Warriors Run 2014

Mint Sauce

Charliebull wrote: »

Do people drive there

If so where to park, what time to arrive,

Is people wearing the warriors shirt provided

Best of luck to all

Many do drive, bear in mind there is no access to the main car park usally between 2-6 on the day, the sea front car park is closed for the whole weekend for the stage and funfair. Anyone who might be in a hurry to get away afterwards park on the Airport Road.

I never wear the race top during the race. I havn't done the race at that point, I feel I dont deserve it till afterwards, plus I dont know how its going to feel on me after a few miles running.

bennyc

Turns out i have lost a few lbs since registering . Would they swap the size of the T today if I ask nicely . (First world problems keeping my mind off the race :-) )

dakar

What a great day! Made it round, hit my target and had a blast

bennyc

I really don't think I have enjoyed a few pints as much as yesterday evening and as for the cup of tea after... Brilliant feeling getting through that a few personal goals achieved during the run. Great atmosphere around strand hill all day.

Mint Sauce

Literally a day of ups and downs.

Was disapointed with my overall time of 1:31. The PB just seems out of reach. Training the last few months was mainly focused on The Gaelforce, but doing my training on Knocknarea was also doubling up with Warriors Training.

Was feeling pretty good Saturday morning, despite having done the Gaelforce the week before, and only having done mile intervals on the thurdsday between the two events.

Thought I had a pretty good stratagy on getting that around 80min finish. Take it easy till Kellys corner, get over the first climb, ignore everyone else, and then settle into my pace from there till the bottom of the Glen Road, trying to keep a slow jog from there till the gate. Then walk from there till the top, saving energy for the decent and run home, taking short bursts at times to get past the single file traffic to make time, and places. Plan from top to car park was just to bomb it down, and slow it down from there back to the Glen road, to get my rythem and breath back. Finally for the run home, control my pace, gradullly picking up speed from between the roundabout and Kellys, but controling it again down the final hill. Overall average pace of 5m30sec/Km.

In reality. The pace kind of went as planned from the start to the gate, taking me just under 25 minutes, at a pace of 5m51sec/KM. Gate to the top took just over 26 minutes, unfortunalty got stuck in traffic a few times, litterally coming to a standstill, looking back should have been braver at times with the sudden bursts, and even with the run from Kellys to the Glen Road, average pace 11min40sec/km. Top to the carpark, 6 minutes 45 seconds, as close to planned as possible, maybe could have been quicker on the final straght to the carpark though, average 4min55sec/km. The home run, possibly my best out of my four Warriors Runs, was the first time I completed it without ever slowing to a walk, time wise though it took just over 33 and a half minutes, although felt I was pushing it for the 6.5kms and could give no more, and knew the PB was gone quite soon into it, average 5min10sec/km.

Once coming back into Strandhill, just started picking up the sprint from the pharmacy, and giving it all I had from The Strand/Bella Vista, with the last 1.5kms being ran at an average pace of about a 4min 20sec. Once over the line emptied the whole bottle of water over me, and actually felt alot fresher compared to all the previous runs, a possible indication that I could have gave more where needed.

Organisation wise, thought it was pretty spot on, other than the congestion on the hill. Crowds were great, the best I have seen, coming out in bigger numbers in more places. Was well impressed with the medal as well, very unique, and a real keeper.

Will I be back next year, I really dont know. Think I have given it nearly all I can, other than being braver where I pointed out, not sure what else I could do, although speaking to a few people yesterday, word was alot of people were down on time. Also think I need new challanges next year, so time will tell.

Congrats though to all who finished, you should be really proud, a great acheivment, and great memorys, despite my own personal thoughts on this time out.

Frosty McSnowballs

Great event, I really enjoyed it. My body didn't but my mind did.

I'm happy enough, I went full retard from the start to the gate in 22:52. Left the mountain at 57:50 and finished in 1:32:59. Felt like stopping at the last km but kept snailing it, was too fcuked to run any faster really. Placed overall at 402 apparently. Happy happy.

Great support along the way and I am delighted to have been doing it with two completely awesome friends for the weekend. Would defo do it again.

Well done everyone!

Well. That was an....experience.

I wasn't a bit ready for it tbh, not a bit. I never expected it to be so hard. I knew it would be tough, but not that tough. I got to the gate slowly but respectably, I walked up the last part of the glen road, mostly because I was running on my toes and I really wanted to save my calves for the mountain. I struggled up there big time. I lost buckets of time. Coming down was OK, but I knew that I couldn't possibly make it back now in any sort of decent time. I met a friend coming down and we helped each other along the way for a while. I had to stop to walk for about a hundred metres with about 3.5km to go. Once I got back out onto the main road, I hit a wall big time, I was in a lot of pain and I had tears in my eyes. I thought that was me done, and then as I was running up the last hill, I spotted my two friends who had already finished and who were coming back to give me a boost - it worked, and if it weren't for them I don't know if I would have made it back. Once I got over the finish line I cried like a child from sheer relief

I decided to give up running right about then. Said to hell with my half marathon in a few weeks. Said if I ever had to see knocknarea again it would be too soon.

