The last day of the working week, and I'm feeling very pleased with myself, despite the weather still being colder than it should be for April. Frosts are not supposed to be around now, we should have cherry blossom and spring days where the winter long sleeves, gloves and hats can be discarded and packed away until the clocks go back in October.
Why am I pleased? Well, last night I made my first outing at a Grand Prix Series, run by local club Clonliffe Harriers. A pal of mine has talked me into joining this series, and last night was my first race, a 4 Mile Track Race. It's a fair while since I ran track, and I was looking forward with trepidation. With no speed work in preparation, given I am training for Marathons this spring, plus the fact that most of the runners in the event were speedsters, and all were Club Runners, I was expecting a tough time.
The run actually went better than I had hoped. My last road outing over 4 miles was on Paddy's Day and I ran 29:30, so I was hoping to be a little faster than that, but being only 10 days out from my Connemara expolits, it was more hope than judgement. My first mile was completed in 6:59 (Ouch!), and on a cool, breezy backstraight sort of evening, this was faster than I expected and I was running solo as well. I kept up a fair pace, was lapped a couple of times by the speedsters, and managed to lap a few people myself, including my pal Ray (sorry Ray!), and at the bell, I checked my watch and tried to pick up the pace for a strong finish, although by now I had no-one to aim for, and although not looking back, I could tell no one was on my tale.
I ran 1:32 for the last 400, and crossed the line in 28:31 by my watch, not bad for an old fella training for another Maarthon in three weeks.
So, we may be short on cherry blossom, but I was very happy with this run, and with a 10K race to come on Sunday, spring is blooming for me - Keep those good vibes heading my way too and thanks to everyone who has passed comment on this embryonic project.
3 comments:
Good luck on your 10K, and don't overdo it if you're tapering for a marathon in a few weeks! Our cherry blossoms are rapidly decaying now, but the flowering pears and magnolias in Central Park exploded last week. Utterly gorgeous.
Good luck on Sunday! I like the fact that there are race series now. I'm hoping to stay healthy enough for a cross-country series this summer!
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