Not quite to plan but absolutely worth it!
On the Monday before the race, I received an email from Eoin and it hit home what I had accomplished since December 23. The training was done and I had run 315km in the 12 weeks. There was nothing more that I could do and it was now time to enjoy the race.
Looking back, the training was quite tough at times, especially as the weather seemed to be permanently miserable. Heading out for my runs after 9 p.m., after putting Olivia to bed on weeknights, really tested my motivation but I did them and only missed a couple when the Beast from the East arrived. Most of the runs I enjoyed but there were some nights when I didn’t want to leave the comfort of the house. But, as it says in Eoin’s book, once you get into about 3k, the body changes its mind and the runs get quite enjoyable.
The long runs at the weekend were my favourite. There’s nothing nicer than leaving the house at 8 a.m. on a quiet Sunday morning for up to two hours. I am very grateful that I live close to some beautiful, quite hilly country roads around Glen of the Downs. Every training session included hills that would help me on race day.
The week of the race I rested the body and was itching to get out there on the Sunday. During the week I used one of the many tips in Eoin’s book: Visualisation. I have used this technique a lot in Taekwondo over the years. For the race, I visualised pushing hard during the hilliest section of the course (5km to 12km) knowing that much of the remaining sections were downhill. I also visualised crossing the line in 1:58 – half way through the training plan, I aimed to beat the two hour mark based on the progress of my training runs.
On race morning, I was delighted to see that the weather gods were good to us – it was sunny, there was a clear sky, no wind and a slight chill in the air. This was only my second road race so I was excited and a bit nervous at the same time. Eoin marched us all to the start line like the Pied Piper and off we went. I settled into a nice comfortable pace over the initial 5km. From 5km to 12km, the body was still very strong and I wasn’t pushing too hard. The app on my watch showed that I was on target for 1:57. From 12km onwards, I expected the downhill section to be a bit more downhill but I was still doing a decent pace up to 17km to break the two-hour mark. Unfortunately, at the 17km mark, things didn’t go to plan. I felt a strange pain in the left side of my knee that gradually got worse. With 2km to go, I was limping quite noticeably but there was no way I was quitting. Before the race I had expected to be flying down the very steep final 1km however this turned out to be my slowest split of the race!
Anyway, despite the setback I was delighted to complete my first half-marathon in 2:03 and this gives me a lot of confidence heading to Wexford in four weeks.
Thanks to Eoin for putting on a great event. Everything ran smoothly, the route was tough but great and the atmosphere at the finish line in Wicklow Gaol was electric. I would also recommend being a leader to anyone. Having to submit my progress report to Eoin every two weeks and having it posted in the newspapers was the added motivation/pressure that I needed.
Finally, a special thank you to all my family and friends for the encouragement over the three months and having to put up with all my running updates.