Sonia O'Sullivan was still smiling at the end of the women's World Half Marathon despite finishing down in 14th place.
The Cork woman admitted she had struggled to come to terms with some of the cobbled streets which formed part of the course in a race won by world 3,000 metres indoor record holder Berhane Adere of Ethiopia.
O'Sullivan had been in contention until 15 kilometres from the finish, thus missing the drama at the end when a spectator evaded security and tried to join Adere for the home stretch.
"Something just seemed to happen and I fell away," said O'Sullivan.
"We were running on cobbles at the time and a gap suddenly opened. The next thing was they they got away."
O'Sullivan, who ran a personal best time of 1 hour 10 minutes 4 seconds, added: "I found it hard running on the cobbles. I was all over the place. Where there was a proper surface I didn't have a problem. But they made it difficult."
O'Sullivan, who still has to declare her hand about defending her European 5,000 and 10,000m titles this summer, insisted: "I'm sure you'll see me running more half marathons in the future."
PA