Of course, the next day I went out to Coney Island and committed to the Coney Island challenge while shouting at the mountain that she wouldn't beat me next year.

Other than that slight blip in the middle, you know, the actual race, it was a great weekend - as it always is for me in Sligo - it's my home away from home and where some of my favourite people on the planet live their lives.

See ye next year, I guess

Scarlet42

Great day .. found the first few K hard enough .. and even walked a tiny bit up the glen road ..was shattered by the time I got to the mountain .. so didn't mind all the walking.
Was there more walking on the mountain this year than previous years? .. had a few wee spurts on the mountain .. was glad to see the carin! .. nice run down the mountain, overtook a young girl just at the corner who looked like she was about to collapse, hope she was ok.
Loved that water station with the music, it was fantastic and really helped me!
wanted to finished before under 1:30 so really pushed myself ..but didn't make it ... had a nice sprint finish at the end! and came 403 at 1:33.

great that there is now a video of your finish on the results page!

stmochtas

1:22 for me which is my fastest warriors to date. Training for the Dublin HM so that got me through it, no actual mountain prep was done though so the mountain was a struggle and it seemed a lot more steeper than I remembered. I will be back next year to beat the 1:20.

Charliebull

really enjoyed my first warriors run

came in just over 75mins, which i was delighted with, i reached the mountain in 19 min mark but walked up the entire mountain as i had never ran 15k and was worried about this in the back of my mind so I decided to walk it

hit a wall at 12.5k but kept going and was glad to see the finish line

will be back next year, driving to work and looking up at that mountain and thinking, i got over you is great

well done to everyone who took part

T runner

Scarlet42 wrote: »

Great day .. found the first few K hard enough .. and even walked a tiny bit up the glen road ..was shattered by the time I got to the mountain .. so didn't mind all the walking.
Was there more walking on the mountain this year than previous years? .. had a few wee spurts on the mountain .. was glad to see the carin! .. nice run down the mountain, overtook a young girl just at the corner who looked like she was about to collapse, hope she was ok.
Loved that water station with the music, it was fantastic and really helped me!
wanted to finished before under 1:30 so really pushed myself ..but didn't make it ... had a nice sprint finish at the end! and came 403 at 1:33.

great that there is now a video of your finish on the results page!

I think there was. There's been 100 more entered for the last two years so that should tell on the narrow section bit especially if youre in the middle of the field. May be time for them to look at another route up. The tourist route is too narrow up and down.

dakar

My first Warriors was a bit of a venture into the unknown. I had a kind of plan based on advice here and chatting to people who had done it previously and I hoped that I might be able for a 1hr30m.

The plan was run to my heart rate monitor for the drag up to Kelly's, nice and easy with no worries about how many people passed me. Stretch my legs a bit on the run down to the bottom of the Glen Rd. Then to run slowly up to the gate and walk/jog on the mountain section at a similar pace to those around me. I was hoping to use this section to get my heart rate down a bit, because I knew it'd be sky high coming off the Glen. The plan was to leather it down the path to the car park (I *love* running down that mountain, I can't remember ever walking down it and I've been going up there since I was a kid). That's where the plan kind of ran out because I hadn't a clue whether I'd have any legs left for the pull home but I set the virtual pacer on my GPS to get me in in 90mins to at least give me a guideline.

So much for the plan. I got completely caught up in the adrenaline rush at the start and hit Kelly's over a minute faster than I thought! Still, I felt ok, and eased into a nice relaxed fastish pace and made it up the Glen Rd at what I felt was a comfortable enough jog even if my HR monitor said different. Got to the timing point in 21:29.

I found the mountain ok, walked when the line was walking, jogged where I could and got my heart rate back to something reasonable. I found that section a lot longer than I thought it was. I hammered it down from the cairn. Got down to the car park in 6:30 despite having to stop for a pee at the sharp turn after the gate. I drank too much before the start as I was getting worried in the corral before we set off that it was getting so warm that I overdid the hydration bit... Anyway, I spent 32 minutes on the mountain.

