Mullingar 10 miler

I ran this last year when trying to recover from hamstring issues but in reality should never have attempted it as I slowed down from 4:30/km to less than 5:00/km to come home in a time of 1:18+. Even so, I learned enough from the event to know it was a great race on good road surfaces with no gradient too steep or too long to overcome. This would also help to frame where my fitness is currently and give an indication of what I might realistically be looking at in Berlin.

I was up by 8:30 for my breakfast of a bowl of granola and a cup of coffee and before long we were heading West. We arrived to Dalystown at 10:20am and trotted across to the National School for number pick-up. The coffee had done its duty by this time so I managed to avail of the toilet facilities while there. Time for a bit of a warm-up with 5 strides before a few stretches. I could feel a slight twinge on my right glute so a few ‘Figure of 8’s and I was ready.

Probably the only thing that I could say might improve this race would be the option of a starting mat/gantry. Without this, it is in everyone's interest to cross the start line ASAP and as such encourages slower runners to the front of the pack. This can cause trip issues and while nothing happened this year it can’t be guaranteed for other years. Thankfully the road opens up quite wide within the first 100m and so the congestion gets relieved in next to no time. This first 500m was slightly downhill and I was passing a few runners who had clearly started too far up the field.

We turned left at the finishing junction located at Wallace’s pub and we were now slightly uphill. I tucked in beside a few other runners to avoid the breeze and in no time there was a group of 6/7 working together at the same pace. This lasted a few kms more until we turned off the main road and on to a quieter back country road. I found myself leaving most of the group behind at this point as our pace of 4:18-4:20 was now slipping back quite a bit. I forged on, out on my own for the next few kms passing the odd runner here and there and maintaining a pace of 4:23/km. I was very happy with this as my pre-race strategy was to average around 4:23/km if I could and here I was feeling slightly tested but generally comfortable. I was of the belief at this stage that I should be bang on for 70mins at this pace so all was going according to plan.

We passed through Ballinagore in the blinking of an eye. This conveniently marked the halfway point and once again I looked to be almost on target with a 35:10 time registering on my watch as I passed the 5m sign. We were now on the homeward trail as we left the most Westerly point of the course. Back on the main road and a Mullingar Harrier passed me very slowly. Very slight inclines in the roads were commonplace at this point, not made any easier by the fact I was on my own for most of the way. From what I could tell I was still on target as the 4:23/km remained the status quo. A couple of kms later and we were turning right again, off the main road and onto the final loop. We were now less than 4km from home and things had moved on quite considerably now from 'comfortable' to 'strong effort'! Passed a couple of guys around here who were fading but there was till about 6 runners up ahead where the gap remained steady.

A final 90degree left hand turn and we were now 2km from home. At this point I was beginning to think things were going to be very tight and that rather than remain at the 4:23/km effort I’d have to consider redlining soon to get home in sub 70! Only problem though was that I was already in the red zone! The final run-in was 1.5km of uphill, followed by the initial 500m of slight downhill. Gave it everything I could and once I crested the hill I legged it for the line. Overtook a guy with 600m to go but with 150m remaining he powered on past me again. I had no answer but that was ok because I’d given my all to the course already. The final 100m to the line is a heart breaker because you are required to do a mini-loop for which the body really doesn't care! Crossed the line in 1:10:45 by my watch but seven seconds slower by the race clock.

So, no sub 70 but nevertheless I was still very happy with my race. I eventually worked out that my so-called maths had contained lots of assumptions and few actual calculations! In fact, I needed to run sub 4:20 average pace in order to really go sub 70mins and I simply didn’t have that in me today.

When I review against VDot it shows a slight decline against the shorter races which is fair enough as I probably have a little more work to do on my endurance and I would hope that improvement kicks in over the next 6 weeks til the Tullamore HM which will be my final marker for Berlin. At this moment though the likely target for Berlin will be sub 3:15 (4:37/km).

Mullingar 10 miler: 1:10:45 - New PB.
VDot = 48.3, Marathon prediction = 3:17:29.