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Sunday 24th February 2019 Split Half Marathon No 25 Croatia

Sunday 24th February 2019 Split Half Marathon  No 25 Croatia

Richard 02:00:39 Jackie 02:13:47

We were unable to find a flight to Split from Manchester in February so we combined Verona and Split and drove down the Dalmatian Coast . The road was spectacular and easy driving which is a good job as it was just under 800km. Its a toll road which I don't mind if it means good driving conditions . Snow capped mountains lined the route and we passed through many tunnels the longest being over 5 km . The weather in Split was equally as good as Verona when we arrived but the locals seemed to suggest it was a bit freakish for the time of year as the event the year before was run in snow . We found a video online that confirmed this . Split  seems on the up the harbour is full of expensive boats and it was making the most of "Game of Thrones" shooting some scenes in the town. The new Abba Movie was also filmed on an Island just off the coast called Vis

.
 The day before the race we got a weather warning of very high winds from our Airbnb host .

"Dear Richard and Jackie,
Watch out tomorow. Meteoalarm is turned on. Luckily, the wind will get easy till the Start of the halfmarathon."
 It was a strong cold wind blamed on Russia and it was still windy on the day of the race . The temperature had dropped significantly , which was great news for us as many of the runs were in temperatures a tad too hot for our tastes . So it was hat and gloves on and a warm up to keep out the cold before the start .


Despite a head wind and uphill start for the first 5km the cooler weather benefited us both and I ran my best time for quiet a while just missing out by 40 seconds from getting under 2hrs. Jackie was comfortably under her target of 2hrs 15 mins .
This was another really nice route passing through the town and along the coast and also included a lap round the local stadium track  which was fun  . It was fairly hilly compared to some and the last 8km was through a forest at the top end of the town . The electronic results board was also a nice touch .

A large group from Montenegro 










We always get cravings for something stodgy after the race 


  
  
   

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