First Half Marathon race
Event: Carney Half Marathon and 10k
Place: Carney, County Sligo, Ireland
Date 18th April 2022 (2 days after 54th birthday) 12:pm
Weather: 8-10 degrees, windy and light showers (yesterday was great, but that’s the type of weather we get over here in the Wild Atlantic Way).
Today I ran my 5th and longest race / running event to date (not including park runs). Previous ones all being a 10k in Cootehall Co. Roscommon 26th December 2021, 10k Tony McGowan 10k Drumshambo, County Leitrim 15th February 2022, The Bundoran 10 Miler, County Donegal 5th March 2022 and my local one The Grange Good Friday 5k 15th April 2022.
I had gradually built myself up for longer runs since the start of the year and wanted to do this one when I saw it advertised on social media. There were 2 choices of either a 10k run or the first ever half marathon in County Sligo (although some debate if there were others before this one). I decided to go for the half as I had already done 2 10ks this year and also the half marathon was advertised as the only one where you got a medal at the end of it, I’m not sure if the 10k runners received a medal yet (I’ll check later) but it would have been a bit strange as the medal has Carney 10k and Half Marathon on it.
I was decked out in all new clothes for the warm weather (apart from today ha-ha) because I asked my children and wife for vouchers / cash for my birthday and got the gear for the warmer times this year. Most of my other gear is for winter as I only competed C25k towards the end of summer last year. Well to be honest I took a walk into town during lunchtime at work last week and saw a special half price offer on the grey pair of Asics Novablast 2 trainers in the sports-shop for 70 Euro. They didn’t have my size 12 in stock, so I tried the next ones up and down and decided to go for the size 13 which actually felt quite fine. I got home after work and decided to try them out and got a 10k PB (thanks Nowster for noticing it). Which was also very good because I had been suffering from a “bad cold” for the past 3 weeks according to my doctor. I haven’t had Covid yet, but his thing was quite bad and was almost constant coughing for the duration.
Anyway, later that day I cheekily (and very courageously) asked herself if she had got my present yet because I mentioned that I would like a new pair of trainers for my birthday a few weeks previously. She asked why so I gingerly told her and was happy to hear the price as she said she was dreading to hear it…
The race-day itself started off ok-ish, I got some sleep the night before. I am a bad sleeper anyway so was glad to get some. I got my gear ready and changed a few times trying on different tops for the weather undecided to go with the short-sleeved t-shirt or the sleeveless and decided to wear both with the sleeveless underneath in case I got to warm. I then went downstairs had my usual porridge / muesli (1 scoop each) mixed with water and then topped off with honey Soya milk and a cut banana after its heated. I then got a bit of an emergency and had to visit the small room for a while and was then in a big panic to leave because I wanted to be there at 11 which was in 5 minutes time, herself said not to worry and I would make it and she would be there to support me on the route at some stage. I got there just after 11 parked the car and went to the registration area was given a bag with my number 1033 in it and the event t-shirt. I went back to the car and was again undecided what top to wear, I had ordered the t-shirt in a large hoping that I would be able to fit in it (btw, I had lost 6 stone during the first half of the previous year and all my other tops were xxxl and it still feels strange to be wearing just a large). I decided to wear the sleeveless top under the event top in the end.
I then set out to find the start point – which turned out to be a mile further on down a country road. There was no signpost for the start and a steward in a high vis pointed to a crowd in front to turn at next junction, so I followed them. It turned out that they were looking for the 10k walk that was also on and they just got there in time for that to start at 10:30. I also got there at that time which just happened to be the exact time the walk was starting. I hung back to let the walkers set off and then asked the officials there where the start for the ½ marathon was, they told me that it was ½ a mile further on and to mid the rubber strip on the ground when I walked passed, I avoid it but it beeped and then I was luckily asked if I was participating in the walk, I said no (as calmly as possible but had gotten very nervous inside) he looked at my number and said he would remove it from the list. I double checked with him and then walked fast towards the starting point. I quickly caught up to the walkers – some of them thought I was racing with them so picked up speed, I did as well and passed them anyway (I’m a fast walker, that’s how I mostly lost my weight, 2x 5ks in heavy clothes and a big coat, walking as fast as I could for 6 months, along with cutting out wheat-based food). I then got a bit panicky and started to jog, fully expecting to hear “he’s cheating” chants like something out of a Monty Python Live of Brian sketch. I eventually came across a group of 5 other men who were also looking for the start. I walked with them for a bit but then got a bit panicky again and jogged on, eventually stopping where there was a tiny start sign at the side of the road and an old man in a suit and either his daughter or granddaughter waiting there in her running gear.
