Wicklow Gaol Break 2016!

Have you ever seen Prison Break TV series? It's one of my favourite shows. Maybe that's why this race appealed to me from the beginning :)
Wicklow Gaol Break is a half marathon and a 10km race. This year it was organised for the 6th time and took place on the 20th of March. It was a hope of the organisers to hit 1,250 entries and donate €2,500 to charity. While the entry numbers didn't get anywhere near the goal figure, the donation will still go ahead ;)
About 800 participants signed up for this year's events and it was pretty much an even split between 10km runners and Half Marathoners.
At first, I was tempted to sign up for the Half Marathon, but then I thought to myself, that it's probably better to go with 10Km on this occassion, because I'll be running the Connemara Half Marathon in early April and didn't want to OD on miles in the run up to this event :)
Wicklow is a lovely, picturesque town south of Dublin and it has it all really: the coast and the mountains.


Wicklow Jail Break Route and my Race Stats

It was very convenient for us to be able to collect our race numbers and official T-Shirts up in Dublin on Friday before the race. That way we were all set for Sunday and could afford a little lay in in the morning!
The morning of the race was rather chilly when we arrived quite early in the morning giving ourselves good hour and a bit to get our bearings. Wicklow Gaol where we started off was easy to find and many runners were already warming up around there.

10Km runners waiting for a sign to go.

The Half Marathon started ahead of 10Km, but we hit the road within 10 minutes as well. The route started off nice and flat along the Pier and then coast which was followed by a set of killer hills along the way. Yes, hills is what I remember the most from this race and my calves still hold memory of them in their muscles. My Fitbit tells me I've climbed 49 floors on this run which is not something I'm used to.

Convicts on the loose!

 I started off nice and easy in anticipation for hills, which allowed me to conserve the energy over the distance. I ran this race using the effort as an indication rather than pace. This worked for me because I knew this wouldn't be a course for a new PB, so I decided to admire the views and soak up the atmosphere rather than killing myself to shave off seconds of each km. It was new and it was exciting! I still managed to finish within the hour with chip time of 54:40, which was good enough for me.

Finishing in style

I flew over the finish line. Literally. The last kilometer was very steep downhill run which I found quite dangerous because it was all concrete and had somebody fall, they could really get hurt. I had this fear in my head which is why I didn't fully use this opportunity to run at full blast. Nonetheless, this downhill force pushed us all through the finish line and everybody seemed like they're full of energy crossing the finish line ;)

We made it! Proudly presenting our medals.

 The atmosphere at the finish line was brilliant, Finisher's medals, water and a free banana for all runners! There was also soup station for those getting cold after the stretch and cooldown.

I hope to be able to run a Half Marathon version of this race next year!
And for all interested, here's a link to Wicklow Gaol Break Website.

Poppintree Parkrun: New Route

 

So our Pparkrun changed the route last weekend!!! We've been hearing about changes due to be made to the course of Parkrun for some time and they have finally arrived!

The old tree one-mile laps were replaced with two bigger and one smaller loops. If anybody thought this old route was confusing, the new one is even more so ;) but once you grasp it, it's actually less monotonous.



 

Old Route

New Route

 I find that it's good to add some variety to the race - helps spicing things up ;) but it also means that there are more volunteers required every week. Hopefully there will be no shortage of helpers!
This week we had lead bike guiding us on the new course which was very helpful. The new route was actually less crowded thank the previous one and more open, which won't be great on a windy day. Well, let's hope it'll make us run faster! Finished line has also been moved out of the way, so it's not so easy to click somebody in by mistake.



New PB



My official time was 24:04 which improved my PB by 1 second (every little helps!) - YAY! so it seems that the smaller loop at the end really gives you a boost :) What surprised me though was, that Endomondo notified me of a personal 3mile record, even though my runs are measured in KMs.

There will be no PB's next week because I will be volunteering and running a 10KM race on Sunday. I hope everybody else is going to get a new PB. This change seems to be working well.

