Notes
Dublin Half Marathon with Oscar. Would have liked to have had a little more preparation but happy enough with fitness. Picked up a blister the week before the race and it started to affect me (not too badly) after about 2 miles. There were pacers that were going at 90 mins pace. We followed them for the first half of the race. They were going at a good pace and it was marginally faster than comfortable for us. After about 5 - 6 miles they had drifted ahead of us but we were still on pace for 90 mins. At 6 - 7 miles I picked the pace up a bit as was feeling good. The first hill was at about 7 1/2 miles and I got up it ok but the legs were beginning to lose their power. The legs were getting weary and at 9 miles I could feel myself struggling even more. I was a bit ahead of Oscar at this stage but he drifted passed me easily. At 9.65 miles on the clock I stopped. I walked for 3 - 4 mins or more and I was weary and wobbling when I was walking. Tried to jog again but there was nothing left in the legs. Stopped again at the water station and after that kept jogging at a poor enough pace the whole way home. It was horrible but I was determined to finish. I had taken a gel at around the 1 hour mark and that probably was the difference between walking the last 3 miles and jogging. Towards the end I knew I could get under 1.40 so tried to push the last 500 - 600 meters. Finished at a decent pace without having the power to sprint. Feet were blistered up a bit and legs were completely dead but no issues with knee or achilles which was a big plus. Overall happy with race even though I blew up at 9 miles. Time 1:38:58 for a position just inside the first 1000 (995). Oscar finished about 3 mins ahead of me - he lasted 10 miles before getting hip problems and lost some time stretching etc.
Roll on Waterford and the next Half Marathon !
Amazing thing happened with 600m to go - 3 deer got spooked and ran in front of the runners directly in front of me. The second deer knocked a guy down and the 3rd deer jumped at head height through the crowd of runners but thankfully missed everyone - They were literally 2 meters in front of me - cool to watch but could have been dangerous !