The time was now 11.55 and only 3 people there, the other 5 got there a couple of minutes later so that made 8. We had a few chats and a bit of banter there, one of them had said that he was starting work at 3pm after the race and some others asked him to safe them a cake and some coffee for them. I asked him where he worked, and he said it was in a restaurant nearby which happened to be the same one my son works in. They are both chefs there. I said that my son Jake works there as well and he said that someone from there entered for the 10k and wanted to change to the half marathon, we fist pumped (his idea, Jake said he always does that) and had a little joke about Jake etc. I was saying that he was a good boy as he wasn’t out the previous night (he was the night before that and only had 1 hours sleep that night but still made it into work for a 10hr shift – oh to be young again, well, he’s almost 27 but still young). Whilst we were talking a jeep pulled up, a man got out and left another sign on embankment on the right-hand side of the road advertising the run we were doing and then drove off, we all had a laugh because it was just left on the ground and was hard to read. I then got very dark and started to rain, thankfully for only about 5 minutes. Then as usual in these races a biggish crowd seemed to appear from nowhere an, another truck appeared with the starting crew, the starting strip was spread out across the road and I quickly turned around to go toward the back of the pack because I had learned in previous races that it is all too easy to get caught up in the moment and run much faster than intended and suffering badly during the race because of it.
The race announcer who is the sports announcer on a local radio station started the proceedings with a short few words, we then had 15 seconds of silence for a man who was very much involved with the organising of the event in the previous years but had sadly passed away at a young age (his was being buried at the same time of this event), the announcer then passed the microphone on to one of the local areas top athletes, she said a few words gave a bit of advice and then we set off. During this time, I was frantically looking for a playlist or something to play on my phone that was at a nice pace for the run, but I could not get a signal, took a last second gamble of selecting classic rock just as we started off and luckily it worked.
The race itself was a 10k run down towards Raghly Harbour (pronounced Rockley), around a loop there and back again. The first half was mostly downhill, which meant the second half was mostly uphill. The hills were not too steep, but it would still be steep enough on the way back.
My plan for the race was to run by using the heartrate zones on the watch and try to run in Zone 4 for as long as could, which for me is more or less at the higher end of conversational pace (if I ever talked during a race). I found someone to run behind that was running at a similar pace to me and stuck behind her for the first 7k. We were mostly running in a group of 3 or 4 at that time and left on our own, we were passed by a couple at about the 5k point, the crowd behind were a fair bit back and the faster runners were a good distance ahead with one or two in between. We turned left at the 8k point (or thereabouts) which was also where my wonderful wife wearing a big raincoat in the heavy wind was waiting to show support – she looked freezing cold and windswept. I waved to her a few times and carried on feeling very relaxed. The remaining route to the harbour was mostly uphill and the group I was in started to slow and we were passed by a younger lad, and I was contemplating following him as he was not much faster than our current pace. I was half afraid to follow him because I didn’t want to divert from my current strategy, but at about the 9k stage the person I was following suddenly slowed down and I decided to follow the lad instead. It was also at this point that we had started to see the leading runners coming back from their loop and running back. I clapped each one of them as our paths crossed until we started the loop ourselves (I think there were about 6 of them). The start of the loop began with a very steep hill. I from reading previous posts on this forum from nowster tackled it by increasing my cadence and passed the person I was following and 2 more people (who were almost 1k in font at the 6k point) going up the hill. I then ran down the hill at the harbour and passed 2 more people and I could not see anyone else in front of them. I then saw the sign for the halfway point and checked my watch for my heartrate, it was in the red, but I felt ok. I tried to slow down to reduce my heartrate dropping my arms down and trying to slowdown my breathing. It still stayed I the red, I felt quite good and thought to myself that I had done good so far and could manage the second half as I was (my actual pace throughout the race was pretty constant but I didn’t notice as I was running to heartrate).
I got a bit hot and sweaty at about the 12k stage and proceeded to take off my t-shirt and casually place it in between my belt pack, but I pulled out both earbuds during the process. One had fallen on the road and the other was caught up in the t-shirt. I had a major panic and did not know what to do, I weighed up the consequences of leaving the one that had fallen there or stopping to pick it up and being passed by everyone whilst looking for it. I very quickly stopped and tried to adjust my eyes to look for it (I was wearing long distance sunglasses, and this was short distance) whilst in a panic expecting to get passed by all the people. I was very fortunate to see it straight away, picked it up and put it in a pocket in my belt bag. I had luckily caught the other ear pod between my finger and thumb on inside of the t-shirt and carefully put my free hand inside it to get it free. I then didn’t feel like listening to music and decided to concentrate fully on the race, so I decided to put it away with the other one. I didn’t really hear anything playing anyway as I was already fully concentrating on the race. I actually lost one of them during the race because I could only find one when I got home. They were a great set but only 25 dollars from China and I had 2 other sets, a good pair I got at the same time as the one I lost and a previous pair where the charging box had stopped working and had 2 spare ear buds as a lucky consequence.
The rest of the race was quite hard, but I was not passed by anyone else. I started to take the water from the stations on the way back and could start to see a few other runners ahead of me in the distance. The couple who had passed me were doing very well and I could just about see them passing them all.
