Frank Duffy 10mile August 25th

rom

tbh, being able to complain about a portaloo is great. Cork 1/2 start there was a que of about 20 mins for them this year and last. It behind a tree for me and a cup of coffee in the morn so I don't have to use one of them.

mich@el

10 mile Dublin Marathon Race Series, Frank Duffy 2012 August 25

Great run, perfect weather, rain held off. Many thanks to the organisers for the very professional and well organised event. Good to have water on both sides of the road with the 100m signage. A little slow going around the last corner before the home straight as I lost a second or two there. I was lucky on the narrow paths to be in my pace groups, could have been a problem as it was difficult to pass. Wave starts went well and the repeated warnings over the PA was a good idea.

Many thanks to the volunteers and organisers for the great race and of course the positive crowd of runners.

Lostnfound

I'm feeling fairly sore this morning but for me that's a sign of a good race the day before, I finished well, it was my first 10 mile so I wasn't sure where I'd end up - did it sub 85 so I'm delighted. I started in the middle of the second wave.

As always the Race Series is well organised from start to finish, the finish straight was the only downfall with competitors who had completed the course walking back towards the finishing runners. Saying that I preferred the location of the finish than the 5 mile which was the reverse - not sure how but I found the 5 mile finish as torture, yesterday I had a bit in the tank to carry me across so maybe those walking back spurred me on.

nerraw1111

Should maybe mention litter etiquette in race briefings. At gaelforce last week, i saw people hurling empty bottles over hedgerows. Presumably because they didn't want to litter the road. You see it in other races, people nearly throwing their arm out flinging stuff way beyond the route and thus making it harder to run.

Even the pros do this. Remember the Ethiopian runner in the women's Olympic marathon. She was dropping bottles in the middle of the pack and nearly taking out people

jahaco

Dilbert75 wrote: »

Only down side for me was the condition of the portaloos. They seemed to have been the Ryanair version - no flusher, no paper, nobody going around checking condition & replenishing paper (as they did at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival in May).

. It wasn't like that in Edinburgh the year before. Had to complain to the organisers. Good to hear they responded. Maybe the same will happen in Dublin for the half marathon etc once your post has been read!

Dilbert75

Yeah the loos we used were being attended by a crew full time, cleaning and replenishing, despite massive crowds. It can be done if there's a will to.

hawkwing

I always bring some toilet paper with me as i have been caught out before,so never again.Was lucky enough i got a cleanish one but i wouldn't go eating a chinese in there at the same time.

RacoonQueen

nerraw1111 wrote: »

Should maybe mention litter etiquette in race briefings. At gaelforce last week, i saw people hurling empty bottles over hedgerows. Presumably because they didn't want to litter the road. You see it in other races, people nearly throwing their arm out flinging stuff way beyond the route and thus making it harder to run.

Even the pros do this. Remember the Ethiopian runner in the women's Olympic marathon. She was dropping bottles in the middle of the pack and nearly taking out people

You get a DQ in triathlon. They mentioned in the race briefing to DCT today that the route was clean and anything dropped would be today's athletes so the DCM crew must have been out cleaning up after I passed. They alas had a litter drop spot in DCT so maybe it would be better if they made it clear that the only place people could litter was at water stations and at the sides of the path not in the centre where people can trip/slip.

delta_bravo

Did this in 1:44. Was hoping for 1:40 but I really slowed down after the S bends. I think I went too hard down Chesterfield the 2nd time.

Overall it was a tough course I thought but a good challenge. I know I'm going to run a good bit more to be right for the half.

One or two gripes: The bootcamp truck at the start of the race was a bit annoying as I was at the start of wave 3 and there were loads of people flinging legs and arms around the place as I was trying to get prepared, but thats more of a personal thing.

Although they did screw up when they were telling people they were more than half way done. I looked at my watch and I had the distance as 7.5km. So I didn't take it in but some people might have been confused by it. Also at the home straight I would have like to have seen markers to know how many hundred metres were to go (maybe I missed them with the people) as I couldn't see the end point with all the people around.

