Reflection on BUPA 10 k

Ohyeah

Enjoyed the race despite the warm weather. All the training paid off since January and I felt good crosing the line and feel like I could have gone a good bit faster .............but

there was too many people, and the route took us down way to narrow roads, it was quite dangerous in the downhill between 4k and 5k. I did not get a free run until the final 3 or 4k because slower people were in front and there was just NO room to strech your legs...:mad:

what did other people think? Could it not be organised better at the start?

Anyways how do you get your offical time from the thing that we wore around our ankles? It must have been 2 mins before I got to the starting line after the race started.

Does anyone know when the next decent race is on, ie a little more than 10k.

Ohyeah

Just seen my time 51 mins and a bit, sad I did not get below 50 but ...does anyone know if you are planning to do a sub 4 hrs marathon in October is that time good enough over 10k at this stage..or should I be quicker than that.

thanks all.:)

Diamondmaker

Ohyeah wrote:

there was too many people, and the route took us down way to narrow roads, it was quite dangerous in the downhill between 4k and 5k. I did not get a free run until the final 3 or 4k because slower people were in front and there was just NO room to strech your legs...:mad:

what did other people think? Could it not be organised better at the start?

Does anyone know when the next decent race is on, ie a little more than 10k.

You have to expect this from these sort of races, free for all encouraging averone and their gran to enter.

It was organissed very well IMO and if you had a good time you should have been up the top early. I was very close to the top and was only bothered by slower pace for 1st Kil which I ran mostly on the outside path.

hunnymonster

you're in and around about bang on for a sub 4 marathon if you do the training. There are a number of different methods of estimating

your race time at one distance from your known time at another distance. One that is popular is mc millan
Putting 51 in you come up with 3:59:20!


Of course no calculator is ideal. some people are naturaly better at disance some at sprints. It does give you something to work with.

Ohyeah

3:59:20!


that seems a little too close for comfort

hunnymonster

weather will be cooler on Oct 29th
Crowds will be (slightly) more disperse
you'll have had a whole summer training!!!!!!
Besides a marathon is the only time in your life when you legitimatly get to steal sweeties of little kids to give you an energy boost!

cunnins4

I didn't like the changes to the course towards the end. The narrow windy roads sucked. And far too many walkers up at the fast pace area at the start. I started about 100m back from the start line, and was overtaking people for the first 4-5k i'd say. then it thinned out a bit.

Even though the sun makes running a bit harder (especially if you're wearing a big black wig like i was) it's more enjoyable to have a nice day than an awful rainy one.

The extra toilets, improved baggage area, meeting point and overall organisation was a big improvement on the last couple of years. I had a chest infection, so i only ran a 47min, was hoping to get down to the early 40's, but just couldn't breathe. Ah well, there's always next year! Still enjoyed it emensely as always!

Lockster

It was the first time that I have actually done an organised run like this and I thought the overall organisation was very good, but I was surprised by the number of people who were obviously only ever going to walk who were at the front and so i had to negotiate over the first 2 km. I suppose though there is not much more that the organisers can do except ask people to start in the area related to their target time, which is what i did. It's really just down to those walkers who should little consideration for the people who wanted to run the 10 km as quickly as they could without being held up by them.

the boss of me

Yeah, I would agree with Locster on this, it was my first organised run and I started well down the road(near the toilets). But I seemed to be passing walkers till the last 2km and there were a few places where the traffic was so heavy I was reduced to walking pace. Wouldn't it be better if there were designated starting points for ; elite, runners,joggers and walkers ?

Krusty_Clown

There are designated areas for each of these categories. unfortunately, most people don't obey them, or don't know where they should be (because it's their first outing).

Lockster

In fairness to the organisers it was also mentioned in the information sent out prior to the run to start in the areas for your estimated time and there were also markers that I saw on the railings before you got on to the road as to where to start. I just kind of thought that it was people just being inconsiderate to other runners at the time. Perhaps with hindsite the areas could have been a little bit better "policed" by stewards.

It didn't really take from my enjoyment of the day and I don't think that it contributed to slowing me down to any great extent, but jusy a little frustrating at the time.

Diamondmaker

Lockster wrote:

In fairness to the organisers it was also mentioned in the information sent out prior to the run to start in the areas for your estimated time and there were also markers that I saw on the railings before you got on to the road as to where to start. I just kind of thought that it was people just being inconsiderate to other runners at the time. Perhaps with hindsite the areas could have been a little bit better "policed" by stewards.

It didn't really take from my enjoyment of the day and I don't think that it contributed to slowing me down to any great extent, but jusy a little frustrating at the time.

Everyone wnats to start at the top regardless of pace, especially the walkers. \Starting at the back could add 30 mins to their 1hr and 1/2 or so.
Policing could only be done by asking times and sure evry one would just say
" Ah yeah about 38!" even if they were walkers.
Not much can be done, just get your self there early.
Ill go into the sub 40 bracket on my next event regardless...Ill pu

Roddy23

That was great fun. First organised run for myself, like the boss and Lockster. I think I went off too quick, was trying to do the run at around 6min 30 secs a km, but the first three I did it in about 16mins, the adrenalin was lethel. After that I got some serious stitches and I had to ease up big time. I hope I learnt my lesson about starting too quick, and I will definitely be aiming to increase my milage over the summer (considering that was the longest I've run before outdoors). Hopefully I'll be in a position to do the half marathon after the Summer, and then the Marathon in October, but I really do need to start putting the milage in.

daymobrew

Diamondmaker wrote:

Everyone wnats to start at the top regardless of pace, especially the walkers. \Starting at the back could add 30 mins to their 1hr and 1/2 or so.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. My wife, who watched from the start area, said that it took less than 8mins for everyone to pass through the start line.

Every race has people who plonk themselves at the start even though they are going to be overtaken by most of those behind them. It's worse with bigger races. The lack of consideration is frustrating. Some people respond with their elbows.

Krusty_Clown

I don't mind starting at a walking pace, it's when you end up walking at the bend after the first kilometer that I find it very frustrating.. Upsets the rhythm and all that.. Also on narrow path stretches, you literally had to jump over ditches, negotiate traffic cones and really squeeze between other runners to stay at your race pace.

But at the end of the day, it was a fun run! My wife and son also completed it, and my daughter was upset because she's still two years away form the junior run.. I hope we'll all be doing it for yours to come..

The finish line photos were posted today.. I'm the panting, sweating, wheezing fella on the right.

Go on, show us yours!

louthandproud

Although it is frustrating to be held up by walkers and slower runners I think a big event like this is mostly meant as a fun day out and is always going to be a mass participant run/walk etc. Probably better to enter another 10K road event if you really are trying to push your personal times. In saying that however I arrived at the start a bit late and walked in about 20 meters from the front and got away nicely.

Found the last few K on this new circuit a lot tougher than previous years and was a bit slower than I expected but happy at 44:30.

daymobrew

louthandproud wrote:

Probably better to enter another 10K road event if you really are trying to push your personal times.

I found it impossible to 'run' the Dublin Port Tunnel 10k, so the considerably less well attended Aware 10k Christmas Run in the Phoenix Park was a delight.
At the end of races there are always people handing out leaflets advertising their forthcoming race. It's a good source of info.