Cork Half Marathon

Sunday 2nd June 2013 – 4.6km Easy run (4:55/km) 
I got the train down to Cork the evening before so after manning the pacer stand from 4-5pm and then watching the Ireland v Georgia game in the hotel, it was time to go out for a short leg loosener. I managed to run the last couple of kms of the race course in ideal weather conditions so all was nicely set up for running tomorrow.

Week 21 Summary:

RTW: 7 from 7 days

DTW: 89.9km

DTY: 1,795.1km

Monday 3rd June 2013 – 21.4km Cork Half Marathon (4:39/km)

I ran the one mile from the hotel to City Hall for the pacers meet-up but was there pretty early so went across to the marathon start at 9am. A quick chat with Tom and Eamonn (the 4:30 pacers) and the race was soon started. Great weather for it and I made my way back to city hall to get a bus to the HM start in Mahon. Unfortunately there were a few issues with bus availability meaning that when we eventually got to the race start it was delayed by almost 30 minutes. This allowed for a good chat with several of the pacees. My pacing partner Ben arrived at this time also and before too much of an inconvenience we were walked to the start line itself.

It was just then that I noticed there was no start mat for our chips. This was a big let down for many of the runners who had paid over €50 for this race and now they would only have official gun times and no proper chip times.

The race itself started well. There was some congestion in the early minutes but it was never too bad. Almost immediately the marathon field veered right and we continued along the road and into Blackrock. Not long later the marathon course rejoined our route again. For most of the time along the Marina there was lots of people around us and we were probably carrying about 40-50 pacees with us at this stage.

Throughout the first few kms we were keeping a close eye on the pace as we wanted to ensure the volume of runners didn’t distract us from the main job of keeping a steady pace. The pace bands at the expo stated a 4:44/km pace would complete the 21.1km in 1:40:00. However, these races usually end up being long for GPS devices so I was aiming to keep things closer to 4:42/km and thereby allowing a 50 second cushion for a long course.

I had described the course to pacees as split into one third flat, middle third undulating with the final third flat all the way to the finish. By the time we hit the South Link road we were beginning into the hilly middle third and it didn’t take long for some of our group to drift away around here. We eased off the pace when going uphill to give people a chance to stick with us and regained the time on the downhill and flats. The steepest part of the day came soon after with the corkscrew turn up onto Turners Cross. After this I noticed the beginning of heavy breathing in our group as one by one another bunch of people started to whittle away.

We did our best to coax the gang through the inclines and we were soon at the top of Model Farm Road but the group was now down to about 6 or 7. I was happy to confirm all the hills were done away with now and the run in to Cork should be very manageable. My mind soon changed though as we turned right at the end of Inchigaggin Lane and onto the Straight road only to be met with a strong breeze. This made the 2km stretch tougher than it should have been and around now we noticed our av pace of 4:42/km was going to be very tight for the finish. So, combined with the breeze we now had to push the pace into the late 4:30’s to ensure we finished inside our time. In fairness to the remaining group they kept it going most of the way and by the time we were in the park crossing the Lee we advised a few of the stronger runners to push on, which they did. A couple of other runners started to fade and we did our best to keep them going but it was just a tiny bit too fast for them and they fell away over the closing mile.

With about 1,000m to go myself and Ben were running alone for the first time today. We tried to grab a few people as we went past them on the run-in to the finish but we soon realised we’d need almost a sprint finish from Patrick’s Bridge just to get in on time ourselves! The last few hundred metres was ran closer to 4:00/km pace and as I crossed the line I stopped the watch on exactly 1:40:00! The distance read the course to be 270m long but the reality may well be somewhere in the middle. Thankfully anyone who was fit for sub 1:40 appeared to nail it and the first runners to miss out on the time did so by about 40-50 seconds so they would always have been just a little short of pace regardless.

Afterwards I jogged back to the hotel for a shower before returning to ‘Pana’ for a few pints with some familiar faces as well as some new. Everybody agreed it was a tough day with humidity high from the start but also the sun breaking out later on and making it especially difficult for the marathoners. 

Hopefully nothing clashes next year and I’ll be back in Cork once more.Total distance including jog to/from hotel = 24.0km

Tuesday 4th June 2013 – 8.9km Easy run (5:04/km)

Went out very late in the evening for this in order to avoid the sweltering heat. When I actually went outside I discovered the weather was perfect – it was just my apartment that was sweltering! An easy 8.9km followed. I shortened the route to allow for taper and by the time I returned home I barely knew I had been out at all!

Week 22 Summary (so far):

RTW: 2 from 2 days

DTW: 32.9km

DTY: 1,828.0km