Overall though it was enjoyable, weather good and makes the idea of a half marathon less daunting than it did 5 months ago

folan

broke my previous time by near 6 mins, finished in 87 mins. very happy with that.

other than the final straight, which was poorly planned and i saw a few almost wiped out by people not watching those still finishing the race, and the long straights on the path, i had a great time on this run.

raler

Whats with all the scaremongers talking up those 'hills' ? If you’re doing any kind of incline in your training – and it doesn’t have to be 3 rock we’re talking about, the hills shouldn’t have presented too many problems I’d have thought.


Great race well organised. Couple of niggles were few points already mentioned:

Footpaths at times were a bit clogged
Some indications of when the finish line was coming on the home straight would’ve been nice, but that’s a minor niggle.


Re. gels, surely if you’ve had a decent breakfast & hydrated well (during if necessary), there really should be no need for these at this distance ?

overpronator

Anybody know how many ran this one?

28064212

overpronator wrote: »

Anybody know how many ran this one?

4487 finished it. Down from 5175 last year, and 4902 in 2010

Murph_D

raler wrote: »

Re. gels, surely if you’ve had a decent breakfast & hydrated well (during if necessary), there really should be no need for these at this distance ?

I agree - the only semi-plausible excuse is that people might want to try using gels in a race situation for the first time, in preparation for upcoming longer races such as the marathon. Surely better to do this experimentation in training though.

The Rook

28064212 wrote: »

4487 finished it. Down from 5175 last year, and 4902 in 2010

So how is it that there were race numbers with 14,000+ as their number?

I saw a few of them beforehand and was thinking "Jesus this race is going to be packed" ....

tang1

The Rook wrote: »

So how is it that there were race numbers with 14,000+ as their number?

I saw a few of them beforehand and was thinking "Jesus this race is going to be packed" ....

Not all races start at 1 and work there way up. Some just start at a random number. Ran a race this year and numbers were into 20,000's and only 350 ran the race.

RayCun

The Rook wrote: »

So how is it that there were race numbers with 14,000+ as their number?

There are four races in the series, and if you enter more than one you have the same number for each race. (Not the physical number and chip, but if you are 501 in one race you are 501 in the next)
If there are 3000 people who ran the 5 mile but no other races, that's 3000 numbers that won't be used later in the series. I think the organisers also reserve blocks of numbers leading to more 'wastage'.

Seve OB

My first 10 mile, actually my furthest distance since the GIR and the Swords 10k. Only running very half heartedly since February this year, so my taget time was basically to finish.

Heading down Chesterfield avenue first time round and about to turn left at the Zoo and it was all in tatters. Holy crap, I need the jacks! So squeezing the cheeks I made it round to the portaloos (God knows how) still intact and of course the leaders were well finished at this stage so there was loads coming down the foothpath and me beside them! One steward at the turn for the finish spotted me moving in and thought I was trying a smart one and jumped in front of me and started to point the other way... He didn't have to worry, I just wanted the bog!

Stopped the Garmin whilst I searched for one with Jacks roll (might have found the only one by all accounts, so took an extra bit for after the run if required!) Nobody shouting in the Elverys truck at the half way point by the time I got round so it didn't bother me at all. At any rate I had the garmin so knew I wasn't there quite yet! Plenty of encouragement all the way down the avenue even though I was one of the last. I managed to run every inch (with the exception of the pit stop), all be it very slowly until I got to 13k and then I just had to break into a walk.

OMG, I felt as if someone had taken a hurl to my legs as I broke into that walk, the pain was unbelievable from my hips right down to my toes. It was actually less painful to be running, but I just didn't have it in me. Walked for a full 1km and then broke back into a jog, but not for long, I was soooo sore. Walked for 500m and then ran the last km all the way home. Actually, when I did the GIR I had nothing in the tank at all for the last 2km and found them torture, here I surprised myself a lot and was able to pick up the pace for the last 500 or so, but I do agree that markers every 100m or so for the last km would definately be helpful. I picked up the pace a little to soon so almost burned myself out before the finish line, but yer man doing the commentary was great and called my name a few times, slagged me off for wearing sunglasses, and suddenly I found one final spring with 100m to go. Loads of encouragement in the last stretch and I was so happy to make it over the line in one piece (barely!)

