Frank Duffy 10 miler swords 2018

sibeen99

Hoping to travel up from Waterford to do this on Sunday. Any idea what traffic is like early in the morning? Should I give myself extra time? Park in the Pavillions as was mentioned earlier in the thread?
I’m not familiar with Swords at all.

skyblue46

sibeen99 wrote: »

Hoping to travel up from Waterford to do this on Sunday. Any idea what traffic is like early in the morning? Should I give myself extra time? Park in the Pavillions as was mentioned earlier in the thread?
I’m not familiar with Swords at all.

You'll have no problem with traffic. Personally I'd park in a housing estate but if you have no knowledge of the area then the Pavilions is probably best.

sibeen99

skyblue46 wrote: »

You'll have no problem with traffic. Personally I'd park in a housing estate but if you have no knowledge of the area then the Pavilions is probably best.

That’s great, thanks for that. One less thing to worry about.

Dealerz2.0

sibeen99 wrote: »

That’s great, thanks for that. One less thing to worry about.

Yeah Pavillions is fine or even woodies at sea town roundabout, taking the donabate m1 exit- google it if you’re unfamiliar. Woodies ( it may be quicker as an exit strategy post race!) is very close to Swords village.

AAD

Im not happy that I’m going to miss this one, number arrived last week then my wife tells me she won’t be back from a couple of nights away until Sunday and not Saturday. Grrrr

sibeen99

Dealerz2.0 wrote: »

Yeah Pavillions is fine or even woodies at sea town roundabout, taking the donabate m1 exit- google it if you’re unfamiliar. Woodies ( it may be quicker as an exit strategy post race!) is very close to Swords village.

That sounds good, would be nice to be back on the road fairly quickly after the race. Thanks!

fletch

My friend lost his number...is there somewhere he can get a replacement on the morning?

Singer

fletch wrote: »

My friend lost his number...is there somewhere he can get a replacement on the morning?

Yep, there's a helpdesk at the race. May have to pay a tenner.

charkee

remember 0930 am start!!

aquinn

Tired now.

Found that tough. Wasn't mad on the road surfaces as legs were tired for it all.

However, thanks to expert pacing and assistance got a new PB. Happy with that. A great finish area. Congested start and glad we were advised of the first left turn.

Thanks for the parking in Woodies tip, that worked out very well.

Another warm one.

Damo 2k9

Didn't like the route at all, surface was shocking IMO. The goody bag again was shocking, what I can only assume was a pair of gloves that cost less than 50 cent to buy and a bottle of lucozade? I know it's not all about the goody bag, but it's nice to get at the same time. Very well organised finish tho.

ThebitterLemon

aquinn wrote: »

Tired now.

Found that tough. Wasn't mad on the road surfaces as legs were tired for it all.

However, thanks to expert pacing and assistance got a new PB. Happy with that. A great finish area. Congested start and glad we were advised of the first left turn.

Thanks for the parking in Woodies tip, that worked out very well.

Another warm one.

Expert pacing? Wasn't Murph pacing you

Well done

TbL

aquinn

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Expert pacing? Wasn't Murph pacing you

Well done

TbL

That's him!

I also gave him the finger over my shoulder as we approached the finish. I realise now he didn't deserve that. Sorry D, only doing your best for me.

OOnegative

aquinn wrote: »

That's him!

I also gave him the finger over my shoulder as we approached the finish. I realise now he didn't deserve that. Sorry D, only doing your best for me.

No wonder he didn’t rip up his transfer form with that kind of treatment!!!

AlanPat

Really enjoyable morning, some tight squeezes down the back roads. Disappointing goodie bag at the end, compounded by getting a medium t shirt in a large bag.

aquinn

OOnegative wrote: »

No wonder he didn’t rip up his transfer form with that kind of treatment!!!

He promised me 400m and it wasn't!

Huzzah!

Have to say I think the goody bag is grand - 20-odd quid to enter and you get a well organised race, t-shirt, lucozade, bar, gloves and fruit at the finish. The gloves will match our hats from last year

sibeen99

Dealerz2.0 wrote: »

Yeah Pavillions is fine or even woodies at sea town roundabout, taking the donabate m1 exit- google it if you’re unfamiliar. Woodies ( it may be quicker as an exit strategy post race!) is very close to Swords village.

Your advice worked a treat, thank you. Parked by Woodies and was back on the road after the race in no time.
Enjoyed the route, it was very warm. I thought the goody bag was great, wouldn’t expect anything more for €20.
Well done to all involved!

fletch

Thought goodie bag was absolutely fine. T-shirt...a nutty bar, lucozade and then lots of fruit and water available afterwards. Was particularly happy to get a pink lady apple. What more do you expect. Thought the route was lovely...flat and for a Dublin run, scenic.

HelenAnne

I loved the goody bag too! Loved the bar and Lucozade, and I’m delighted with the gloves! The race series always has things that are a bit different from the usual t shirts and medals, like hats, buffs, bags, gloves. I’m delighted with them, you can’t have too many gloves w cross country season coming up, and I love that they have the race series logo on them.
PLUS - t shirts came in xs so they actually fit women, unlike at most races, and the water came in biodegradable cups instead of bottles (or ‘ankle breakers’ as I call bottles at races 😀).
Thanks, race series, well done on all the goodies.
I also loved the course - lovely scenery and varied. I wasn’t racing as I’m ashamed to say I haven’t got my mileage up enough yet to race ten miles. I ran it with my friend, and she was delighted to come in at a minute faster than her A goal. It was a comfortably hard run for me, and a lovely morning. Well
Done all!

hawkwing

2758 finishers seems to be the lowest number since about 2008.Well down on the 4077 last year. Half is back in the park

Bluesquare

I think I might have ran a different course today than everyone else ! There were sneaky inclines all over the place that went on for ever especially during the middle miles when the pain starts .

