Dublin Half marathon

On 26 September the Dublin half marathon took place in the Phoenix park. It began ten minutes late and much to everyone's surprise the sun came out and the temperature noticeably increased just before it began. I went through the first mile in 06:44. The next few miles passed by in the mid 06:40s and mile six and most of mile seven were a nice gentle negative gradient down Chesterfield road. These miles elapsed in 06:39 and 06:36. Mile eight involved going up Kyber Pass. Going up this so often in my training meant I was not very intimidated by it but was worried ascending too quickly. On this hill I passed alot of other runners.
By mile ten, when we approached the Upper Glen Road I was feeling very good and new a PB was guaranteed unless disaster struck. Going up Glen road I passed a number of other runners who were beginning to struggle now. This was a great boost and I left behind the guy in a red and yellow singlet I had been swapping places with over the previous ten miles. His stride fascinated me though. It was a perfect midfoot strike and I think he was running well within himself with his sights set firmly on another race entirely.
Mile twelve did get a little tough with a fairly steep uphill section for about a third of a mile along Knockmaroon Road and I completed it in 07:00. The last mile was an opportunity to put the foot down a little and went through it in 06:34, the fastest mile of the race. My finish time was 01:28:24, besting my previous PB by one minute and twenty-one seconds. I was very happy with this race and still felt I had some left in the tank.

Split	Time	Avg HR
1	0:06:44	163
2	0:06:43	170
3	0:06:44	171
4	0:06:47	171
5	0:06:42	171
6	0:06:39	168
7	0:06:35	168
8	0:06:48	171
9	0:06:46	171
10	0:06:39	170
11	0:06:52	171
12	0:07:00	170
13	0:06:34	172
14	0:00:46	174
Summary	1:28:24	170