Chip time was 5:30 slower than Garmin due to the stop but that would not even have been good enough to climb even one more place in my category M35, but was really delighted not to be last in it, sorry Thomas, you were the only one behind me:) It might have got me a few places up the overall, but no difference really when there was only 40 or so people behind me. One of whom I could have swore I heard the announcer say was 90. 90! WTF, fair play to you who ever you are and I hope I am able to walk around the park for a stroll when I am your age, let alone run a 10mile race!

With regards to the organisation, I notice some people say it was great but in the same breath give out about the Loo's, the finish straight and the littering. So I am going to be straight and say organisation was poor. How hard is it to check the Portalloos to make sure there is paper in them. No flushers in them either. It is not as if there was hundreds of them to look after either!

The finishing straight was a joke, (although not so bad for me because everyone was at home having their tea before I finished) but how dumb do you have to be to orgainse it like that. All they had to do was move the baggage areas and the elverys van and stand down after the finish line. There was a long road there after we collected out t-shirts etc. To those who blame the people for standing in the way, I disagree. If it had of been organised properly, those people would not have been there in the first place.

No fruit at all by the time I finished to be found anywhere ( I will put that down to being my fault, note to self, quicker next time and I might get an apple )

A few friendly reminders by stewards around the course with megaphones with a few strategically placed bins could have helped a lot with the littering of those Gel wrappers. I slipped on a couple. Although in fairness, the ultimate blame has to lie with the litterers here. How hard would it have been to put the empty pack back in your pocket till you got to a water station or the finish!!

Quite literally hunderds of t-shirts, bags etc left when I finished. I tried to pick up a spare t-shirt for the wife (OK, I know I shouldn't have), but only a t-shirt mind, not a bag full of goodies, just a t-shirt, and got stopped by some mare saying there was none to spare that they needed them all. Might I ask what for? No more than 40 people finished behind me, and by the time I went looking for it, probably half of them had picked their bags up already! When will there ever be another Frank Duffy 10 mile race in 2012 that they can use these left over t-shirts again?

The most difficult split for me was the long and lonely walk back up to the top of Whites road to the car. Could I not have got a parking spot any further away, what the hell have I done by signing up for the half marathon!!!!!!

syngindub

stevieob wrote: »

Quite literally hunderds of t-shirts, bags etc left when I finished. I tried to pick up a spare t-shirt for the wife (OK, I know I shouldn't have), but only a t-shirt mind, not a bag full of goodies, just a t-shirt, and got stopped by some mare saying there was none to spare that they needed them all. Might I ask what for? When will there ever be another Frank Duffy 10 mile race in 2012 that they can use these left over t-shirts again?
!

was tempted myself to pick up a spare small t-shirt for my daughter but didn't bother.
why don't they just hand them all out?

chinguetti

Re the tshirts, if say 6,000 enter and 4,400 do it, you'll have some left but remember the rest of the stuff in the goodie bags can be used for the Half marathon and helps to cut down on expenses that makes the race series such good value.

Well done to all that finished and it was odd to be manning a point along the way and not running it for once.

menoscemo

syngindub wrote: »

was tempted myself to pick up a spare small t-shirt for my daughter but didn't bother.
why don't they just hand them all out?

That would have been very Irresponsible as there were no smalls left at the end and many people asking for them.

There were only a few L and XL shirts left over at the end.

Seve OB

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

It's only a minor grumble though - it by no means ruined the day. The schoolboy error of no vaseline on the nipples won't be made again !! My little one was quite concerned when she saw "daddy had cut himself" - I knew they were sore but hadn't realised they were bleeding. Lesson learned.

How do your nipples bleed from running?

chinguetti wrote: »

Re the tshirts, if say 6,000 enter and 4,400 do it, you'll have some left but remember the rest of the stuff in the goodie bags can be used for the Half marathon and helps to cut down on expenses that makes the race series such good value.

I know and understand this which is the very reason why I previously mentioned that I was only looking for an extra t-shirt and not the goodie bag.

menoscemo wrote: »

That would have been very Irresponsible as there were no smalls left at the end and many people asking for them.

There were only a few L and XL shirts left over at the end.

There was boxes of mediums left. There was nobody handing any bags out, it was fend for yourself, save for the moany git who stopped me taking a medium t-shirt.

