Its a mugs Game
Believe it or not this was my first time to run the famous Ballycotton 10. After foolishly sticking my name on the list of those wishing to travel last Christmas I suddenly realised that this was two weeks after Seville, well there was no way I was ever going to be racing this. Meet with Tom and Mike in Sixmilebridge to travel down, there was also Seven others traveling from the club as well so a good contingent went down. Considering the location and the possible numbers travelling we didn't get delayed getting to the Car park Number 2 which was virtually empty. A quick mile warm up followed by a club photo shoot and then off to the start. Plan was to stay with Mike and Tom at Eight minute mile pace. The start is a bit crazy, 3,500 runners barrelling down a narrow street, a fall or trip could result in carnage, luckily we all got away without any major incidents. Ran the first two miles with the lads but 
could not believe how good the legs felt and how easy I was going. I upped the pace to 7:30 and finished the last 2 miles pretty much close to race pace. Ended up with a time of 75:41 and a Ballycotton Mug for my troubles. We didn't hang around afterwards as I was working later so a quick departure was required. Meet Thomas would had the agony of 101st and no t-shirt yet again. I have no doubt he will get one soon. Finished off the day with a trip to Dinos in Cork for a great traditional feed off Cod and Home made Chips.
The Peoples Race
As Ballycotton had gone so well the next day out was going to be pacing 5 Hours in the Tralee International Marathon. For those interested that's 11:25 minute miles. I had run a trial on the Wednesday and found it slow but I knew once I got into the rhythm on the day it would not be an issue. As I was working on Saturday Night it meant an early rise at 6 to drive to Tralee and get into town about 8:15. Picked up my number when Tom informed me that I was going to have a good group for the day. He wasn't far wrong as I had an absolute ball of a day with all those from the “Born to Run” club in Tralee. The term fun runners has been used to describe runners who take more then 4 hours to complete a marathon. That may be true but god did we have some fun during the day. It probably was the best bit of crack I have had in a race ever and the day and miles just flew by. I had a very big group from the start until we hit the dreaded Barrow Hill. It is steep and had my calves bursting so much so that I announced that we would walk up it. Much to everyone's delight. It and the drag up to Chruchtown scattered the group I had and was left with 7-8 who continued with me until we got to Tralee. The climb back into the wind was much harder then it was at mile 1 while Three of my group kicked on the remaining 4 dropped off leaving me solo, which was disappointing given how close they where to the end. One caught me up again and kicked on for the last half mile and the others to their credit kept running and came in within 2-3 minutes of me.
Meet up with a good gang of MCI afterwards in the Brandon where Dipak celebrated his 200th Marathon (kept that one quiet) and great to see Paul Brunnock back running. Nice bit of grub before I made my way for the ferry for a gig in West Clare later that Afternoon.
