Tullamore Half Marathon

More racing in my quest to improve fitness:

Mon – Claregalway 11.1km recovery run 43:00 (3:52's)

Tue – 2km up, 10km treadmill threshold run 31:49 (3:11’s), 2.0km down. All up 14.0kms

Wed – Claregalway 11.1km recovery run 41:53 (3:46's)

Thu am – 2km up, 10 x 1km treadmill threshold run, 1.1km down. All up 13.1kms

Thu pm – Mayo AC easy 2.3km run

Fri – Treadmill 7.0km easy run 30:13 (4:19's)

Sat – Tullamore Half Marathon – 1:12:34 (3:26’s) – All up 25.6km

Sun – Claregalway easy run 11.1km 46:47 (4:13’s)

Total for week 95.3km

I wasn’t sure what to expect at Tullamore – I certainly wasn’t fit for the distance but it would be a good training run to bring me on. The weather was very warm and there was a bit of a breeze. The race started and I settled into the lead group of 4 and there didn’t look to be any stand-out runners so all was good.

Nobody was forcing the pace and I settled into sub 3:30/km pace It felt quite tough in the heat and you had to take water at every stop to try and keep cool. The group soon whittled down to 3 and then 2 and by the half way point I found myself sharing the lead with a guy from Cellbridge.

I knew I’d be good for 10 miles and just before this point there was a nasty drag over a bridge and that really knocked me. At the 10 mile mark I was struggling and the other guy started to open up a gap. I just didn’t have the strength to go with him and it was all about hanging on for the finish.

Breaking it down in kms by this point and although I has slowed slightly I was still running okay. The last mile seemed to have some nice downhill but boy did it drag on. We finished running back into the Tullamore Harriers with a lap of the track and I enjoyed the last 400m crossing the line in second place in a time of 1:12:34 around 30 seconds behind the winner.

Overall I was delighted with that. I thought I’d be lucky to make top 5 so to finish second was a bonus. The time wasn’t bad either given the warm conditions but it was a real struggle the last 3 miles.

My only concern is that I have a sore lower abdomen/upper groin that seems to be getting worse. Physio booked for next week. I can’t feel it when I’m running but it is certainly getting worse so time to take action.