National Half marathon,St. Abbans, Crettyyard, Monavea, Carlow on 5th Sep 2010

T runner

runnerboy wrote: »

hope i haven't frightened to much people not to compete in this event. st abbans always organise a good event . have changing facilities and always good for food afterwards. i was only stating the state of the roads and the gradient for the race. they previously held the national half on a 2 lap course which produced top class times on a good course. i understand they are afraid of traffic problems on this course and that is the reason why at the moment they are looking at this much harder but safer course.

Hi Runnerboy

Is the new route tha fast 2 lap route you mentionedbefore?

TheRoadRunner

T runner wrote: »

Hi Runnerboy

Is the new route tha fast 2 lap route you mentionedbefore?

I've never ran the loop but a friend of mine has raced a 10k and a half marathon over it in the past and he reckons it is tough enough and not that fast. Not too sure if it's the same loop as runnerboy mentioned previously

emerald007

2 stars (poor)

You can tell I was busy at work today, here's a google map of the lap outline. Using the earth viewer should allow you check for hills but it seems flat enough.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103327432324011152434.00048cfe62c9edf37281e&t=h&z=14

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

emerald007 wrote: »

You can tell I was busy at work today, here's a google map of the lap outline. Using the earth viewer should allow you check for hills but it seems flat enough.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103327432324011152434.00048cfe62c9edf37281e&t=h&z=14

I see Google Maps reckons it takes about 12 minutes to do the lap.

runnerboy

yep that was the course that the previous nationals were on before about ten years ago. I would class it as a good course for times about 3km downhill 3km undulating on main road and about 3-4 km of gradual climb but by no means hard. if i remember right it was won in about 67mins by gary crossan then and i think the first 10 were under 70mins. so going by times i would say its a good course and a thousand times better than the course they were originally going to go with.
Power to the Boards for getting it changed. Will have to run it now after causing all the trouble

Toblerone1978

I do a bit of running but not much and certainly not competitve. But by the sound of things, it seems that any Tom, Dick or Harry can do this, that it's not just for elites (just like the Dublin City Marathon being the National Marathon c'ship) - could someone confirm please? Thanks.

wgtomblin

Toblerone1978 wrote: »

I do a bit of running but not much and certainly not competitve. But by the sound of things, it seems that any Tom, Dick or Harry can do this, that it's not just for elites (just like the Dublin City Marathon being the National Marathon c'ship) - could someone confirm please? Thanks.

Yes, entry is open to anyone.

Stupid_Private

emerald007 wrote: »

You can tell I was busy at work today, here's a google map of the lap outline. Using the earth viewer should allow you check for hills but it seems flat enough.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103327432324011152434.00048cfe62c9edf37281e&t=h&z=14

Just exported that into mapmyrun - they think the elevation is a bit tough...

TheRoadRunner

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Just exported that into mapmyrun - they think the elevation is a bit tough...

eh not liking what I'm seeing here. Fast times will be tough to come by IMO (for me anyway)

T runner

TheRoadRunner wrote: »

eh not liking what I'm seeing here. Fast times will be tough to come by IMO (for me anyway)

Dont know, the elevation profile is in feet so its deceptive.
If there was metres in the Y axis it wouldnt look as hilly.


It looks like only 60 metres climbing in the whole race. You wont gain the time lost on the descending but youll gain a bit. 60 metres isnt much . The recent Addidas race had a gain of most of 60 metres id bet.

If the road surface is good and its not exposed to wind it may not be too bad at all.

tunguska

4 stars (good)

Its almost time. Whos in for this?

Lex Luther

tunguska wrote: »

Its almost time. Whos in for this?

I'm in !

( and hoping that this course can't be any tougher than the half in the park later in September looks !)

LL

tunguska

4 stars (good)

Lex Luther wrote: »

I'm in !

( and hoping that this course can't be any tougher than the half in the park later in September looks !)

LL

Looks like its just you and me Lex. Thats disappointing, should be a lot more people taking part in a national race like this.

brutes1

Should be a good crew from athenry and further west from the city..!, two halfs in a week galway and this should be rough..!

Two pbs would be good...

Usually gets a strong team turnout from Letterkenny, Raheny/Rathfarnham and with the location West waterford and some of the Cork teams should show up??..

Will more likely to watchin the womens race 'live' from my position though, it could be a cracker ,very even between Mccambridge, Mcgloin, Jennings, maybe even Mckiernan???!!

tunguska

4 stars (good)

brutes1 wrote: »

Will more likely to watchin the womens race 'live' from my position though, it could be a cracker ,very even between Mccambridge, Mcgloin, Jennings, maybe even Mckiernan???!!

Mccambridge is on fire at the moment so the others should just resign themselves to battling it out for 2nd place.

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

tunguska wrote: »

Looks like its just you and me Lex. Thats disappointing, should be a lot more people taking part in a national race like this.