PS two Guards came over to me whislt I was getting my own pack and asked if they could have a bag each. Theyt thought I was working there, but then noticed my number. I think they just took one.

menoscemo

stevieob wrote: »

There was boxes of mediums left. There was nobody handing any bags out, it was fend for yourself, save for the moany git who stopped me taking a medium t-shirt.

PS two Guards came over to me whislt I was getting my own pack and asked if they could have a bag each. Theyt thought I was working there, but then noticed my number. I think they just took one.

Was this at the end of the race i.e. after absolutely everyone had finished? I was handing out bags and T-shirts until well after Midday and there were absolutely no small or medium t-shirts left.

Some of the Large and XL t-shirts may have been put back into the medium box. Also bear in mind that a lot of the left over t-shirts would ahve been kept back to hand out to the hundreds of volunteers.

Hard Worker

stevieob wrote: »

How do your nipples bleed from running?



I know and understand this which is the very reason why I previously mentioned that I was only looking for an extra t-shirt and not the goodie bag.



There was boxes of mediums left. There was nobody handing any bags out, it was fend for yourself, save for the moany git who stopped me taking a medium t-shirt.

PS two Guards came over to me whislt I was getting my own pack and asked if they could have a bag each. Theyt thought I was working there, but then noticed my number. I think they just took one.

It's normal practise to give any leftover t-shirts to stewards, gardai, OPW, sponsors etc. That is if there are many left. Normally, there are at least 2 of the sizes fully gone. Seldom would there be enough to cater for everyone involved in helping out.

syngindub

Hard Worker wrote: »

It's normal practise to give any leftover t-shirts to stewards, gardai, OPW, sponsors etc. That is if there are many left. Normally, there are at least 2 of the sizes fully gone. Seldom would there be enough to cater for everyone involved in helping out.

suppose it's only right really.
what about sending the remainding t-shirts to a charity?

rom

syngindub wrote: »

was tempted myself to pick up a spare small t-shirt for my daughter but didn't bother.
why don't they just hand them all out?

humm ... because maybe the people that helped out on the day diserve them more than you ? Of this year this races this is only 2nd to the Dungarvan 10 for organisation but they even had their problems with an oil slick a few miles in. For those who are complaining you need to go and run in a badly organised, over priced race and then pass judgement.

syngindub

rom wrote: »

humm ... because maybe the people that helped out on the day diserve them more than you ? Of this year this races this is only 2nd to the Dungarvan 10 for organisation but they even had their problems with an oil slick a few miles in. For those who are complaining you need to go and run in a badly organised, over priced race and then pass judgement.

what are you on about?

Seve OB

menoscemo wrote: »

Was this at the end of the race i.e. after absolutely everyone had finished? I was handing out bags and T-shirts until well after Midday and there were absolutely no small or medium t-shirts left.

Some of the Large and XL t-shirts may have been put back into the medium box. Also bear in mind that a lot of the left over t-shirts would ahve been kept back to hand out to the hundreds of volunteers.

Well after half 12. I was nearly last to finish and it was a good while after that when I went looking for the extra t-shirt, after all I could barely walk at that stage I .wass looking for xl myself and there was 2 boxes still there. I know because I had to dig one out. The exact same after I went to the medium boxes.

Anyway enough said, the volunteers definately deserved a t-shirt more than my wife, so glad I didn't get one, I was only asking the question.

Hard Worker wrote: »

It's normal practise to give any leftover t-shirts to stewards, gardai, OPW, sponsors etc. That is if there are many left. Normally, there are at least 2 of the sizes fully gone. Seldom would there be enough to cater for everyone involved in helping out.

Fair point well made, I'm glad they get a good home,

Pacing Mule

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd post up feedback I received from the race director on the issue of the congestion at the finish straight for the slower runners.

Originally the baggage tents etc were to be placed further away from the road (leaving more space in front for finished runners to congregate on) but the bad weather and soaked ground made it impossible to cut the grass. This meant the tents were placed closer to the road / race route than originally planned. There was some cones and tape placed in an attempt to keep the road clear but it wasn't enough and has been acknowledged as not being enough.

I think that's a reasonable explanation and a lesson learned if the same situation occurs again.

Dilbert75

Load of more photos gone up on Racepix.com