Getting Better with Age?

Dublin Half Marathon 2010

Today was the day for the last of the Adidas Lifestyle Race Series before the beast itself; The Dublin City marathon. Today I participated in the Dublin Half Marathon and I have to say I am encouraged by outcome.

On yet another record turnout, the Dublin Half Marathon saw a participation of something in the range of 8000 runners. And walkers. There was an occasional shower or 2 throughout the race and the temperatures ranged from 9 degrees to 11 degrees.
I did better than last year's race. I shadded off 7 minutes from my finish time Last year I completed the race in 1 hour 54 minutes and this year I completed in 1 hour 47 minutes.



Before i begin to congratulate myself for a job well done i need to ascertain if there were external slush environmental factors worked to my advantage this year.
Admittedly the weather was good for a race of this type though it was not so friendly to gadgets such as mp3 players, some sportswatches mobile phones and such other gadgets. It meant I could do a faster pace without the negative impact of high temperatures.

Today I decided to join the '2 hour' group instead of going for the 1 hour 50 minutes or better. I realised from previous experience that i  get my motivation from running faster among a slower group than running faster with a faster group. It probably defies logic but that's what happens with me and today it seems I was vindicated. The conventional wisdom should be that one needs to be motivated and lifted by running along faster runners. The classroom analogue would be a situation whereby a student is expected to do better if he is educated among brighter students. In my case it seems to be reverse. I preferred to see myself running past people rather than being at par with everybody.

I pulled away from the 2 hour pace setters right from the start and kept on going at a faster pace than majority of the people that I was with in my group. This motivated me and I kept at it right up to the end which resulted in me finishing 7 minutes faster than last year. I remember last year I struggled with the last 5km of the race.
Experience has also played an important part. Last year I was a Half Marathon Race rookey but this year i knew the route well enough and i knew waht to expect at each corner of the race coures.
I was particularly happy with my tackling of the ground elevations. I will not claim total ingenuity on these, and i should also point out that on 3 of the rises there were 3 guys from the Fitwest club or something whom i shadowed. they seemed to accelarate as they went up the slopes and slowed down normal level ground. They seemed to be very much at ease and it was quite clear that they were seasoned runners.  I managed to shadow them on 2 occasions but on the last slope they beat me for dust and I never saw them again!

I should also say my selection and timing of music worked well for me. My 'power songs' came at the right moment when I needed them most.
So while it looks like I am getting better with age the jury is still out there on this one.
  I collected all the data for the race with Nokia N97 Sports Tracker app, the Garmin Forerunner 405 and the new kid on the block, Iphone app, Nike+