Clontarf 10 mile 2017

The stage was set for a good race.

Conditions on the morning were almost perfect, with a light breeze, overcast skies, and temperatures at a mild 10 degrees. Our group of four star of the sea club members travelled the 30 minutes or so to the venue, an early, but not too early start time of 10 am. I was accompanied by three ladies, all accomplished runners, and a chance that there could be some medals on the horizon in the ladies team event, but not much talk of that at this point.

My week had gone well. After the good tempo run Tuesday, a rest day on Wednesday which helped both with recovery and tapering, a good speed session on Thursday on the track, comprising of a two mile warmup at 7:30, then 5x1 mile reps at 5:50 pace, with two easy miles home.
No run Friday, and an easy 6 miles on Saturday, and again, no run Sunday completed the taper week with just over 30 miles. Thankfully, I had managed to get through this particular training cycle with no illness, I believe the key is not just adequate rest, but adequate sleep.

We found the bag drop, and began an easy warmup. I was surprised at what I considered a relatively small turnout, my expectation being that it would be similar size to one of the marathon race series events held in the Phoenix park during the summer, it being the Leinster championships and all that.
The field was to be just over 300 runners.

The course was reported as flat by one of of group who had run it before, and that with the good conditions seemed to bode well. I set my watch to a planned 6:18 pace, if I could maintain it, that would give me 1:03, if not then at least my virtual partner would tell me how far off I would be, with a previous PB of  1:04:00.

As always at the line up, the game of trying to find where you fit began for me. Assess the other  runners by looks, and slot in. As there was no starting mat, being close to the front at the off was important, and I ended up about three rows back, so no more than 1 or 2 seconds from the line.
At the off, I did recognise a few runners from previous events, and I believed I was where I should be. As always, the first mile was a little fast, as was the second. By mile two I seemed to be leading a group of about 8 runners, which I was not happy about. The pace was around 6:10, and while I was comfortable, I believed that was a bit fast for me, and being at the top of the group , the pressure was on me to maintain that pace, a job which I did not want, so I eased back the effort a bit, and they all went streaming past me at their 6:10 pace, including the leading lady.

6:12, 6:12, 6:17, 6:18.
After the first two early fast miles, I eased back into my planned pace. It felt comfortable and familiar, and I was satisfied with a few banked seconds, if not still a little nervous at my 'fast' two miles. I also passed about half of the runners who had passed me at two miles.
The course was flat, but had one drawback. As it was in a park, it required loops, and to create the  loops, there were out and back straight sections. At the end of each section, you had to round a cone, and reverse your direction against runners behind you, but on the opposite side.
Each time you came to the reverse, of which there were four, you came to a practical stop, and then had to start off again in the opposite direction, and that process in itself cost valuable seconds, not to mention broke the stride and flow considerably. The bonus was , you could see the runners both ahead and behind you!

6:08, 6:17, 6:21.
Going well to six miles. At 7 miles, I caught the leading lady, who appeared to be paced by a male from her club. They were going well, and i decided to join them, and if necessary, they might be able to carry me along if I started to fade. However, the opposite happened. It seemed that they were losing the pace, and while I was by no means finding it easy going, I knew I had some left in me when we hit 8 miles at 6:26, I had to forge on ahead and go for broke, leaving my comfort group behind.  


6:26, 6:09.
So the 6:26 slower mile had allowed me to catch my breath a bit. Tempo training  had only ever been to 8 miles, and I was now in slightly unknown territory. Could I hold out for the last two miles? Mile 9 showed I could. I was working hard now, but it was well doable and. 6:09 at mile 9 was as fast or faster than I was running in training.
It was to be a nice finish, the last 500 meters on a straight run in to the clock. As I rounded the last bend for the straight run, I could see the clock, but with no glasses on, I wasn't quite sure what it read.
As it came into focus, 1:01:41, and counting. Ah hell, push it hard, is it possible, with every effort I could gather, I ran for the line, with a finish time of 1:02:04, last mile 6:08.

I was well pleased with that, knocking 1:56 off my PB, but importantly, sustaining the planned pace, or better for pretty much all the race.

Our ladies did very well, winning the bronze medal in the O35 ladies category. It was a happy car on the way home!