I'll be there. Hoping not to make a fool of myself in my first ever national race.

bewleys berry

might give this a shot too........ we have our own big club race (shameless plug:D - the mick murphy memorial four miler) the night before but shouldn't really stop me ''taking part'' in this.......as brutes says it would be good to see the action unfolding in the womens race..... they're supposed to be doing two laps so it must be the course they usually have for their 10k.... some long drags on it but no severe hills at all.......just long and steady.....

shels4ever

Was planning on doing this one but not in shape yet to race this so going to skip it this year.

T runner

T runner wrote: »

Dont know, the elevation profile is in feet so its deceptive.
If there was metres in the Y axis it wouldnt look as hilly.


It looks like only 60 metres climbing in the whole race. You wont gain the time lost on the descending but youll gain a bit. 60 metres isnt much . The recent Addidas race had a gain of most of 60 metres id bet.

If the road surface is good and its not exposed to wind it may not be too bad at all.

That should be 120 metres obviously as there are 2 laps.

Will be there. Will be running all out in the Warriors run this saturday. Would have planned to try and go under 75 but might be a tough call now.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

i'm in as well ; looking forward to it - i think there is seven from our club entered.

Nialloooo

Hi All, thinking about doing this next week, does anyone know what time its at?? and cost ?

bewleys berry

here's a link Niallooo, it contains all the info http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/half_marathon-2010-1.pdf

however, seeing as ur from wexford too, would ya not think about a nice little four miler in ferns the night before instead - nice and close to home and as u can see i'm still unashameadly trying to drum up business for it:D

Nialloooo

Hi bewleys berry,
Thanks for that, ya im from enniscorthy and was hoping to do the 4 miler but have to work till 9.30 so ill miss out, missed the oylgate half to so this might make up for it, will have a 18 lsr to do that weekend so might run this and tag a few miles on at the end that way the first 13 miles wont be so bad its the last 5 that will kill me :-)

Does anyone know wat address to put into the aa routeplanner.. i cant seam to find it its a kilkenny address i keep getting

bewleys berry

Well this place is only a little bump in the road Niallooo but it probably should still be in routeplanner........anyway if ur coming from enniscorthy it's easy to find - drive to carlow but bypass the town, head out the road for abbeyleix (the R431), keep straight on this road (u go through killeshin), after a few miles (sorry can't be more specific:D) u'll see a pub on the left hand side and the road to abbeyleix branches off to the right. However drive straight past the pub instead of turning right and the clubhouse for registration is only a mile down the road. It's a place called Tolerton

emerald007

2 stars (poor)

Any predictions for the race this Saturday? Are the derry boys going be to be down again, or will there be some new faces on the scene. Team wise I think we can pull out a few minutes which should make it interesting for the 5th,4th,3rd positions.

STAAC

For further information on the National Half Marathon on Sunday next 5th Sept 2010 Click here for the Entry Form, Course Map, accommodation and directions to St Abban’s AC, Laois.

asimonov

3 stars (average)

Bump.

I'm really looking forward to this - should be a good race - and as two lapper you'd hope for some support on the route. It'll be interesting to see what kind of numbers it gets - at €15 - it's probably pitched at the right cost for a half marathon.

tunguska

4 stars (good)

asimonov wrote: »

Bump.

I'm really looking forward to this - should be a good race - and as two lapper you'd hope for some support on the route. It'll be interesting to see what kind of numbers it gets - at €15 - it's probably pitched at the right cost for a half marathon.

Im really looking forward to it now. Was wasted tired during the week having over cooked the training over the past few weeks. Have had a few easy days and now I feel great. Hopefully it wont be windy though, that'll be the one thing that could ruin the day. Rain, no problem, but the feckin' wind drives me nuts. Best of luck to everybody. Disappointing turnout from boards though.

bewleys berry

should be good race today...... is a really wet morning here this am and with the race only being an hour up the road, it's not likely to change much....... good day for running though as rain will keep us cool:p

Burgman

That was one tough race. Hills, sun, hills, wind, hills, but no rain. Hills were hard. Times were much slower than normal. I'm half dead. Well organised event so thanks to St Abbans AC.

bewleys berry

yeah plenty of hills is right.... and long tramps heartbreaks of straights:eek:
had run the course a good few times before so knew what to expect but it don't make it any easier;)
well done st abbans for organising

justy

totally agree with burgman one tough race any idea where i could get results .

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

I suspect results will be on the AAI website, but it might take a while.

Big thanks to everyone at St. Abbans for a very well organised race. The distance markers were all bang on, and the marshalling and water stops were all great. The hills were tough, but I thought it was a great championship course.

Lex Luther

Daithi BC wrote: »

I suspect results will be on the AAI website, but it might take a while.

Big thanks to everyone at St. Abbans for a very well organised race. The distance markers were all bang on, and the marshalling and water stops were all great. The hills were tough, but I thought it was a great championship course.

Yeah totally agree, the event was a credit to the club and well done to all involved.
I'm still struggling to get my head around whether the course was hard or not.....several long straight up-hill drags ( a couple into the wind) but also a good sprinking of downhills. However most people said the times were well down on what was expected......I dunno. I was about a minute down on what I was hoping for but I don't know if I can put that down to the course or just that I didn't have in on the day.......
LL

asimonov

3 stars (average)

I did this today and found the course to be tough but fair, probably the definition of a good championship course - the wind didn't help the situation much. Overall times might be a little slower than other years - it was won in 69:XX against 65:XX the year before. Thought it might have been a bit little bit harsh for some of the veterans though. The main drag into the wind was a bit fierce-some and then the turn up the hill with 400 to go was a real knee wobbler.

