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.