Mallow 10 miler

Monday, 18^th March – 16.2km Mallow 10 Miler (4:25/km)

After going against plan and enjoying my Paddy’s Day in the pubs of Killarney I still managed to wake early Monday morning in lots of time for getting to Mallow. Thankfully the legs were still good so it looked like recovery was top notch from both the marathon as well as the drinking!


I arrived about 40mins before race start (a very accommodating 12:30pm start time!) and repeated my Tralee preparation by sitting in the car and listening to the radio! After a while I removed the extra layers and jogged the 700m to race start. Thankfully the legs were still onside. The weather was a little nippy when standing around and I was cursing my decision to leave the gloves behind me in the car. I ran into RQ and she confirmed the direction of the start (Up a slight, short drag and out into the countryside). As we chatted I was still trying to decide what my pace was going to be. 70mins seemed a bit quick and 75 mins a bit slow, so upon RQ’s advice of ‘sure you may as well give 70 a go!’ I lined up close to the yellow balloons.

Race start - RQ was in there somewhere as well...

The race started quickly and although there was a little congestion in the first 200m it quickly dissipated thanks to the wide road. First km brought us down an incline and this helped me latch onto the 70min gang before we turned up towards the Cork Road and the main hill of the day. The legs were slow to react and the pacers began to move away from me again. I decided to let them off as I knew the fast downhill would soon follow and I hoped to regain the time here, which I did. But at the same time I could tell the legs had lots of mileage in them so even though I was running 4:09/km pace I dared not go much faster or jelly legs would surely appear!

We turned left at the end of the hill and once again the pacers started to pull away from me. Like in Tralee I quickly decided to run my own race and forget about them. A quick scan around me showed there was a few matching my pace so as the race progressed we took turns pushing each other along. One girl in particular was matching me stride for stride so we kept it solid for the next few miles. As we went up the hills I noticed a tiny gap appearing but inevitably she’d catch me on the way down the far side. This suited me lots as it ensured I kept my effort levels high.

With about 2km to go we met a couple more small inclines but at this stage they were challenging. Soon we were back in the outskirts of town and the wind’s effects subsided as we neared the finish. My pacing mate pushed on with a mile to go to join a mini-group just a few yards ahead so I kept them as my target but there wasn't much changing of position in the final 500m. 

On the run-in I knew we were close to the finish but it wasn’t visible. We rounded a corner and there it was about 100m ahead, slightly uphill. Crossed the line in what I believe to be about 1:11:36 on my GPS but I hit the lap button rather than stop button! Due to there being no starting mat the official results have me down as 12 seconds longer which would be about right (Took about 12 secs to cross the start line). 

So, a 2½ min PB for me which I’m very happy about. Well done to Mallow AC, it was a great race with a very good course and excellent marshalling and all for only €15! Hopefully I’ll be back next year, possibly without the handicap of a marathon two days earlier though!!

Week 12 Summary (so far):

RTW:   1 from 1 days
DTW:   16.2 km
DTY:    954.8 km