The set-up was great, loads of accurate distance markers including 800 / 600 / 400 / 200 to go markers and you had your times called a few times around. Passed 5 water stations in all, on the first one the cups were left on the table - managed to miss it completely .

It was good to meet tunguska before the start - had the usual username / real name / boards / facebook confusion. I didn't hang around for sandwiches etc after - i split to watch the game just in time for Krusty to put a hex on any chance of a kilkenny comeback.

Hopefully, there will be a good boards ac contingent at it next year.

Burgman

Daithi BC wrote: »

I suspect results will be on the AAI website, but it might take a while.

I know that AAI sometimes gets a hard time from people on Boards so I should point out that printed results were being handed out in the hall during the prize-giving which was finished before 4pm. So that was done quite efficiently. (On the other hand, the fact that there were fewer than 200 finishers will have helped. And off-topic, should this race be merged with one of the mass-participation races such as the race series in the Phoenix Park which is also held in September?)

emerald007

2 stars (poor)

Daithi BC wrote: »

Big thanks to everyone at St. Abbans for a very well organised race. The distance markers were all bang on, and the marshalling and water stops were all great. The hills were tough, but I thought it was a great championship course.

St Abban's really put on a good show yesterday. The non stop hills were a real battle, and entering the second lap knowing you'd to run them all again was bit of a killer. Went off a bit too hard as usual and paid for it by losing places in the closing mile. We got lucky that other teams didn't have a third man to pick up the team bronze.

Ledwidth must have pulled out some second lap, since it seems he was a minute behind the leaders at the start of the second lap and then decided to push winning by 300m.

Burgman wrote: »

(On the other hand, the fact that there were fewer than 200 finishers will have helped. And off-topic, should this race be merged with one of the mass-participation races such as the race series in the Phoenix Park which is also held in September?)

These national champions should always be separate races IMO, since they just get lost within the mix at larger races.

bo jangles

It was my first half marathon (as a fun runner.... 2 hours)! and I have definitely got the bug! Glad to read many found the course tough. That's creassuring! St Abban's did a fantastic job although with their experience and reputation thats what i would have expected! Well done to all !
Now can someone recommend where number 2 should be?????:D

groovyg

2 stars (poor)

Did the half yesterday as well and felt wrecked for most of it, did a PW as opposed to a PB. The wind from miles 10 to the finish was awful. Overall the organisation was great, mile markers were spot on. Bo jangles - heard good reports from people who have done the waterford half - its on the 11th of december and entry is 22yo yo which is pretty good value. Might give it a go and see if I can knock a few mins off my time.

bo jangles

What about kilkenny? Anyone know??

ecoli

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/individual-result-half-marathon-2010.pdf

Results are up

asimonov

3 stars (average)

bo jangles wrote: »

It was my first half marathon (as a fun runner.... 2 hours)! and I have definitely got the bug! Glad to read many found the course tough. That's creassuring! St Abban's did a fantastic job although with their experience and reputation thats what i would have expected! Well done to all !
Now can someone recommend where number 2 should be?????:D

Congrats on finishing your first and you picked a good one to start with, number 2 will surely be easier after that!

bo jangles wrote: »

What about kilkenny? Anyone know??

Kilkenny was very good last year, mind you it was helped by fantastic weather. I reckon this year will have a small enough field, with plenty of runners around your pace, and it should be well organised.

Daithi BC

4 stars (good)

ecoli wrote: »

http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2006/05/individual-result-half-marathon-2010.pdf

Results are up

In my highly unscientific analysis (looking at runners who did both this year's and last year's race), this year's times are between 2.5 and 4 minutes slower. Tougher course or is everyone less fit this year than last year?

tunguska

4 stars (good)

Holy mother of God that was tough. Two loops of a ball breaking course. I dunno maybe us city folk are just soft but I found that very tough. Was absolutley disgusted with the time I did but upon reflection and looking at last years times it does appear to have been a good bit slower this year.........but these are just excuses. Shouldve been better, will have to take things up a notch for the park in two weeks time.

Great to meet Asimonov who bucked the trend and actually exceeded his pre-race prediction, top stuff. Lex Luther also played a stormer, so well done D. T-runner produced a cracker aswell, sub 79mins which was very good on that course, well done man.

Krusty_Clown

Daithi BC wrote: »

In my highly unscientific analysis (looking at runners who did both this year's and last year's race), this year's times are between 2.5 and 4 minutes slower. Tougher course or is everyone less fit this year than last year?

Nice little dip under the 80 minute marker there Daithi BC. Looks like you had Tunguska one place (10 seconds) behind you, and Asimonov 7 places behind (30 seconds). Super times guys, given the obvious difficulty of the course.

Great result by T-runner indeed. Looks like he's in top shape for Berlin.

Abhainn

Very few "unattached" runners in the results.
Good running guys