How was 2018? (Part 1)

Reading through my old posts from 2018, one thing that stands out is that after the Rotterdam marathon I felt not cheated, but deflated. Despite ramping up the training, results hadn't been great. However, something was happening cause a week after Rotterdam I ran the Great Ireland Run - and by the way, what's the story with that race this year? There's no information online at all? - and even though I was meant to run it just for fun, I ended up running about 16 seconds away from a new PR. That gave me a big boost of confidence. So, here's the rest of the year in figures:

April - Rotterdam marathon. Check out my post here

Great Ireland Run. As I said, I was very satisfied with the result, spceially cause it was so unexpected and unintended. Just to put it in perspective, here's the results from the same race in previous years. You can definitely see the progression through time.

May - Bron to run series. Of course I wanted to see what I could do. Of course I wanted to set a new PB so I signed up for this race series in North Co. Dublin. The races themselves were really nice on the human level. Small number of participants in a relaxed environment, so much so that by the time you run the third race you already know the other runners and can have a chat and a laugh with them. The only drawback? The distance was never 10k... small issue. Regardless, here are the times. The number to look at here is the pace: 4:28, 4:28, 4:29. Pretty consistent but critically, faster than my previous PB pace of 4:37.

July - South Dublin 10k. I started training for the Dublin marathon in the first week of July and, as part of the programme, I like to include the race series. They are very well organised, suit the training progression towards DCM and they are the best value you can get (plus you get a pretty cool medal at the half). This year they moved the race from Phoenix Park to a flatter course in Dublin West and probably that helped cause I nailed it! New PB! And once again, the key number here is the pace: 4:27/km. things were moving in the right direction.

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Visualization for beginners

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How was 2018 (Part II)

So, with one successful in the bag, I was excited to test myself in the Frank Duffy 10mi race in August to see if the longer distances were improving too. Here's how it went: August - Frank Duffy 10mi As with the 10k race, the organisers moved the venue from Phoenix Park to Swords. I didn't have a clue about the route or the profile of the race. Mind you, I couldn't remember the last time I had run a 10mi race so couldn't figure out what pace to run at and this was critical.I just figured out it had to be slower than a 10k but... how much? No clue. So I ran and picked up the pace in the final 2k to come in at 1:17. I was happy with that but a friend I met at the race said "you can easily run the half in 1:40". I had never done that or got even close to it. Still as you can see, I was still improving. September - Dublin Half Marathon Crazy targets, unrealistic expectations, unachievable goals... these were some of the thoughts that were going through ...

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