SSE Airtricity Dublin Half Marathon 22 Sep

great organisation

good course,perfect conditions

credit where it is due after last years' problems

Really enjoyed that.

One small critique though, I thought the hairpin was badly marshalled.

A few of us had to gesture to the marshall asking where the turnaround was, she motioned for us to come down to where she was, about 30 yards away. By that stage most people in front of me had turned around. It seemed a substantial enough cut of the course, a good 20 seconds or so.

Other than that, fantastic organisation.

Really enjoyed it, great event.

Minor caveat? I felt sorry for the pacers: the printed boards stated that Wave 1 was to be sub-100 mins. I duly went back to the second pen. Cue minor drama when the 02:10 balloons take up their position in Wave 2. I was part of the surge fleeing to Wave 1.

As a result I started with an 08:35, a lot of weaving, but overtook hundreds as I kept it to around 08:10 for the rest of the race.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/3034894331

One minor scare was on White's Road. There was nothing the organisers could do, as Farmleigh was required for official State business. The race organisers had laid down a series of traffic cones on White's road, with stewards every couple of hundred metres. Alas the sense of entitlement from the drivers leaving Georgian village was shocking! The American automobile lobby successfully developed the concept of 'jaywalking' and of pedestrian victims being at fault for the actions of drivers, and Ireland 2018 had something of that feel as cars/SUVs didn't even go down a gear when driving up behind anyone on the wrong side of the traffic cones. (Alas runners with headphones did not help athletics' cause when it comes to moral high ground, righteous indignation etc. Car horns were needed at times).

Overall I think the race was well-organised, well-stewarded and welcomed the use of cups rather than bottles at every second water station. As a route it got in the 13.11 without having to do too much looping back onto the course. The hill at the end seems a little more tame now that it isn't being approached from Conynigham Road but it still hurts all the same.

bucketybuck wrote: »

I absolutely hate cups at water stations. I get it, they are cheaper and maybe more environmentally friendly, but when it comes to the simple plan of getting enough water into a runner who is racing, they fail pretty badly. I have never once complained about the price of an event, never, and my own opinion is that I wish they would just provide small bottle even if it were more expensive.

I'm also one of those who had a minor heart attack when the pacers rocked up beside me in the pens, followed by what felt like a few hundred others waddling after them like ducks. Thank god I was able to move up and away from them, how do people run in those scrums?

While I am complaining, god I am sick of that guy droning on for an hour before every race, do we really need to listen to that constant prattle every single time? It wasn't until we started and I got to the music at that first DJ box on the corner that I finally got any sense of excitement, up to that point it was just a big anti-climax.


Complaining is easy though, I actually really enjoyed the event, well organised as usual, the weather was perfect, and I had the pleasure of seeing those three morons in the Cherry Orchard running shirts go from wouldn't shut up in the first 5km to barely able to move at the end.

Haha, I like that guy. In fairness to him, not many people could do that job and he keeps people's spirits high. I didn't have a great run myself but thought the marshals etc were fantastic. My only slight gripe of the day: A teenage boy at the finish pen refused to give me another bottle of water as I had drank mine. I was badly dehydrated at the time. Wonder who gave him that order.

blackwhite wrote: »

Person in front of me took two bananas from one of the boxes, but didn’t take an apple. The woman behind the table tried to take one of them off him

When she failed she started shouting “one banana and one apple each ONLY” :pac:

FFS.....ah look in fairness, they are prob under instruction to only give one of each but ffs a bit of cop on and common sense. I don't think anyone is trying to do them out of their water or bananas :pac:

Seannew1 wrote: »

My only slight gripe of the day: A teenage boy at the finish pen refused to give me another bottle of water as I had drank mine. I was badly dehydrated at the time. Wonder who gave him that order.

You need to run slower - us 2.5hr snails usually get anything we want due to being so far back in the field.

Didn't get a small tshirt, but the medium fits just fine.

I had been ill for the 4weeks leading up to the race and a combination of this and taking on too many commitments meant that my training was patchy to say the least!

