SSE Race Series 2015

AAD

First off, my condolences to the young lads family and friends, he went for a run in the park and never came home. I just can't think about how they must be feeling. I had a feeling all was not good as I ran past when people around the area were in tears.

Can I just thank a couple of people (some on here I'm sure) to the pacers especially the 2 hour guys you were great, I kept with you right to the top of the upper glen road until my knee just wouldn't let me run at the pace anymore.

Also to the young girl just inside the chapel lizard gate handing out the Haribo sweets, you have no idea how good they tasted.

And next to the runner who came back from the finish and ran the last half mile with us (longish hair with a grey jumper on) he really pushed me over the line, thank you.

Any way finished in just over two hours which knocked almost 12 minutes off my rock and Roll time.

Cheers

Joleigh

I keep thinking of that poor lad and his family. I saw him when I passed. Got a fright and hoped it wasn't as bad as it looked. Also thinking of the St. John's ambulance who gave up their time today so we could race. Imagine how they are feeling now after tending to him. Awful thing to happen.

Thanks to all the organisers and volunteers. As usual the race went off with military precision. It was a great day until I heard the sad news afterwards. Rip.

andrew1977

RIP to the young man who lost his life yesterday and condolences to his family at this sad time. Very sad news which took the gloss off the day for everyone.Driving in the car coming home later and I heard the news, it cut me to the bone.

Not that it matters in the overall scheme of things now, but for my first half marathon I managed to do far better than I expected, got round and home in 1.46 on the button. Very very pleased with that.

Also a little note of thanks to the lady whom I struck up a running friendship with on the route yesterday. We chatted, encouraged and got each other round the course in great time. Catherine/Caitriona ( from Meath) I think your name is , a cabin crew member with Aer Lingus.. if your out there or anyone knows her, congrats on the race and thanks for the company yesterday .

glacial_pace71

Very sorry to hear of the death of such a young man. I'd finished by then, so only heard about it after I'd gone home.

A few years ago, when I was living in England for a while, I did some work for a fundraising company (Wesser), who had the contract for raising money for St John Ambulance. It's a huge operation over there: quite a number of ex-servicemen volunteer for the CPR training, but the cost of the ambulances, the maintenance on the defibrillator equipment etc is massive. (I think they charge the race organisers a token sum per event but it doesn't cover the outlay). Glad to hear that the St John Ambulance volunteers were on hand, but - from what I heard - a number of athletes stopped to help too.

That's always a tough thing for runners to do, e.g. stop, try to do the 'Good Samaritan' and just get a stream of abuse from someone about you patronising them. And sometimes you've just a few seconds to see/hear what's going on before you've passed an incident. My full respect to anyone who stopped to try and help with the situation.

I was late getting to the race, just hopped over the fencing about 100 m from the front, and then found that I'd gone out with the first wave. Even then there was quite a lot of congestion down the Khyber, groups running two/three abreast. The 1:40 pacers overtook me at around 11 miles or so. They seemed to be working well and bringing a good crowd with them via a human bus of about 10m between the front and rear pacer. I finished in 1:46, a bit over my sub-8 min mile target but I'd done quite a bit of weaving for the first mile and hadn't managed the water stations too well, so overall I'd still be happy enough. But a minute off the target is a small thing when there are real tragedies out there.

chris85

Fairly sobering alright. Passed it and horrible feeling for him. And did not expect someone so young for it to happen to. Condolences for his family and friends.

My fiancee was at the finish line and was worried was me (with no history of heart issues and run good few races). I had bad knee this week and dropped off from my running partner after it went half way through and she seen him came through and didnt see me for 5 mins and seen St Johns running from finish start to attend to him.

Phoole

Just reading that it was that poor chaps 24th birthday today. So sad

Racman

glacial_pace71 wrote: »

St John Ambulance. ..... I think they charge the race organisers a token sum per event but it doesn't cover the outlay. Glad to hear that the St John Ambulance volunteers were on hand.

As a matter of fact the St John Ambulance do not charge any fee. I have had dealings with the City of Dublin brigade of SJA through two different sets of events and they have always been very clear that they have no set fee but they are happy to accept a donation of an amount that the race organiser can make. Even pushing them, they refuse to specify an amount.

They can be very proud of their service to sporting events over the years. Well done and thanks to the St John Ambulance for their efforts yesterday and at all the other events where they assist.

gqma0

1st of all, I have to pay my condolences to the family and friends of that young man whosee life was taken away. Life isn't fair sometimes and we're all sad about this tragedy. He was obviously a fit young man when I passed him but I feared when all the medics from the tent were called at the finish line. RIP

As for the race, I thought it was one of the best route I've done in a long time. As always, supporters were top class. Organisation fantastic. Huge thanks to the volunteers and thank god for the weather too. Only critic was the bag drop area at the end. It was a bit chaotic

Went with the 1:50 pacers and it was a bit congested at start. Amazing to see ppl walking after 2 miles in the middle. I twisted my ankle badly at the 1st water station on a bunch of water bottles and I reckon they might have been knocked down from the table trying to grab one on the go. I thought I was cooked but I stood up and started to walk, run slowly and catch up again with the 1:50 pacers. I did 1h50'20'' and I'm pretty happy but I'm sitting now with an ice pack on a swollen ankle. New PB and another medal.

See you next year
G

OfflerCrocGod

fletch wrote: »

I see in the results a Patrick Monahan being listed as 1st, some 14 minutes ahead of the actual winner?

Edit - Think he was in a wheelchair?

