My first half marathon was tough, purely tough out. The up hill climbs of Wicklow just didn’t seem to end and to boot I forgot my normal running shoes, which worried me at the start, and then mid way through the run everything seemed fine, but by the time I got the end, the feet really did truly hurt. On reflection everything about this race was tough !
The trip to Wicklow had us over the hills and far away, as we attempted to use a different route to get to Wicklow town, but we turned off the M9 too early and ended up having to going over some mighty hills, snow and all was seen.
We made it on time, but the bitter cool was plain to feel, so a full warm up wasn’t too easy. I was a little surprised that the rally point Wicklow Goal, was in fact away from the start line, I wasn’t expecting that and for the start of this race I got stuck a bit at the back of the pack. There were also so many starters for the half marathon (418) it took some time to get through the pack and it was at the 2km mark before the run started to really get in to its stride.
The up hill runs started around the 4km mark and never seemed to end although re-looking at the course it seems to indicate that we got to the top at the 10km mark. Having said that even with the uphill burn I was on target at the 10km and things seemed to be going fine until the 14km mark, I hit a hill at this point and my legs just seemed to go to lead, from there on in the run was tough.
Miguel running to the finish line
There was nothing in the tank until the last 1km and as I started to up the tempo I could feel the cramps coming in, but I pushed on through. I had supporters at the finish line, Mam, Dad and little Daniel, I knew they were all frozen to death, but they stayed and cheered on any way, that helped with the final spurt to the finish line!
Now I aimed for 100 minutes I got there in 101 ! On the watch 1:40:11 and from the timing chip 1:40:07. I’m really, really happy with that time, given the last 6km or so were so tough.
Rafa, Miguel and Daniel at the finish line of the Wicklow Half Marathon. Poor Daniel is frozen.
It will be back to the 10km runs for a while I think.