I thought it was a great event & it was really well supported all around the northside. Very lucky with the weather overall - it was a lovely morning & the breeze on the coast wasnât that bad, albeit into our faces for 2-3km late on.
I was aiming for 4:50/km pace & around 1hr 42 & was tracking okay up to around 12km. Pace dropped off a little for another 4km or so but nothing too material but wheels came off for me in the last 3 miles.
It must be the Wexford in me - when the going gets tough, I down tools. Crawled home in 1hr 47 in the end so was a bit irked personally but super atmosphere & enjoyable catching up with lots of folk afterwards.
Raheny really got behind the race alright. Think thereâs fond memories of when the Dublin marathon used to go up this way & the Hooper brothers were winning it & representing Ireland in the Olympics. Club is well embedded in the village & huge membership so lots of people would know members running & were out to support.
Similar to yourself really. Was hoping for under 1.45 but really I just didnât have enough prep done. I struggled in different patches of it but in general I loved the buzz of it. DJs playing and the buzz and craic was great. Mario and Luigi passing me at the finish line did irk a little .
Course is first class.
Sir, â The Dublin City Half Marathon on Sunday was wonderful to see. The route passed my house and I loved watching the runners go by. There was such a buzz in the air. The crowds were brilliant too.
A massive thank you to all the volunteers who made this happen. Especially those who helped with the clean up post race.
The 9km mark was beside my house. My husband and I picked up clothes, plastic cups, broken headphones, tissues, you name it, it was there on the ground to be picked up.
But the absolute worst has to be the discarded energy gels. Hundreds in my area alone, we picked up what we could.
What can be done to tackle these packets? Given that their contents are so sticky I doubt they are recyclable. Is it time they went the way of the plastic straw and simply banned? Maybe an energy gel levy? Or more sustainable packaging?
Surely there is better and more environmentally friendly way for runners to get a carbohydrate boost during a race? â Yours, etc,
My family was at the 9km mark & it was the nearest point on the course to my house but I donât know the letter writer. Those gels are a nuisance alright, I have a zippy shorts so rest assured I put my two used gel packets in my pocket & disposed of them in a bin afterwards. Some people are fairly selfish in all aspects of race day from not listening to instructions, pushing to start near the front way ahead of their ability level, littering etc. That said, there should be street markets dotted along race routes where runners can stop to carb load. I would have loved a bowl of pasta in Raheny yesterday.
Agree 100%. The year I did the Dublin marathon, I couldnât believe the amount of stuff people fucked on the street. There were bins everywhere to discard all the plastic bottle waste and as per @Bandage above, most shorts have a pocket for the gel wrappers etc.
So much water bottles wasted at these events. Maybe for a half marathon, people should be made carry their own.
The water stations yesterday had the kind of pint glasses youâd get at a concert or something. Very hard to drink on the move, paper cups would have been better.
The advice I read before was 60-90g of carbs per hour of exercise. That was for marathon running rather than shorter runs but thereâs still some of the theory at play. You might find youâre right into your reserves at the end of those races @Bandage. You donât necessarily need gels but even jellies or something with sugar would keep you ticking over.
I reckon theyâre a cod. A few jellies or pieces of fruit in the pocket do a similar job without the possibility of stomach upset. Surely any potential gains from the energy gels use are diminished by the time spent slowing down to suck on them.
Any good recommendations on gels that wouldnât break the bank lads? Iâve never used them. I was doing a year-long break from sugar when I took up running longer distances and have always used dates, which I eat and try and not swallow the pit every 3k, but would be curious to test the gels.
Ran the Berlin half marathon at the weekend. Great race. Really well organized despite having 42,000 runners. Flat course. Wide streets. Iconic finish through the Brandenburg Gate. I think next yearâs entry opens sometime around now.
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