Storms Never Last

For those who hate long Blog post's

Excellent race, well marshalled flat route yielded a new PB of 1:10:45. Chocolate in the goo-die bag!!, high quality dri fit t-shirt, showers and an all you can eat buffet afterwards for €20. Sure where else would you be on a cold, miserable wet Sunday Afternoon.

John Treacy 10 Mile Dungarvan

Had this pencilled in from as far back as Dublin last year. Back then I mentioned I would love to be in sub 70 shape, last Saturdays PMP run put me there with a chance. Based on that 7:03 was probably my pace but if things came right on the day I might just sneak under it. A week is a long time in anything, all this weeks runs felt harder then they should leaving we wondering if I should go for it or not. Weather forecast on Saturday was a promising day of gale force winds and rain so more bad news.

Warm-Up

Got down early and changed. Went for a Two mile slow warm up around the town. Wind was pretty stiff, when I got back to the Race HQ I had a look at the course map and figured that it would be best to stick with the 70 minute pacers for the first half as it was into the wind. Being in a group would offer some shelter, where as running on my own at a more sustainable pace would most likely take as much effort anyway.

Race

As per usual there was a delay at the start, and again GOD makes sure we get a hail shower while we where waiting around. The MC was getting loads of healthy comments which I will not repeat. In fairness it transpires that there was a funeral procession along the route. On hearing the circumstances it  puts the small issue of having to stand around half naked in the middle of a hail shower for Thirteen or so minutes into preceptive. We get the off and while the start is quite wide there is still the usual jostling for position, I got entangled with a few elbows so lesson learnt pretty quick. Settled in towards the rear of the 70 Min group about 50 to 60 of us. The loop around the town is not really straight forward and several speed bumps and paths that stick out have to be avoided. In fairness there where plenty of marshals around these obstacles warning runners  Once out of the town we where running into the teeth of this blustery hail shower. I was now glad to be tucked up in the group. The pace was manageable, tough on the drags but I was able to stay with them. By mile 4 the shower had stopped and the wind had died down but the pace was starting to take its toll. I knew I would pay for this at the end of the race if I continued but there was 1.5 miles to go before we turned out of the wind. Luckily three to four other guys where in the same position so we dropped off the back of the group worked together for the remaining part of the out section. As we still passed the 5 mile mark and the announcer call 34:59, the next mile is the hardest as after the turn around there is a climb up to six which I hit in 42:18. A big down hill at this point between here and seven but I didn't regain any time, in fact lost more passed 7 mile mark 49:23. The next mile was flat and I started to work hard passing Eight in 56:27, there after the wheels came off. There is a drag back up on to the main cork road and another up to nearly the nine mile mark which was 63:48, I was now not going well but the last mile is downhill so I went as hard as I could aim was to get under 71 mark from here. I really had nothing in the tank, I could not lift the pace. People where passing me and I just couldn't go with them, kept plugging away turned the corner and saw the clock was 1:10:28 surprised me somewhat but at least I didn't have to do a sprint to get under 71 so just finished it out without attempting to like a Bolt. Final result 1:10:45 and pretty much as good as I could have gone today, while it wasn't under 70 it was as fast as I could go. There was nothing left to give and I left everything on the road while just about managing to hold on to the breakfast. In a race you cannot ask for much more then that. You don't get to feel bad for long as reached into the goo-die bag to find yes a Twix bar. All my Christmas had come at once. So proper self indulgence.

Post Race

Finished up and we get another of those hail showers, the HQ is about a mile from the finish so a cool down mile is required but the hail shower made sure it wasn't pleasant. There where showers but these where mental, if you where not a fan of getting your kit off and mixing it the the big boys you would have to forgo the luxury. After 10 miles and a soaking on the way back a warm shower was going to be had regardless of the chaos in the changing room. As expected with events ran by good Athletics's Clubs you wont go home hungry and overall its probably going to be a net gain in Calories consumed. Hats off to West Waterford AC for putting on such a high quality race as Arnie said "I'll be Back."