Another PB at 8.5Km !!

Having been under the weather all week with a chest infection, I was feeling a lot brighter for Saturdays trip out to Clontarf and the Clontarf 5 Mile race, in conjunction with their Half-Marathon. The great thing about this race was my first chance to meet up in person with the gang from #RSP - The Runners Support Page, over on Facebook. I joined this on-line group a few months ago, and have been enjoying the banter and motivation coming from the members, so it was great to meet up with so many of them on Saturday, and great to relax after the race in the Yacht. The vast majority of the gang were running the Half-Marathon, but I chose the shorter race given the chest and the holiday.

Now, regular readers will know that my last race, advertised as an 8Km race, was actually 8.5Km, and this must be following me around, as the Clontarf Race had to amend the course due to a spot of flooding on the course. Unfortunately, the marshalls at the turnaround point made a human error and forgot to adjust the location, which resulted in the race actually being, yes, you guessed it, 8.5Km! My new favourite distance :).

As for the race, I started gently on the narrow pathways, and settled into a steady rhythm, around 5:15 pace, as we ran along the waterfront, before crossing the bridge and then the long run to the turnaround. As we came off the bridge on the way back I felt my chest starting to wheeze up, so took it easy on the run back, clearly identifying that we were running more than 5 Miles as the markers hadn't been moved, and I knew the pace I was running, and feeling the chest, I didn't kick on at the end, and crossed the line in 44:17, for 116th position out of 541, which isn't bad, and a few seconds faster than that last 8.5Km race :).

Big plus on the day was meeting the #RSP gang - Negatives were; the over-distance race, although these things happen; and the chest infection lingering longer than hoped.

Couple of pics with the gang, and running along - Back to Parkrun if I can finally shake off this nasty chest.