Roads were a bit dodgy . Glad low turn out because I don’t think those country roads could have handled many more bodies - very claustrophobic .

Atmosphere super , parking easy , start and finish excellent . My goody bag had three pair of gloves as it turns out ! I won’t go cold this winter !!

tHE vAGGABOND

Did not do it, a mixture of it being All Ireland sunday and could not face the drama of getting to and from Swords - betcha was not the only one, and that would have affected the race numbers....

estariol

Fair play, after the cock up with last years series was not expecting much from the move out of the park. All in nice route once off dual carriageway, liked the goodie bag and the copious fruit and water (not like the bull**** water situation at the 10k) at the finish.

Will definitely do next year!

tomwaits48

race was fine. good parking, flat course, , decent goody bag, well organised. no issue. would do again.

duffer247

Really enjoyed the race, although 10m is one of my fav distances. I really liked that most of it was on country type roads. Bit mad at start and usual weaving etc but I thought it was really well organised with plenty of water along the route. Hopefully same agian next year.
No pacers made a change and more of a challenge. Now that I think about it, having a pacer can sometimes allow you to just "sit in" and then push for the last 1/2 mile or so, I pushed on at mile 8 where with a pacer I wouldn't have risked it. Interesting to hear what others think.

mister paul

Enjoyed the race. Well run and the finish area was great. The start was very congested and there was lots of weaving to be done to keep A and D in my sights, but eventually settled into my own race. Some of the roads were narrow enough and having a motorbike in front me for a mile or so wasn't pleasant. Eventually sped up a bit to get past, as I couldn't put up with noise and fumes (not that either were excessive).

The water stops were thankfully plentiful. I think I walked through all of them to ensure I got some water in. Lesson learned from the South Dublin 10k, where I breathed the water in while trying to run and completely lost my breath. I much prefer water bottles.

First 10 mile race, so a PB of 1:16:10 by default.

The course description from Singer definitely helped me out, as I felt I had it nailed once I got past the long drag in the middle miles. I wasn't expecting the category 2 climb in the last few hundred metres though. Much dry retching, but managed to get through it.

cunavalos

After a long lay off and general laziness i found myself running towards the back of the field and enjoyed the route. Was surprised to find such rural roads that close to the town. As i started and stayed towards the back i didn't have any major problems with congestion and was able to pick my own line where the surface was patchy.
A couple of slight negatives some of which are beyond the responsibility of the organisers.
Gel wrappers - how hard is it to hold on to your own empty gel wrappers and in some cases can people try and secure their gels before they start there were several full gels on the ground in the first couple of miles
Water Stations - The last two stations (The one just before the 5 mile mark and the one between 7-8 miles) ran out of paper cups and had the situation where some of the helpers were collecting strewn cups to refill.
Traffic - After around 6 miles one large tractor couldn't wait and pushed past the marshal and joined the route for nearly two miles where the route was probably narrowest with no opportunity to pass runners and acted as a 12-15 minute per mile pacer

Murph_D

cunavalos wrote: »

After a long lay off and general laziness i found myself running towards the back of the field and enjoyed the route. Was surprised to find such rural roads that close to the town. As i started and stayed towards the back i didn't have any major problems with congestion and was able to pick my own line where the surface was patchy.
A couple of slight negatives some of which are beyond the responsibility of the organisers.
Gel wrappers - how hard is it to hold on to your own empty gel wrappers and in some cases can people try and secure their gels before they start there were several full gels on the ground in the first couple of miles
Water Stations - The last two stations (The one just before the 5 mile mark and the one between 7-8 miles) ran out of paper cups and had the situation where some of the helpers were collecting strewn cups to refill.
Traffic - After around 6 miles one large tractor couldn't wait and pushed past the marshal and joined the route for nearly two miles where the route was probably narrowest with no opportunity to pass runners and acted as a 12-15 minute per mile pacer

I think one of those water stations was unofficial. I certainly wasn’t going to complain - just a few kids and parent trying to embrace the race past their house and help out. Fair play to them.

Bummer about the tractor, but nothing anything can do if some eejit decides to drive onto a road with a load of runners. If it happened in my vicinity I’d probably hog the middle and sacrifice my time just to piss him off.

Burkie1203

Murph_D wrote: »

I think one of those water stations was unofficial. I certainly wasn’t going to complain - just a few kids and parent trying to embrace the race past their house and help out. Fair play to them.

Bummer about the tractor, but nothing anything can do if some eejit decides to drive onto a road with a load of runners. If it happened in my vicinity I’d probably hog the middle and sacrifice my Time B just to piss him off.

Yeah unofficial station. There was a woman in the rock n roll half handing out jelly babies at the 18k mark. Just after coming down knockmaroon.

Some people just embrace these things even as spectators. Another few kids about 500m from the finish just wanted to high five everyone.