OK, I had a problem. There are two races that I love to run; the Dublin City half marathon in Ireland and the Great North Run in Newcastle, England. Both 13.1 miles long but quite a distance from one to the other. A quick glance at a map will highlight the additional obstacle of the Irish Sea between Dublin and Newcastle. Usually these races are at least a week apart and I have plenty of time to get from one to the other but this year they are happening on the same weekend. To run both would mean getting from the finish line in Dublin to Newcastle in about 20 hours with a nights sleep in-between.
The obvious choice would be to fly, I thought surely there’d be a flight in the afternoon but to my amazement there were no flights until the next morning. With flying off the list the only other option was by land. There were two sailing routes to the UK; via Scotland or via Wales. Both were about the same overall driving time so it came down to the most convenient sailing time. The Scottish route had a morning sailing, during the Dublin race, and a late evening sailing which would work but I would have a lot of waiting to do when I’d rather get on with travelling. The Welsh option was cutting it fine, there was a sailing within an hour of the Dublin race finishing. It would mean that I had to carry on running straight to my motorcycle to change and ride straight to the port. This was the most insane option so I naturally took it! What could possibly go wrong?
Well not a lot as it happened! The Dublin race went really well, the weather was dry and warm, and I ran a good time! Another record breaker as it happens… a new half marathon PB crossing the line in 1:56:01 (08:48 min/mi) as my Garmin race record will testify:Â http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50645646
Once across the line I headed for my motorcycle and immediately changed into my bike gear and rode straight to the port where my ferry was waiting for me and with minutes to spare I was driving up the gangway onto the car deck.