Boston Scientific Half Marathon (Clonmel) Race Report

Blueway at Kilsheelan, County Tipperary

Long and short of the last few months is got I Covid back in January and it did a number on me, few
weeks after I had it I still had very little energy and running what should have been a easy 3miles was like a hard 15mile run.

This of course ruined my plans of a 50mile race in May which I have postponed until 2023 as I lost a lot of fitness and couldn't continue to do the training I needed.

Things are very slowly going along now, I have an entry for Dublin in October which has carried over from 2020 so I opted to make some effort on training and I signed up to the Boston Scientific Half-Marathon in Clonmel which was on the 28th August.

I've done this race a few times and its not what I'd describe as flat, but they changed the course this year and have promised a flatter course.  

Half-Marathon Race Route

The course started in Clonmel and then looped back to Kilsheelan via back roads before going onto the Suir Blueway and coming back to the finish. I've run and cycled on the Blueway a fair bit over the last 18 months or so so I knew what to expect there but I had no idea about how the route would be on the roads to Kilsheelan.

Few miles in and I knew this course wasn't going to be very flat, or at least it wasn't going to be flat until I reached the Blueway.  You can see from the elevation profile below that it certainly had some climbs, but for everything that goes up it also must go down so there were some enjoyable downhill sections.

Race Elevation Profile with Pace Overlay

I managed to keep a fairly respectable pace throughout most of this section but by the time I hit the Blueway at Kilsheelan I was starting to feel the strain of maintaining the pace. 

Up until the 7.5mile mark I only had maybe 3-4 people pass me so this was a good sign, but on the Blueway this changed and I maybe had a good 10 people pass me. This was a little demoralizing as I've not had this happen in sometime when doing a half marathon distance.

But I kept going as best I could and tried to run based on effort rather then checking my actual pace on the watch. Coming up to the finish I managed to pip two people so thats always a boost!

I entered the race expecting 1:40'ish, but I finished with a fairly respectable 1:36:17.

It's far off my PB of 1:29 and prior to January and getting Covid I could have pulled this sort of pace out of the bag on a training run so I have a lot of work to do to get back to that sort of fitness. But its still better then I expected just the same.

Long sleeve finisher shirt after the race is decent quality and it'll get some use during the winter months no doubt and for those into medals its an alright medal.
  

The problems with not paying attention...

We're still in a worldwide pandemic and I'm still running, although a lot less in the past 3 weeks.

Upto a few weeks back I've been doing between 30-40miles a week and while not improving on my speed I've kept things ticking along and I've been enjoying some new 10-11miles routes I started running because of less traffic on some local roads.

That was until about 3 weeks ago when I went out for a 13miles run, 2miles into the run I felt a niggle on my right knee area which I initially thought nothing of it and ran on, after all these things happen now and then.  

But by 4miles into the run it actually hurt me a little so I stopped and stretched a walked a little and again started running. The rest of the run was pretty uneventful and I finished fine.

An hour after I got home I was crippled, it hurt to walk and going up/down the stairs was a real challenging with me being unable to put any weight on my right knee! So I took it easy and did some cycling over the following days on and off to see if things would be better.

I've since had two sports physio appointments and it turns out that luckily I've not done myself any joint damage and instead my IT band had tightened up so much it was causing my knee to land differently which caused the pain.   I've had two sessions of dry needling and its worked wonders, this week I've managed about 6miles of running with no pain in the area and finally going upo/down stairs is painless once again!

This all could have been avoided if I had cut the 13mile run short and it shows the importance of listening to your body and the problems with not paying attention,

So this shows the first problem with not paying attention!

The second problem with not paying attention is when you sign up to races, due to the Covid19 pandemic of course countless races have been cancelled outright or postponed. 

I go to do the Midnight Marathon in January of this year but since then every race I had planned to sign up to or had actually signed up for has been cancelled for 2020 with the exception of the Tralee Marathon which moved from April to September 26th so I should be running that.

Unlike Tralee the Dublin marathon is a much bigger race so its been cancelled for 2020 and its in its place they've recently introduced the virtual race series which includes the Dublin Marathon which is taking place in October.

I signed up because the virtual aspect suits due to two reasons, one it gets another race done under my belt and the second reason I'll get to shortly.

Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to this either as I signed up to both the Marathon and Half-Marathon and only after did I realise that both had to be completed between October 24th-26th. So provided I have the time to do both it's going to be a busy weekend and the legs are going to be a little tired.

So two instances where I should have been paying more attention.

Although the races for 2020 have been almost all cancelled this has at least for me been a good thing, especially when it comes to the Dublin Marathon because we're due our first child at the start of November so heading off to Dublin likely wouldn't have gone down to well with Grace.

When I get out to run from November onwards should be a interesting challenge.....

