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Tag Archives: 5k

Dublin Irish Festival 2012 5k runcap

05 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by Andy in Runcap

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5k, DIF, Dublin, Dublin Irish Festival 5k, race, runcap

[wprunkeeper activity=”106732256″]Dubln Irish Fest 5k 2012 medalAlthough it now seems a while ago, last Thursday was the 2012 Dublin Irish Festival 5k race. I had been looking forward to running this race since I started running last year. I had only been running about 5 days when the event came round and there was no way I would have been able to complete a 5k race this time last year. In fact looking at the stats from last year, I was running just over 2 miles including the warm up and cool down but at least I was running. The big reason I wanted to do this race is that it goes right past my front door. In previous years it has been frustrating to have the race go past my door as it meant it would be hard to get home if I was out in the evening (and I was invariably trying to get home after doing projection or sound at church) and I can remember at least one occasion that I had some takeaway gyros getting cold and I couldn’t get near the house.  This year I was looking forward to running the race.

Unfortunately I did something to my left leg over a week previously and I had not run for a week so I was a bit nervous to see how my leg would hold up, but walking around during the week I had no problems.

Thursday after work I came home and hastily put together a sign for the front garden, got changed into my running gear and then headed to the mailbox to stash a frozen bottle of water to grab on my way past.

I headed down the road and stopped off to say hi to the neighbours who were manning the first water stop. They were putting the signs and banners up as I left them with instructions to cheer me on as I came through and then I started to run to the start.

I tried to keep the pace slow as it was hot, slightly uphill and I didn’t want to tire myself out. My leg didn’t start to give me any trouble until about half way and as I was early to the start I then headed up the road to Kroger to get some ibuprofen and washed some down before the race started.

The race is put on by the Columbus Running Company – my running group, so as usual it was nice to see some familiar faces and hang out before the race started.

There were loads of people there, most of whom were wearing the race tshirt as there was a garmin giveaway after the race and you had to be wearing the sponsored tshirt. Due to my leg hurting I lined up with Chase who was the 1030 pacer but had intentions of hoping to do better than that if possible.

The race started and the first part was all downhill, very congested and felt slow. It was really funny to hear everyone groan as they turned right and saw the hill. Normally I hate this hill as it is at the end of my run, so I am hot, tired and have to face this hill to get back into the neighbourhood. It took me ages before I could run up it without stopping but today I smiled at the groans from the other runners and pushed myself up the hill, powering up and overtaking tons of people and felt really good. IMy pace actually increased to sub 9 minute mile as I went up the hill. At this point my legs seemed to have eased up and I enjoyed the run through the neighbourhood with tons of spectators.

I got to my house and pulled off to the side, flpped the mailbox lid down and pulled out my water bottle. It felt so good to be holding an ice cold bottle and the water was really refreshing. I heard a couple of laughs and comments about what I was doing but then headed off to the water stop two doors down the road and grabbed a cup of water to dump on my head.  The neighbours were so busy with all the runners, noone recognised me so I didn’t get my cheer Sad smile

Not to worry, I headed down to the bottom of the hill and turned right back up another hill (or few). I was pleased to see that the leaders had not yet made their way back so it felt good knowing that I was making a reasonable pace.

About 1.3 miles into the race as we were going up another incline we saw the leaders heading back down the race and cheered them on and then it was our turn to head right and towards the turn around point. At this point, MothAudio on RunnersWorld describes it in his race report very well – “The road is rising, the sun is in our face and the devil in screaming in my head. All I can do is look straight ahead for the lead runners knowing the turn around can’t be much further.”  Rings Road seemed very long and very slow and even the water stop half way down on the return journey took forever to get to.

The way back was tough but seeing other runners from the Thursday night Turtles group and getting cheers from them helped me to keep going.

As we turned the corner on High Street we could see the finish line in the distance. I looked at my watch and it was 27.15 – there was no way I was going to be able to run the entire length of the road in 45 seconds to beat my pr so I decided to just keep my pace going but about half way along Robbie jumped in with me and ran, pushing me onwards and I started to increase my speed. I kept increasing my speed and finished the run as fast as I could do –probably not good for me, but it feels good Winking smile  I did make sure that there was plenty of space between me and the person in front in case there were photographers but so far I’ve not seen any finishing line photos but I crossed the line smiling with no trace of pain in my legs at a time of 28:53 placing 423 or 39th in the M40-44 group.(Official Results)

I was surprised to see we got a medal for this race – so this joins my half marathon medal around the cats neck and I grabbed a banana and water to cool down and went to look for other runners. About 3 minutes later my left leg was screaming and it hurt to walk up an incline, let alone up the kerb at the side of the road. Standing still it was ok and I had to move slowly with a bit of a limp but I still had the runners high (which was probably just as well).

We hung around for the finishing ceremony and I was 11 away from winning the new gps and then had a very long, slow walk home. Even the cops asked if I was ok as I walked home and laughed with me as I said I had probably overdone it but still enjoyed it.

As I walked back up the hill again towards the water stop, I joined the neighbours who were having a party afterwards. It was good to hang out with them for a while and grab a burger. Getting up after the rest was painful though and I hobbled back home.

