Getting close to Boston which means the old P&D session of a prep Race followed by a long slow run. There was plenty to choose from so I decided to have a crack at a very soft 10K PB time of 43:20. My gut on this was I am between 41:30 and 42:30. I chose to go with the Hurley Hoey 10K, having ran this previously and sections of the course on training runs I had a fair idea of what to expect on the day. Race Day was dry but a stiff breeze would be against us on he uphill section between the 2K mark and a little shy of halfway. Did a 2 mile warm up as an out and back of the last mile and lined up very close to the front, as mostly casual runners doing this so I didn’t want to get caught behind them. We got off pretty much on time which was good as I had decided that a base layer would be too much for racing today and went with the hardy runner uniform of just shorts and club singlet. This race is hosted in the grounds of Doora Barefield GAA club so there where plenty of eager young lads who took off ahead of me in the first Km in various GAA club and county shirts. I thought I had paced this right until I read the watch passing the 1 K mark 3:40 shite Sherlock out too fast. Second Km came and 7:30 on the watch (going to pay for this), but once we turned at the Shibeen Pub it was uphill and into a stiff wind. The wind seemed to die down a bit from earlier which was a welcome relief but my pace dropped to 4:30 ish. I knew at 5K we would turn out of the wind so I plugged away until then. Halfway came 20:48 on the watch and from here to the finish was wind assisted. Started to pick off the GAA jerseys one by one all the way towards last Km. Really enjoyed this section of the race, was starting to hurt but the added incentive of passing young bucks was keeping me going strong. One persistent guy just would not let me pass. We passed several runners at this point but every time I went to go by he found more. I was really beginning to hurt so Once the turn to the finish (200m) came I made one more burst but he took off and left me as if I was standing. A look at the finish gantry showed 41:48 (41:46 net) as I passed under. Forgot to stop the watch and congratulated my opponent over the last Km. A new PB or rather a time I should really have set at some point last year.
The Day After
Having done this before I was putting it off ( the torture) for most of Sunday but it was such a lovely afternoon I just could not pass up the opportunity to run in such abnormally pleasant day considering what we have experienced recently. Previously I have done this type of long run session after race in a loop in case I have a need to pull up if something is not right. Halfway through the first loop the legs where feeling very good I decided to do an out and back instead. Best decision every. Run was really invigorating and it only really started to get tough for the last 2 miles where I just eased down the pace and got it done. 16 miles in 2:20 ish on a day like Sunday really more then makes up for all the hard/cold/wet runs over the winter. For a finish I could not figure out why I was putting this off for so long on Sunday.
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