Gt Ireland Run Sunday April 9th

I might have mentioned that the weather hasn't been too kind to us this spring so far. Still cold, still wintery, and not the ideal weather for racing in the spring. On Saturday I was marshalling at the first BHAA Road Race of the spring, organised by my company athletics club at Dublin City Council. Standing around with a flag ensuring spectators don't encroach on the runners as they fly by is something us runners take for granted when we race, so it was nice to put something back into the sport, even if I did freeze my proverbials off! It was only a 4 mile race for the runners, but we stayed out there for the last runner and retired for a welcome hot cup of tea and then I was off shopping and relaxing before Sundays Race.

Sunday morning saw a blue sky, a rare sight this year, and we left for the Phoenix Park nice and early to join the 7000 or so others who had registered for the Great Ireland Run, a 10K race in teh Park, having it's 4th running, sponsored by BUPA, a private health care company. As a somewhat different style of T-Shirts for participants, all were encouraged to run for their Counties and special shirts were made for each of the 32 counties, with a trophy for the county with the best average time for the race from all it's runners - Nice concept.

We met up with my running buddies, Kieran and Mary, along with Kieran's friend Carl, and the repective partners, and stretched, chatted, compared injuries and tactics, before lining up for the start, and realising that K and myself were far too near the back for the times we were hoping for, so we snuck out of the crowd, walked along the line and climbed over the fence into the 45 minute area (nothing was corralled, we just were too busy chatting to have thought about it previously).

Whilst the skies were still blue, it was not warm, and there was a nice little wind that would play a part in the race. Up at the front Craig Mottram was looking for his 4th consecutive title, being the only male winner to date, a feat he was successful in (28:51). On the womens from we were denied Sonia O'Sullivan's participation due to injury, although she was there supporting, and the favourite's tag went to Meselech Melkamu, the diminutive Ethiopian who was bronze medalist last week in both races at the World Cross Country Championship, and she easily outpaced Fernando Ribiero in 31:41 to win here.

For Kieran and myself, we were looking at trying to run 4:30 splits, and when the gun went off we settled easily into this pace along the long main straight. As we had got into a good position this time out, we were not hampered by the slower attention seekers who walk these races, but like to start at the front and get in everyone's way (A usual rant from me!). The first half of this race is the easiest, with the wind behind us from 1 km onwards and the main down hill parts of teh race in this half. We were spot on for 5 K, running even 4:30 splits, but after the long descent of the Kyber Pass, and halfway in 22:30 exactly, I knew there was trouble ahead. I was starting to feel the affects of my recent marathon and the track race on Thursday last, and as we begun a climb back into the wind, my legs were beginning to feel leaden. Dropping 15 seconds in the next kilometre made me reassess my targets, and with a further 20 second loss by 7K, 46 minutes was becoming harder to perceive.

I urged Kieran on as he was looking strong, and I struggled on, locking onto varying county shirts as my pull system, but my legs were not responding well, and another 20 seconds was lost. The crowd of runners in the field certainly kept me going, and I tried to keep an eye on Kieran, but he was disappearing away up front, and I was trying to keep pace with another fellow Down shirted runner. We reached the 9K mark, and I knew then that I had to run under 4:20 to break 46 minutes, not something I was confident off, given the way my legs were feeling. However I knew that the last 500m would have the wind behind me, and when I turned the corner, I tried to pick up the pace and run home hard. Normally I have had a good strong finish, but although I knew I was running faster, I couldn't quite summon up the energy to "sprint", but as the finishing gantry came closer, I put my head down and ran.... I wasn't looking at the clock as I was running on a Chip, so as I crossed the line and stopped my watch, I looked down and saw, 46:01, just missed it, but given the lead in my legs, I was happy enough.

Kieran had run 45:35 and was delighted with his personal best. We all met up again, Mary haveing ducked under the hour, and Carl in his first race well pleased with his run a shade over the hour. Along with Dee and Liam Og (my son), we headed off to the pub for a well deserved Guinness and talk about the events. Whilst I was outside my Masters PR, that was set almost three years ago as a 45 year old, so when I got home I looked up the WAVA Comparative Tables and worked out that my effort yesterday would score me 65.70%, bettering my 45 year old record of 65.46% , so I can be very happy, with the knowledge that there is more to come. I finished 782nd out of the 5672 that took part, so onwards and upwards.