It was during this time when I tried to calculate my times guestimate my finishing time. I was very surprised at my current progress as my previous two half marathon trial runs were about 2 hours 20 mins and I very roughly calculated by adding about 5 minutes to each 1k that I had left that I had a good chance of finishing in under 2 hours, so I quickened my pace a bit whilst knowing that it would be mostly running up hill on the way back. I was gradually catching up to a person again and passed him near the point where my wife was waiting earlier. There is also a pub / shop at that point and I though to myself that it would be very nice to stop there for a quick one before resuming the race. Thought was nice, it should be a mandatory pitstop in the future lol, but I decided to carry on for this occasion. Words of encouragement were exchanged between myself and the person I was passing, and I carried on.
The next two people were about a quarter km away, one was already flagging, and she was running and walking for about for what seemed about 15 minutes. She had already stopped and had a few words at the water station we had passed earlier and had later stopped to quickly chat at some of the stewards on the route. I eventually caught up to her, we exchanged greeting and congratulated each other, she then said that she was spent and slowed to an almost stop just at the very point where we were passing another runner. The hills were getting quite steep at this stage, and I briefly walked for 5 steps myself before telling myself not to and started to very badly trot up the hill like an over exaggerated cartoon character with stretched out legs and arms almost at the end of their eb. The course flattened a and I recovered a bit. I then caught up to one of the guys I was chatting to at the start. He is a policeman and I previously encountered him in my first 6k cross country race 2 months before. I had passed him at that time before, but he picked up speed when I did and he left me for dust, so I wasn’t sure what to do this time. I hung behind him for a bit, I think this was with about 3 to 4 k to go and then ran alongside him happy to run the rest of the course with him. We had a few words and I said how much there was to go, and he said that I would be running it on my own, I said ok chat at the end and he slowed down this time and I picked up the pace.
The next two were possibly father and son who I had caught up to at the last water station. They were giving away little packets of child’s Haribo jelly sweets at this station, the three of us took both the water and the sweets, I stopped for a millisecond to try to open them, realised I had stopped and started to run. I passed the two runners as they were trying to open the packets and I dropped mine one the road (knowing it would be picked up afterwards). I also remember thinking at the time that this was a strange place to the last station because it was under 2k from the finish line I thought. I now think that the sweets were meant to be for a quick energy boost for the last hill. I had just passed the last two and imagined that they would dash passed me as they were energised on their sweets like Popeye’s spinach. I was almost crying up that hill in desperation but was determined not so slow. It hurt so much but I never gave in.
The last person was at the last 1k stage, I caught up to her and was happy to just stay behind her. I noticed that she was wearing the Nike Alpha fly racing shoes. I had read a lot about them in forums recently and how they had made people break their PBs by just changing to them. I did almost purchase them previously from Nike’s website the day before as they were on a special Easter sale. I had them in the cart but stopped short decided to see how my new trainers would do during the race, knowing that I had just done a 10k PB in them. I then thought about them all night long and tried to buy them in bed at 4.30 in the morning, but my size had sold out in the sale, and I was not going to pay 150 euro more to buy them as they were already expensive. Looking back in hindsight, am also pleased that I did not purchase them because of how I ran this race in my new trainers. Anyways, back to the run, I am pretty sure that she heard me behind her, and she picked up speed. I was well and truly spent at this stage and did not have the fight left in me. She turned the corner and ran into Carney town and over the mat where the end race announcer would pick up her name and say “now here comes xxx at a time of xx” I ran over the mat and he said “now here comes what was that, can you read that, here comes ony eely (should be Tony Freeley), I smiled at this, looked to the left and saw my wife cheering me on, got my medal, another nice heavy one. I grabbed a water and a banana.
I passed the finish line at 1:56:45. I am very pleased, actually very chuffed with that time with it being 25 mins faster than my previous time (although that was not in competition). I
I was well and truly exhausted, found it hard to breath for about a minute, I went over to my wife and gave her a big hug, asked her to take a few pictures of me and got a few more waters.
We walked back towards the complex where my wife had parked her car, she offered me a lift to my car but declined saying I needed the walk and was going to go in and take a look at the gathering etc. We parted ways, I walked very robotically towards the complex. Got to my car, put some tracksuit bottoms on and thought to run around track at the complex there the way the professionals to cool down. I tried but was too stiff and it hurt, so I walked into the complex went to the WC and dowsed myself in water to freshen up, went into the hall had a few waters, 3 satsumas and a coffee, had a few brief chats. I’m a very awkward small talker but I did ok. I waited for a bit for the ceremonies but again felt vey awkward so went to the car for home. I did stop off at a nearby running track and managed 1k there in complete agony before giving up and flopping on the couch at home.
So that’s the end of my essay, apologies it might be a bit long winded, but that’s my writing style. I could use someone’s famous phrase of “If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter one” but it has taken me just over 5 hours to write this as I am very dyslexic and need to take time in working out what to write, then rewriting the sentences whilst trying to correct the grammar. But I thought that I would take the time to write this post as I have made some progress so far this year and was long overdue to write a new one.
P.S there were 2 flyers left on the car when I got back to it after the race, one was for a 5k next week and the next for a three quarter marathon 3rd September this year. TBC….
PPS. Just bought a pair of Nike Zoom Fly 4 from the money my mother sent me in another Nike sale (they must see me coming)..... Thanks mum :- ) xx
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My first half marathon