Friday morning was not fun. My leg had totally tightened up overnight and it took me about 5 minutes to get to the bathroom in the morning – really not how you want to start your day as I shuffled around at about 4” per step. I eventually got to the other side of the house and grabbed my crutches which made it a lot easier to get around and I ended up using them all day Friday. As it didn’t seem to be getting better and this is the second time in a fortnight that this has happened, I’ve made a Dr’s appointment for Tuesday.  Saturday I needed one crutch for half the day and then the evening and Sunday I’ve been moving around the house slowly without any crutch. The leg is feeling a bit tight but better so I’m currently wearing my compression socks to see if that helps.

Speaking of which – Pro Compression are currently having a 50% off sale on their socks. Normally they retail for $50 but you can get them for $25 with free shipping too. Just enter the coupon code “socks” to get the discount at Pro Compression. (Offer expires 8/12/12) I’ve not tried these one but they’ve had good reviews and this price is a bargain.  I’ve ordered a pair so I’ll have a pair to wear whilst training for the Marathon (which I still hope to do)

I totally had to miss out on the Irish Festival events – crutching around a festival n 95 degree weather would not have been much fun, so I’ve taken the opportunity to just relax and catch up with some of the running blogs and finally getting around to writing this runcap.

Anyone else run the Dublin Irish Festival 5k run? What did you think – did you write a recap? Do you write recaps for 5k runs?  Anyone ever checked their mailbox in a run or had a race go right past their front door?

Another run booked and thinking about the Nationwide Childrens Hospital Columbus Marathon

27 Sunday May 2012

Posted by Andy in Runcap

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5k, AmICrazy?, full, half, marathon, run, training

This time it’s another fun run – Groupon are/were having a discount entry of $20 for the Color Me Rad run in Dublin, about 1 mile away from my house. I wasn’t going to do this race originally as I’d already signed up for the Color Run in July but at $20 it’s a bargain.

I’m also considering doing the full Nationwide Childrens Hospital Columbus Marathon *gulp* in October. The Capcity Half Marathon was easier than I expected (but not easy) and the fact that I ran the whole way means I’m pretty positive about my chances but it is still double my furthest distance yet and training would involve running throughout the summer! I know I’ll sign up to do the half at least, but I am considering the full. Running it would complete another thing off my bucket list and better doing it now before I get *too* old 😉 especially as I’ve missed the “doing a marathon by the time I’m 40”. October 2013 would probably be a better time to do it but it seems such a long time away. Jamie from the Turtles group posted about running the full yesterday, and I asked for more information on the training plan which she kindly sent and I’ve posted below. Looking at the length of the runs they don’t seem *too* bad – both of the novice ones top out at 20miles – which at my 11 min pace for that distance would *only* take 3hrs to run which would be doable on a Saturday. Now if I got up early (5am) and started running, I’d be done by 8-30-9am and then I’d have 24 hours to sleep and recover for church the next day!

Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 plan –for new runners, this will get you to the finish line, if your goal is to finish–regardless of time.

Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 –if you have a time goal in mind:
From everything I’ve read, your mileage during the week, should equal or be greater than your weekend long run. In this plan, the 20 mile weekend run only has 15 miles during the week for support. I’m not sure I’d go with this one, but with a little tweaking, this could be a good plan.

Marathon Rookie’s training program — Another one.

Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 1 – This might be good for you if you’ve run marathons before and aren’t new to the game.

As we’re about 5 months away from the Marathon there is still plenty of time to make my mind up and the registration fee doesn’t increase until the end of June so I have a month to decide which one I am going to do. The training plans call for four runs a week which is more than I have done in the past but they don’t seem to be that far off the runs that I normally do (at least for the midweek runs in the first half of the plan). Therefore for June I’m going to try running the scheduled distances on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday – the only real extra is switching my Tuesday run to Monday, the Wednesday run and the back to back days of running which I’ve not really done yet. If I make it through June ok then I think the full might be the one. I’m not sure whether to schedule the Monday and Wednesday runs for first thing in the morning or after work – first thing sounds a lot better but I’d have to make it back in time for work but at 2hrs max for the midweek runs (towards the end) I think this is doable…

What do you think – when did you register for your first Marathon and how many halves had you done beforehand – any advice on squeezing those extra runs in?

Just over a week to go to the Capital City Half Marathon.

27 Friday Apr 2012

Posted by Andy in Runcap

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5k, Dublin, Registration

Looking forward to this race and I’ve already booked my next race – the Dublin Irish Festival 5k run in August. The cool thing about this race is it runs right past my house. It’ll be weird running down the hill past my house and not stopping and hitting the Garmin.  The bad side to this race is that a lot of it is on a road that has no pavement (sidewalk) so it’s too dangerous to practise the route safely.  I do run about 1/3 of the race nearly every time I go out though, including The Hill  that I hate at the end of my usual runs, although I am finding it easier to run up it without stopping (but still have to sometimes!).

In the meantime I have the half next weekend and I’m volunteering for a couple of other local races which should be fun.

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