I was out in Malahide Castle this evening getting a recci done for a 5km fundraising run next Sunday. After doing the essentials I ran home from the Cricket Pitch entrance. Turned intoa pretty miserable run with stinging, freezing rain for about 3km of it. Was very happy to be home in the end.
Tuesday, May 12th: Rest Day
Feeling a little tired so took this evening as a rest day. Had my second Pilates class through work today. Definitely going to do more of this in future!
Wednesday, May 13th: 5.1km Easy (4:59/km)
Ran at lunchtime today, in between meetings. Legged it a little bit with the lack of time.
Thursday, May 14th: 6.6km CH: Clonliffe 2 Miler (12:55)
The World's oldest Club race, apparently, this evening. Started off with a lap and a bit of the track before out onto the Swords Road. I managed the pace well here and began to overtake a couple of people who just started too quickly. Continued Northwards and then took the left into the Northwood Estate before taking another left into the demesne. Things were getting tougher now as we climbed the brief hill. Feeling strong still I pushed things on around the remainder of the lap of the park and as we turned for the finish onto the track I tried giving everything. The change of surface to the track meant the legs took some adjusting and a lack of strength meant I was getting quite the kick off the surface as I would have with the solid road. Continued on around and finished in 12:55 which I was happy enough with. All getting very close to PB country at last!
Friday, May 15th: Rest Day
Took today off again as I was a bit tired from last night and with another race coming on Sunday, I needed to refresh a little.
Saturday, May 16th: 7.0km Easy (5:41/km)
Can't remember much about this one apart from the fact it was an easy run taking in a couple of laps of the park.
Sunday, May 17th: 13.1km Terenure 5 Miler (34:25)
This was probably my target race for May yet I was unsure what to really target until the morning of the race. I assessed that on a fair course in Belcarra in April I managed 35:24 over 8k and, given that this would be an extra 50m, I would be doing well to come home sub 34:30. With that I promised myself I’d keep the pace in the range of 4:15 – 4:20/km.
KM 1: 4:09
The first km was relatively free of the usual congestion and before we knew it we were on the road into Terenure village. I recognised I was going a bit fast and halfway through the km I eased off a little. This still clocked 4:04 by the end of the split so given my pre-race planned pace I would surely have been heading for an explosion before too long.
KM2: 4:18
I caught sight of Karen (from the Tallaght race last week) just before we reached the village. She was about 20m up ahead and, knowing that if I could catch her very slowly I’d produce a good time, it became my goal for most of the remaining race. As each marker was passed I began to narrow the gap by a few yards.
As we turned the corner in the village we were met with a drag for about 200m. The little bit of wind was in our face along this stretch but thankfully it was nothing more than a cooling breeze and most runners probably even welcomed it.
KM3: 4:20
With the combination of breeze and gentle incline the pace fell off a little into the third km. I was very accepting of this however and managed to consolidate position until we reached the next turn to the left.
KM4: 4:25
The fourth km is pretty featureless and serves little more than making up the miles for this race. I was catching Karen still, but more than 10m behind her yet. Still though, I felt in control of my running and was tipping along nicely.
KM5: 4:14
This eventually brought us back out onto the Terenure road again and once more we were back onto the fantastic running surface. Probably little more than a placebo effect in reality but it felt like I was running better than ever along this stretch. Pace came back down a little here and yet I still managed to ease back a little with the breeze and incline in my favour.
KM6: 4:11
As we turned the corner in the village for the second and last time I noticed many of those around me were beginning to suffer. In the immediate aftermath of the corner I passed about 4 or 5 people over 10m, all breathing heavily. I put the head down regardless and powered up the gentle incline once more.
KM7: 4:12
With less than two km to go I knew I was in good shape and the main focus now was to maximise my speed to the finish line. I was now only a few metres behind Karen who was still running well. I could tell that everyone around us at this stage was gearing up for a fast finish to the line.
KM8: 4:15
Not long after going past the final km marker I moved past several others including Karen. One of her BP clubmates was sticking to my shoulder however and I was having visions of us racing to the line together. This vision was short-lived however as about 100m later and I managed to drop him. Still though I could make out his club colours through the corner of my eye and sure enough when I managed to look properly there was Karen coming back with a surge over the final 400m! By this stage I was redlining in top gear so I had no answer to her sprint but as the line got closer I could feel the 3m gap narrowing again and she seemed to be slowing a slight bit. Unfortunately though, she stayed on and crossed the line about two strides ahead of me.
I offered her congratulations immediately but neither of us were in much of a state to chat so I continued on through the finishing chute. Once I regained my breath I jogged back out the course in search of my sister Karen (This all gets very confusing!!). I caught her with just over 1km to go and joined her on the run in. She managed to stay ahead of the 50min pacer (Olwyn) and even though we weren’t sure at the time the results later confirmed her as 49:18 or thereabouts. She was well chuffed with that as by all accounts she hasn’t managed to do more than a few runs since the new year!
After chatting to a few more people it was time to head off home for a shower before I had to go to Malahide Castle to help with that charity 5k funrun. Really enjoyed that 5 miler though and think I’m getting back into the groove of these ‘shorter’ races at last.
Week Summary:
RTW: 5 from 7 days
DTW: 44.1km
DTY: 1,001.1
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