So having completely and foolishly ignored T-Runner's advice about being the tortoise not the hare, I found myself feeling reasonably human on the Rathcarrick straight but with no speed in my legs. Runners were streaming past me pretty frequently that I had run past on the mountain descent. My GPS told me that 6min kms would get me back under the hour and a half so rather than risk burning out trying to chase down the more sensible tortoises, I settled into that comfortable enough pace to make sure I finished. According to Precision Timing, 54 runners passed me on that section. I had to just remind myself that I was racing myself as much as them.

I finished in 1:29:02 and even managed a wee sprint to pass out a couple of people on the line. Needless to say, I'm ecstatic with that time

What will I do differently next year? Train more. Lots more. More miles in my legs to make the last section easier. I think that's where I can make up time.

Oh and sunscreen, I got a bit scalded...

Dazzler88

This was my second year doing it. I managed to finish it in 1.19, very pleased as I cut about 4 mins off last years time. Again it was very well organised and we had great weather for it.

Just out of a matter of interest, where does all the money taken in go, I got chatting someone in the Strand afterwards(local) and they maintain that the financial end of the run is always a bit of a mystery, so I'm hoping someone can shed so light on the subject?

Just doing some rough figures, if 850 register at €40 a head, that's €34,000 and I see Precision Timing takes a 7% fee, which is about €2400 for the day.

Scarlet42

Don't forget about t-shirts/medals and bags ... then there is the traffic cones and barriers to be hired ... music system .. large tv screen and video system and porta loos and food/water. Did I see a huge water tank somewhere at the finish line? and then there is the winners prizes

They also had a kids race the following day which had goodie bags .. then there is t-shirts for all the helpers.. and the also put money into some of the local charities

I was skeptical as well about where all the money went. but i really don't think it goes into anyones pocket!

I am not connect anyway to the run

LaGlisse

Great atmosphere and very well run overall
One downside, start was a bit dodgy. Me and a good few others were stuck in the feeder corral to the starting corral as the 1min countdown hit, having been wedged in there for the previous 5 minutes. Nobody was creating room ahead for us to move into and the marshals gave up trying as the 1min countdown started. Was very tightly packed and people started moving the barriers to get into the main corral, was potentially dangerous

Dazzler88

Scarlet42 wrote: »

Don't forget about t-shirts/medals and bags ... then there is the traffic cones and barriers to be hired ... music system .. large tv screen and video system and porta loos and food/water. Did I see a huge water tank somewhere at the finish line? and then there is the winners prizes

They also had a kids race the following day which had goodie bags .. then there is t-shirts for all the helpers.. and the also put money into some of the local charities

I was skeptical as well about where all the money went. but i really don't think it goes into anyones pocket!

I am not connect anyway to the run

I am not saying that it is going in anyone's pockets either but you would imagine that they would also take in a huge amount on advertising. I saw most business in Sligo had either a sign along the route or an advert somewhere on the day, obviously they are paying for this also.

Is it a local committee runs the event or is it a private business, like tough mudder etc?

Scarlet42

its a local committee, this is from the website. I know they do have a lot of meeting over the year and do a lot of other stuff

"The Warriors Festival Committee are a voluntary unpaid Committee who work year round to run quality festival events that will promote Strandhill and Sligo as a tourist destination.

The Committee support other Community Groups and Clubs in the Strandhill Area for the betterment of the Village which in turn will be beneficial to everyone who visits and uses the fantastic facilities and amenities that Strandhill has to offer.

We are always delighted to accept new members onto the Committee in a full-time / part-time capacity."

T runner

You tube clip from the summit....enjoy

promethius

Scarlet42 wrote: »

Don't forget about t-shirts/medals and bags ... then there is the traffic cones and barriers to be hired ... music system .. large tv screen and video system and porta loos and food/water. Did I see a huge water tank somewhere at the finish line? and then there is the winners prizes

They also had a kids race the following day which had goodie bags .. then there is t-shirts for all the helpers.. and the also put money into some of the local charities

I was skeptical as well about where all the money went. but i really don't think it goes into anyones pocket!

I am not connect anyway to the run

I've been involved in running a good few sporting events (always in a voluntary capacity) so have a feel of the costs.

I'd imagine they were getting better than 7% on the timing chips given the large numbers. T shirts would have been about a fiver each, they were carrying branding for two pubs so would have cost organisers less than this. medals about a fiver each too (i know someone who's got similar ones for another event). insurance (public liability) i'd guess a grand max based on quotes I've seen for other events. civil defence ambulance is free, the cones i saw were co co they would have loaned them those, plenty available after the fleadh.

awful lot of money left to rent a big screen, some tents and some toilets so the event makes a large net profit. the organisers have never been clear where this goes and the mystery around it will continue until it's made more clear. i'm not knocking them or anything.