A good start in January was followed by a not bad first half of February, which was followed by a not so good second half of February (AAOS meeting in Las Vegas was a major drag), which was followed by a really rather poor (stress, cold, sore throat and killer ear infection) March.
The week before the race was spend on antibiotics and struggling to balance due to ear infection. So it was a bit of a surprise to me to awake on Sunday morning of race day feeling pretty much the best I've felt in a month! Following Irelands Grand Slam win and Brendan Dunne's world title victory me and MarcO were pretty buoyed up to take on what is rapidly becoming our traditional early season race of the Connemara (Half) Marathon. This year, as we were not targeting the full, we had set ourselves the target of running the half at a respectable 1:45 pace. It should be noted that this is a very hilly course (274m of climbing), and 1:45 was not a soft target.
As it turned out we ran a 1:46 when adjusted for my having to do a quick bodily function stop. We were pretty pleased with the time and how we managed the pace. Neither of us felt like we had much left at the finish, which is good because you want to leave it in the race. Note that the HR rarely dropped below LT for the whole race.
So here we are, tired but happy. Race was excellently organised, food in the post race area was top. Buses were great and the craic was mighty.
So with the early season race under the belt its time to gather my wits about me and get busy mapping out the plan to 1/2 Iron in September.