Dublin Half Marathon 2015

I have ran 163Km in 2016 to date according to my running diary. It's not an impressive mileage, not as much as I'd like it to be. I was out of action for some time: two weeks out caused by sinus infection :( and some really strong storms in Jan and Feb. Let's face it, I'm not a hardcore runner (yet, anyway!).
But I did start itching for some challenges and races. 'It's time to brush off those cobwebs!' I thought, so I recently signed up for two half marathons and a 10 km race in Wicklow :) This should keep me honest and my running diary busy!
It made me think my first Half Marathon, Dublin Half Marathon 2015 and I'd like to write a couple of words about this event today.
 As far as I know, Dublin Half Marathon always takes place in Phoenix Park and this time was no different. It's a great place for such events as it's a huge urban park which is great for long distances such as half Marathon and saves closing down roads for the duration of the run.

Heroes of the day!

Signing up for my first ever Half Marathon was a bit of a spare of a moment. I made up my mind just a couple of weeks before the event and just a couple of days before the closing date. It was August 2015 and I would have done the VHI Women's Mini Marathon and a couple of Parkruns thus far. Getting a new PB on a 5km distance was getting harder and harder, so I started toying with an idea of starting to run longer distances. I probably still wouldn't have done it on my own, so as soon as my friend Alex said she'd be up for it, we signed up before we could realise what a crazy distance we have just committed to run!

Pacemakers

It was a crazy distance for me then and it still is now, because never before (or since for that matter), had I gone for a run longer than 12km. I felt however, I was capable of it and decided to embrace the challenge setting my goal at 2hrs. Quite a tall order for a first timer but in theory, according to online calculators, my 10km time indicated 2hrs was within my reach, so I went for it! 

8,500 runners at the start line

 The preparation for the race was very minimal. I think I prepared more in theory than in practice. I had this routine where I was doing intervals once a week in the gym, some morning runs with hills in the neighborhood and Parkruns on Saturdays. On top of this, I was preparing my strategy of pacing myself and tackling 'the wall'. I also had to decide which runners to wear for this occassion and decided on my 'competition' minimalistic Nike Free to give myself the best chance of achieving my goal!
It didn't help that I lost my Fitbit Charger a week earlier in Paris, and Endomondo had to suffice.

Couldn't stop showing off

On the race day, we'd arrived nice and early, worying if we;d get a parking space, but it turned out to be fine and we had an hour to ger ourselved organised and get in front of the 2:00 Pacemaker. It was fairly stress free as we had been posted our race numbers and a brochure in advance, so all we really had to do was to show up! 

 As we started running, it was quite easy to keep up the pace with the crowd. The adrenaline kicked in quite early into the race and I had to actively slow myself down not to get too tired too quickly, but it made the first couple of miles pass quite slowly. I started getting somewhat tired halfway through the race and decided to check my stats on my running app and it turned out, I was 'running' a little late! I started stressing about it a little bit and worrying that my dream of finishing within the 2hrs was going down the drain as I was only getting more tired from now on, but my fighting spirit kicked in and I picked up my pace ever so slightly and made the the most of any downhill miles. I must say, it is really nerve wrecking to be constantly analyzing any possibilities of going over the two hours. Somewhere the 8th or 9th mile I decided that it's my first half marathon and it would be OK to go over 2hrs. Sure, a goal is just a goal and I will take stock of my results and improve for the next one. But I also promised myself, that if I do go over the two hours, It wouldn't be because I gave up. Because I knew that 1:59 would taste so much better than 2:01, so I gave it all I had. 

Poser :)

The real struggle was the last three miles. It's the distance I run every week in the park. It seemed the longest! Much longer than the first 10! At that point I was on track for the 2hr mark and struggling to keep it up. I kept telling myself that all I had to do is to stick with the pace for another 30 minutes and then live in glory for the rest of my life ;) So I ran and ran preparing for the hill on the last mile. I felt that I was running for ages and the hill was nowhere to be seen!!! When it finally appeared in front of me, I was saved! I was on the last mile and I knew this mental and physical torture was almost over. What I also noticed was that I started overtaking others, which I'm not sure if i speeded up a little or they were slowing down? I just couldn't feel anymore. I wanted it to be over.

Chip time: 1:58:24

Crossing the finish line knowing I made it within the 2 hours brought me back to life!!! I could feel happiness, pain, thirst, hunger, pride and my feet. More than ever before, but it felt good. It felt damn good and I'd do it again as soon as I get over the trauma of my first one ;)

 You can find more details on this year's event on the official website here. This is yet another event I'm going to miss in 2016, which is a terrible pity. I will try to make up for it by running a half Marathon in Connemara this April, which is supposed to be one of the most scenic and the Clontarf Half Marathon in Clontarf in July which promises new PB being one of the flattest course!