Rock N’Roll Half Marathon and 10k
The annual Rock N’Roll Half Marathon took place on Sunday 11th of August with a 10k option limited to the Phoenix Park. This race also acted as the Athletics Ireland National Championships which meant that anyone who signed up with their AAI number was assigned to wave 1 which took off from Fitzwilliam Sq at 8am. The early start and the finish line being in Phoenix Park meant that race logistics needed to be considered well in advance and there was no rolling out of bed to turn up for this one!
Running conditions were good with rain forecast that didn’t happen, a gentle-mild breeze and some reasonable temperatures. The course itself was quite challenging with a lot of uphills followed by downhills in the first 10k. The second half of the race was an intense rise as you entered the park and then a good downhill stretch to 15k with a steadily growing incline for the last 6k which proved tough for many! The route had a band every mile although my expectations may have been unrealistic and in truth it was a mixed bag with some good and others that didn’t do much for the motivation!
There were good club performances throughout with some PBs and great times across the races. Like Dublins victory the night before, characteristics of champions was definitely shown for many doing the race with Mark Hogan taking home the Sportsworld leading athlete title. Rumour has it a technicality ruled out some others from the title for not wearing a Sportsworld top! Other notable performances were from Ronan Masterson who broke 80mins and Ger Neenan who clocked a PB. Ger surely won’t be happy with the comparison to Dublin and would rather be compared to the mighty Kerry team who will try to stop the drive for 5! My own race was more described as a Mayoesque performance where I had a great first half but couldn’t handle the heat in the second. I’ll be hoping the Kilkenny hurlers can take note and perform for the full game on Sunday! In the end I was happy to get in another 3 miles afterwards which meant I could keep a straight face when Myles asks for my weekly long run mileage!
The post race treats somewhat made up for the hefty entry price with a decent medal, a beer and many people filling bags up with energy drinks, bars & goodies. I heard one person comment that it will do for the kids lunches for a few weeks! All in all it was a good day, pbs for some, miles in the tank for others and a general sense of satisfaction of a race done, all by 10am on a Sunday morning!
Thats a wrap from my first race report. I’ve heard Brian will run a spell check and provide a grade so hopefully I’ve done enough to pass!
Apologies if anyone was missed:
Eileen Rowland 1:54
Mark Hogan 1:18
Ronan Masterson 1:19 (PB)
Oliver Hedborg 1:28
Brendan Keogh 1.28
Adelie Reinaudo 1.32
Gerard Neenan 1: 35(PB)
Aidan Curran 1:38
Colum Roche 1:39
Paul Canniffe 1:55
John McGeown 1:41
Tim Murphy 1:45
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