I ran the first 10k comfortably enough and found the remaining 11k quite a struggle, with the last 4 being total agony. Average pace of 6.50per km. I had expected to be able to do it in an average of 7min kms, so I'm happy with my time. I definitely had to really push myself to maintain my pace in the second half of the race to come in just under 2.25

On-course support and encouragement was really inspirational I must say. Runners stopping to help total strangers, I was given jellies by a girl running by me and those who had finished stopping to shout encouragement at those of us still struggling through the course.

As I write this I'm still in a lot of pain and the feet have loads of blisters. The run took it out of me as I'm still recoding from a bad cold. I've never felt pain like it and my run was way off a PB, but I really really enjoyed today. So glad I went.

Good luck to all of you who are continuing on to the marathon next month. I really don't envy you :pac:

Bananaleaf wrote: »

You need to run slower - us 2.5hr snails usually get anything we want due to being so far back in the field.

Didn't get a small tshirt, but the medium fits just fine.

I had been ill for the 4weeks leading up to the race and a combination of this and taking on too many commitments meant that my training was patchy to say the least!

I ran the first 10k comfortably enough and found the remaining 11k quite a struggle, with the last 4 being total agony. Average pace of 6.50per km. I had expected to be able to do it in an average of 7min kms, so I'm happy with my time. I definitely had to really push myself to maintain my pace in the second half of the race to come in just under 2.25

On-course support and encouragement was really inspirational I must say. Runners stopping to help total strangers, I was given jellies by a girl running by me and those who had finished stopping to shout encouragement at those of us still struggling through the course.

As I write this I'm still in a lot of pain and the feet have loads of blisters. The run took it out of me as I'm still recoding from a bad cold. I've never felt pain like it and my run was way off a PB, but I really really enjoyed today. So glad I went.

Good luck to all of you who are continuing on to the marathon next month. I really don't envy you :pac:

Don't worry I was just in ahead of you. There was enough water at that time to fill the Liffey but sure that's the way it goes. Unlucky on not getting your tshirt size; that is annoying alright. Fair play on getting through it. A half marathon is not easy and I certainly thought it was a tough course. I ran with a cold too so fully sympathise! Rest up tonight

Great run by Shirley Coyle in second place, looks like she easily had the fastest chip time of all women.

Big shout out to the 1:40 Pacers, they were great. Seem to take the hills fairly handy (I usually fall way off) and make up ground on the downhills. Pushed on at mile 11, and crossed comfortably under 1:40

What an absolutely great day to run. Brilliantly organised ( even the weather). Fabulous atmosphere from all the runners .I would especially like to give a big shout out to the group of runners from the " Cherry Orchard" running club who kept me and my running partner entertained all the way around..great craic and banter lads.
Roll on October .

Awful day for me yesterday. Went out with the two hour pacers then beside the monument calf popped on me, awful pain all together, struggled around to the medics at mile six, spent 20 minutes with them as they strapped me up and off I went and nursed it around the course.

It felt like I was out there for weeks, official time was 2.31 which when you consider the stop and injury I wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

Not sure what the story was behind this, but seems a little over the top. Did they do something in particular or was it just the Cherry Orchard element that was doing your head in??

" had the pleasure of seeing those three morons in the Cherry Orchard running shirts go from wouldn't shut up in the first 5km to barely able to move at the end.”

AAD wrote: »

Not sure what the story was behind this, but seems a little over the top. Did they do something in particular or was it just the Cherry Orchard element that was doing your head in??

" had the pleasure of seeing those three morons in the Cherry Orchard running shirts go from wouldn't shut up in the first 5km to barely able to move at the end.”

They did something, and the only Cherry Orchard element is that it was on their shirts so thats how I remember them. Its not a particularly interesting story though.

Not trying to upset anybody but in the interest of fairness and balance could you tell us what those cherry orchard lads did to irk you so.
I must confess my running mate and I had some good craic listening to them on the route.

d7guy wrote: »

Not trying to upset anybody but in the interest of fairness and balance could you tell us what those cherry orchard lads did to irk you so.
I must confess my running mate and I had some good craic listening to them on the route.

No. It was between me and them, nobody else will find it particularly important and if your own interactions had been positive then that is a good thing.