Yep. They announced his start a few minutes before the main race got under way.

chickey2

Would either of the 1:50 pacers have the splits for the half marathon? My watch battery only lasted til mile 8. I was right behind them most of the way so would be interested in the rest of the splits.

menoscemo

chickey2 wrote: »

Would either of the 1:50 pacers have the splits for the half marathon? My watch battery only lasted til mile 8. I was right behind them most of the way so would be interested in the rest of the splits.

That's my Garmin trace, you can check the splits there.
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/904914184

Split

Time

Distance

Avg Pace
Summary 1:49:48.6 13.18 8:20
1 8:18.5 1.00 8:19
2 8:24.9 1.00 8:25
3 8:14.9 1.00 8:15
4 8:20.7 1.00 8:21
5 8:24.2 1.00 8:24
6 8:27.6 1.00 8:28
7 8:11.3 1.00 8:11
8 8:24.1 1.00 8:24
9 8:09.1 1.00 8:09
10 8:03.6 1.00 8:04
11 8:22.3 1.00 8:22
12 8:32.5 1.00 8:33
13 8:24.1 1.00 8:24
14 1:30.9 0.18 8:31

Gillo

Racman wrote: »

As a matter of fact the St John Ambulance do not charge any fee. I have had dealings with the City of Dublin brigade of SJA through two different sets of events and they have always been very clear that they have no set fee but they are happy to accept a donation of an amount that the race organiser can make. Even pushing them, they refuse to specify an amount.

Hopefully both themselve's and the various scout troop's involved received a decent donation for giving their time.

I have to say I'm seriously looking forward to the full one next month, that said despite some longer routes planned between now and then I'm very consious a half is my longest run to date.
On a much happier note, cheer's to the kid on Furze Road I think it was, with the sign; I can't remember it word for word. It it basically said "You're only doing this for the free banana", it gave me a great laugh right when I needed it.

walshb

Devastating to hear of that young man's death. What a sad event.

HelenAnne

HelenAnne wrote: »

Macmillan & I have a chequered history . I never believe a word he says when it gets to the longer distances. My half-m PB is 1.37, last year I ran 1.41 ... I just don't want to mis-pace it and end up crawling home. I'll start with the 1.40s and decide after a few miles how I feel. Thanks!

Just coming back to say thanks very much to everyone who gave me advice on pacing / where to start etc. This year I've been particularly nervous about the Frank Duffy 10 mile and the half marathon, because I'd cut my long runs down a bit compared to last year, so I was really afraid I wouldn't have the endurance. The last two years, whether I was doing the marathon or not, I was doing the long runs with the marathon group, so I felt a bit more confident about the longer distance races. This year I'd done three 15-milers and 4 13.5s as my long runs, plus a lot of mid week hill runs of 8.5-9.5 miles at a harder pace, but I just didn't know if it was enough. So I was vacillating about where to start, how I'd feel in the last mile or two etc etc. I'd more or less decided to start in wave one and go for about 1.37, but then on Friday I twinged something in my back carrying bags home from work and that started a whole new set of worries. I was on the point of ringing MrsKennyg (KennyG was kindly giving me a lift) to say I wasn't going to run, but then I decided to go up to the park and warm up, and if I felt ok, to go with the 1.40 pacers and see how it went.
So I warmed up,felt ok, apart from nerves - actually my back hurt less running than walking - so I lined up with BungyGirl behind the pacers, Killerz and BeepBeep.
The race went great! I really tried to run within myself for the first 9-10 miles and I kept a pretty even pace, with my first 5 miles slower than my next 8. I think holding back at the started helped a lot, as I felt ok on the hill and on Chapelizod rd. my slowest mile was mile two where I realised I had drifted ahead of the Pacers and kept slowing down and looking back to see where they were. Then I decided to just run an even, comfortable pace and see how I got on. I could hear them shouting the splits for the first few miles though.
I did get very tired towards the end of Chapelizod Road, but my pace didn't drop, so I am glad I didn't aim for a faster time and crash and burn. Was pretty wrecked after I crossed the line, and my back and calves were sore and stiff for the rest of the day (not helped by a drive to Leitrim!) but feel much better today.
new pb, 1.37.06 (pb from 2013, 1.37.50 and last year I did it in 1.41.xx,
So am pretty happy). Thanks to KennyG and friends for the nice drive up, and to Mrs Mac for the nice chat, and to my club mate Rachel and Bungy Girl for encouraging me to start the race, and Killerz and BeepBeep for the pacing (and to MurphD and my current nemesis �� Stephen, for acting as targets in the last couple of miles ��). Whatever about taking a village to raise a child, it seems to take a village to get me to a race! Thanks all! My husband was off being a parkrun director and was no help at all ��.

ETA: just came home to find he'd washed my club top in a nice white wash while I was visiting my sister, so he is great after all and I take back saying he was no help.

Well done to everyone who ran.

and I was so sorry to hear about the young man who died. My condolences to his family and to everyone who dealt with the emergency. It's so sad.

Dub13

Well done Helen, you looked like you could have whacked out another few miles easy at the end. 1:39:11 for myself which is a near 5 min PB so well happy with that, plus you are normally about a min ahead of me in the 2 mile races so well happy to be within 2 min of you over 13 miles...:)

HelenAnne

Dub13 wrote: »

Well done Helen, you looked like you could have whacked out another few miles easy at the end. 1:39:11 for myself which is a near 5 min PB so well happy with that, plus you are normally about a min ahead of me in the 2 mile races so well happy to be within 2 min of you over 13 miles...:)

Wow! A five minute PB, that's fantastic! Very well done. Also, I think just before we met after the race I was lying flat on the ground, thinking I would never get up, so I must have been putting a brave face on when we met .