bohermeen would be my "country" debut! The closer I got to Bohermeen though the worse the weather seemed to get and when I arrived and parked up in "The Field" it was lashing rain. Feck it, I thought, please don't let the weather be dictator of how things would pan out today. Delayed getting doing my warm up till the latest possible time and walked down to race HQ to grab my t-shirt and figure out where the start was. Met Davemcmahon when I was down there and jogged back to car park with him while discussing our different targets for the day. Dropped my jacket off and jogged back down to start with Dave , where he began pointing out some of the Boardsies that I hadn't met before including the main man Krusty who was the sole pacer of the day with the 1:30 balloon.

I bid Dave farewell and wished him luck as I head off for another quick stretch of the legs and to get the head into the race place. Starter was calling for people at this stage so made my way back and nestled into the crowd about 10 rows back from the start. Spotted a few clubmates as I did this and was feeling good. Rain was falling again afer a brief respite but that didnt bother me too much, was more worried about the wind . The starter held on a little bit for some stragglers and eventually let us off .Time to get down to business.

The first few hundred metres were quite slow and a bit of friendly jostling ensued as the road was a bit tight but was happy to be patient and bide my time before settling into a nice rhythm. That didnt take long and felt comfortable for the first few miles trying to keep an even pace. No pacer so was just feeling my way through some of the groups that had formed until I found one that seemed to be going around the right pace.

Miles 1-3 : 7:29,7:40,7:35

Was feeling comfortable and settling into a nice groove and really just hoped I could keep it up for as long as possible. The further we got along the course the more realistic I felt 1:40 was. It was a nice course with some nice gradual downhils and one testing incline. Next few miles went quickly by and I ws beginning to enjoy this.

Miles 4-8: 7:35,7:35,7:35,7:39,7:30

Took a gel at 9 miles. Was begining to get a bit tougher and had left the group at this stage. A few lads had broken away and I was a bit in no mans land and tried to catch them, which I did, but was to lose them after another mile or so as I tired a little. They were going for sub 1:40 too so was worried I might be off the pace. Dug deeper here and tried to focus on keeping around the 7:35 mark if I could and relax through the discomfort. Was picking people off at this stage and catching various groups so that gve me some confidence that I was still strong and had it in me.

Miles 9-11: 7:36,7:25,7:28

Once I hit mile 11 I knew it was there for the taking. I just had to keep focussed and concentrate on keeping the legs turning over. Nearly there,just keep that effort up and you will break the 1:40 mark, I kept telling myself. As we drew closer the sight of crowds in the distance gave me a little boost . Other runners around me were increasing the effort to get home so tried staying with them and that really helped me maintaing the pace I need . The sight of the school and the finish was a welcome one and as we turned onto the track and finishing straight I knew I had it in the bag. Fantastic feeling as I crossed the line and a quick glance at the garmin showed me at 1:39:49. Followed quickly by a dry wretch and the welcome sight of Menoscemo congratulating me on my efforts. Quickly after that , met Dave again and was delighted to hear that he hit his target too. Got introduced to Ultraman and Belcarra which was great too. Nice to put some more faces to names from here.

Final stretch: 7:43, 7:39, (6:33)

13.2 miles @7:33 Official Chip time : 1:39:50

Interestingly my garmin time now shows 1:39:43 after uploading it even though I'd swear it was 1:39:49 after I crossed the line. Official chip time gives me 1:39:50 which is almost 17 minutes better than my last official HM (Dublin 2012: 1:56:38). I'm absolutely elated and if next few weeks go well I should be travelling to London in a confident mood.

Lovely soup afterwards in clubhouse and then made my way back to car. Had contemplated going back to see if I could see more people I knew for a chat but the car park conditions were getting worse so I thought I'd head off while the going was good. Actually the going was good to extremely sloppy! Managed to get out after a couple of pushes. I'd say the tractor was busy later.

Still in shock though after reading about Mr Stew!

15.24 miles for day including warmup. Didn't bother with warm down but did lots of stretching when I got home.

WTD|41.65
MTD|18.44
YTD|373.62