Bohermeen Half Marathon

Sunday, 3rd March – 21.1km HM Race with 2km w/u
Last night I was in Croker to watch a pretty good game as the Dubs (boo!) beat Mayo. During the course of the evening I was prepared to allow myself 2-3 drinks but as is the way on these occasions this eventually stretched out to 5 pints of Guinness. However, seeing that I was home by just a little after 10pm I was ok with my excesses as I was still 14 hours from race start.

Of course this morning I was feeling it a bit when I woke up at 9am but I was pretty fresh when hitting the road at 11am. An unintended quick tour of Navan en route (after taking the wrong turn-off on the M3) and I was on my way to race start. However, as I was looking for parking it dawned on me that I had the Garmin chest strap but alas no watch to go with it so I'd have to run this race blind! While I was still digesting this information I soon realised I was driving further and further away from race start. Eventually when I did park-up I knew it would take a swift run back to the start line or I would be fecked! As it turns out it gave me just the right amount of warm-up and it turned out there were plenty of people in the same boat as me and worse. 

At the starting line I ran into a few boardsies including Aimman, Ultraman1, Career Move, Marthastew and her husband and a quick intro to Blockic. YoungAnne popped over briefly to say hello also. I got to briefly chat to Philip also before moving in opposite directions for race start. I was expecting a very impressive time from him today.

The race started about 5-10mins late and the first mile was back in the direction of my car. I spotted the 1:30 pacer TRR leg it on the outside for the first 100m before turning my attention to running my own race. Half a mile into it and as I looked up the road there was now a good group forming around TRR and the pace had settled down. I was running quite easily about 100m behind them at this stage and expected them to forge ahead. However, before the first turn at the 1 mile marker I was only about 20m down on them so thought why not catch them and stick with them for a while. Thankfully, I had latched onto the gang before I passed my car. Running with the group felt good although it was very easy to knock into fellow runners and fall off stride. I got chatting to a guy named Fergal who is the brother of Asimonov (who ran a very good 50km in Donadea). Fergal looked very comfortable at this stage. However, it wasn't too long after this that I began to lose touch with the group. Very slowly over the next couple of miles the gap spread out to 10m and then 20m and so it continued. 

Bohermeen Course - 2 x 6.2mile laps

By mile 4 I was feeling the full effort of the pace but it was a manageable pain. Around here there were a couple of drags but nothing you'd notice on a slow run. Then at mile 5.5 there was a left turn and the only real hill of the day. It didn't last very long though thankfully and the other side led to a nice straight section where I regained a few positions. We were now passing the slower 5km runners and I found this a great boost which helped my pace - nothing like passing people out to push you forward! All this fun was short-lived though and we were on our own again after the half-way point. I was pretty isolated around here and as we turned the corner I could count out the time gap between myself and TRR which stood at approx 90 seconds. This was to be the last time I would see the 1:30 gang on the course.

The next 3 miles was a matter of gritting the teeth and getting the miles done. In total I was passed by about 6 people along here while only passing one myself. With no time/pacing info I began to believe I was falling back closer to my current PB of 1:35:30, however I was determined no matter what I was going to beat that time. 

Before long we were facing into the main hill again and I made sure to take it easy going up the hill as I wanted to push on once I plateaued. There was about 6 runners within 100m in front of me so I made it my goal to catch them one by one and see how many I would beat. As hoped I had a couple in the bag in no time. There was one girl wearing a Crusaders top that I recognised from TRR's group so she was the ultimate prize as I reckoned she must have been on course for a reasonable time. I got passed a couple more and soon we were turning for the 100m home stretch. I was on her shoulder at this point and knew it was just a formality to the line at that stage. A few seconds later though one of the guys I'd previously passed came through like a train and claimed my scalp with just 20m to go. Fair play to him as it was impressive speed coming down the run-in. Just as I crossed the line I barely made out a time of 1:32:4x and even though it took me a few seconds to comprehend I was very happy with the time. I had it in my head that if I got 1:33:xx at all I'd be doing well so chuffed with the actual time. of 1:32:49 which I eventually managed to confirm.

So, given my prep wasn't the greatest for this race I still managed to pull out a 2min41sec PB, which McMillan Calculator happens to equate to a 3:15:20 marathon time! If things go according to plan in March it's gonna be a big month for quality training and should bring me on a good bit from today.

Lots of great times from the other Boardsies with the highlights being Philip and Blockic both running in and around 1h 21m - both should be very confident of their sub 3hr times in Rotterdam. Another Rotterdam-bound is Joe Dunne who pipped his Missus, Olwyn, by 4 seconds for a 1:29:17 and his 3:10 target is now looking very achievable also. 
Rotterdam is going to be EPIC!!

Finally, well done to Bohermeen AC on a great event and I hope to be back next year again!


Week 9 Summary:
RTW:   7 from 7 days
DTW:   96.1km
DTY:    745.7 km