A man with a plan!

So I'm finally settling into some sort of routine after many months out of routine and its about time too! I also have some plans finally too!

Over the past few weeks I'm consistinately doing between 35-45miles per week which isn't a bad weekly total, my pace is also gradually improving and to help with that I've picked a goal for December.  I'm going to run the Waterford Half Marathon and I'm going to aim to beat my PB of 1:29.

It's perhaps a big ask and the last time I tried this last summer I managed just over 1:30.
To get an idea of how capable I am right now I did a 13.1mile distance last Monday and managed it in 1:35, not a bad time for a training run with effort. It wasn't all-out effort but I felt it none the less.

So my plan over the next few weeks is to rebuild my endurance first and then work on upping my pace, in preparation for the half marathon I also have some plans for:

17th Nov - Stook 10mile
23rd Nov - Long Way Round Mountain Run
7th Dec - Waterford Half Marathon

Is doing a mountain run of 9miles my best plan whilst training for a half marathon...properly not, but I always really enjoy the event and I like to support South East Mountain Rescue who organises the event.

Last weeks training was
Monday: 13.1miles @ 7:16min/mile pace
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 2miles @ 8:33min/mile pace
Thursday: Rest
Friday: 6miles @ 7:52min/mile
Saturday: 8miles @ 7:06min/mile
Sunday: 17miles @ 10:56min/mile

Tullamore Quinlan Cup Half Marathon Race Report

Its been a nice easy week as I've been busy tapering for the Tullamore Quinlan Cup Half Marathon so a managed the following:

- Monday: 6miles

- Tuesday: Rest

- Wednesday: 2miles easy

- Thursday: 2miles easy

- Friday: Rest

While months back my aim was to run a target half-marathon with the aim of beating my PB of 1:29:33 running this half was very much a last minute decision only taken in the past two weeks and really only finalised when I managed 1:35 on a training run for this distance last week so I haven't been training for a half like I should be.

At first I wanted to run Clonmel but that was booked out for the Sunday so I opted for this instead as it still had spaces and it took place on the Saturday, Saturday arrived and it was time to make my way to Tullamore.     Driving the route to Tullamore reminds me of the times I used to attend the Boards.ie Charleville Photograpghy meetups back in 2008/2009 when we used to all stay overnight in the castle.   You can see a selection of photos I took in the castle on my old photoblog website.

Anyway, back to the running, with a race start of 11am and the fact I needed to collect my number etc it was a 8.00am start for the drive up and for a change I also had the support of my wife Grace which was nice to have for the day.

We arrived around 10am and it was off to register, number picked up and it was time to warm up ahead of the race.    My aim of course  to go out with the 1:30 pacers and stay with them until the last mile and then push forward to get a new PB.

11am rolled along and we all lined up to the start line, the race had fully sold out so there was a good crowd really for the off.  We were off a little late at 11:02am and from the start although we were running 6:40min pace it felt so easy, I actually remember thinking if it felt this easy for the entire race then this would be great.

Unlike so many other races where I've pushed ahead of the pacers I stuck right with the two pacers from the very start, this made easier by the fact that the pacers had flags rather then balloons as balloons tend to constantly get in the way of other runners.

To my surprise the first part of the half-marathon was much hillier then expected but I must say the pacers were good for giving pre-warning to various hills recommending people ease off the pace and not to really push on the hills and take it easier on the down hills.    However, by the time we reached the 6mile mark I was starting to feel it and it didn't help that I had stuck with lead 1:30 pacer who was really pushing the pace to the point where the second pacer asked him to ease back, for a short few metres I managed to drop out of the pacing group entirely but was able to catch up with them and stay with them again.

At this point in the pace the pacing group had managed to bank around 40seconds.

By the time we reached mile 10 I was really starting to flag and it was becoming a big challenge to keep the pace.     To his credit the second pacer tried his best to encourage me on as did two Tullamore A/C club runners who tried to encourage me to stay with them but I just couldn't maintain the pace anymore.

By the time I reached mile 11 I could no longer see the flags belong to the 1:30 pacers and I knew any chance of beating my previous PB was out the window completely but I kept up the pace as best I could.

The finish for this half involved onto the Tullamore A/C track, running past the finish line and doing one loop of the track, as I approached the track I was passed by two other runners but there wasn't anyone else behind me. As I approached the finish line I could see Grace cheering me on and so I pushed on to finish in 1:30:25.

Not the new PB I was hoping for but still a respectable time and place 116th out of 811 people running the half marathon.

I missed out on the new personal best but to be honest I'm not annoyed, considering I hadn't been properly training I finished in a pretty respectable time and if anything this spurs me on about what I could manage if I really put the head down and thought about maybe trying to knock 1-2min off my half-marathon time.

My garmin of the route can be found here.