Family Fitness 5K

Yep, I maanged my race this morning. Now, given I did enter a few weeks back, and have telegraphed this race here, I was still a doubt last night, thanks to the British & Irish Lions fabulous victory over South Africa yesterday, and a few celebratory pints as we sat in the pub disseminating the entire tour!

Anyway, I managed to get up, out, and down to Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park here in Dublin. The event was billed as a Family Fitness Day with the 5K kicking events off for all the family. There was a good turnout for the event, and good to see Paul McNamara fron my club, although he was there in his working for Athletics Ireland mode today, and not running, but we had a brief chat and he's gearing up for a crack at the Dublin Marathon in October.

Sonia O'Sullivan was the Official Starter, and off we went at 10.30 on the roads around the Park. As ever there were slower runners near the start, but in general terms the start was orderly and I quickly settled into an easy rhythm. Amazingly, given this was organised by Athletics Ireland, there were no Km or Mile markers, so it was hard to gauge the pace, but having a good idea of the lay out of the Park, I could tell I was running inside my 25 minute target, perhaps a little too fast, but it was only 5K!

Nothing really dramatic to report about the race really, I plodded on, felt the Guinness from yesterday around 20 minutes into the run, so had to ease off the gas, and when we re-entered the Farmeligh estate we only had 400m to run, and a quick check on the watch showed I had a comfortable margin of ewrror, so I didn't bust a gut in sprinting too hard, and finished comfortably with the watch at 24:34.

A decent time, but not a great run, thanks to the Guinness and the lack of distance markers, but a reasonable standard for the summer and the plethora of races I have lined up. Next up is the DCC 5K at Irishtown on the 15th, and I'll be targetting a better run and time there.