Monivea 5km

Sunday is for (more) racing.

It was raining, cold (9 degrees at 12pm), and windy. But there were still a few hardy souls (read stupid) out at Monivea for the second running of the 5km race. Being the defending champion I was issued with race #1 which was a nice touch. I bumped into Timmy and we did a couple of kms warm-up before lining up for the start.

This is definitely a race of 2 halves. The first half being on the road (me like), then it switches to forest trail (me no like). The race started and I moved to the front and was joined by another runner who I wasn't familiar with. We swapped the lead a few times as we did the initial circuit of the green, trying to dodge the deep puddles that had formed on each corner. I was running wide to try and keep my feet dry which was a pointless exercise as they were soon waterlogged. The first km of 3:04 showed that the pace was on and this continued on as we left the village for a nice downhill/flat section heading out towards the woods.

The second km was again run in 3:04 and it remained me and this other guy running stride for stride. I was still feeling good but as we entered the trail it then become a lot more tricky. The path was a little overgrown in areas which meant you had to run up the centre strip of the path which was long grass. The outside of the path was gravel and quite slippery and you had to concentrate on your footing at all times. A few trees to duck as well but we somehow remained close to one another through 3km in 3:15.

I think it was somewhere close to 4km that I was gapped. I don't like this sort of terrain at the best of times and I simply don't have the motor and leg strength to keep the long levers moving on the uneven surfaces. The 4th km split was 3:21 and although I was only a few seconds behind, I knew this wasn't my day. The last km was a long drag and I had nothing in the tank and couldn't even muster up a sprint finish. I crossed the line in 16:06 so a 3:22 last km. Second place and about 5 seconds behind the winner. Interestingly some 22 seconds quicker than I ran last year in worse conditions so I have to take a big positive out of that.

A good race but the conditions made it tough (plus my preparation wasn't ideal!!!). I'm not sure how others fared but I'd assume that most times were slow in comparison to the times from the recent 5km series. I enjoyed it nonetheless and great to be battling away with the young guy from Limerick who won.

In a perverse sort of way I get more satisfaction out of not winning as it spurs you on to train that bit harder, and try that bit more next time. Hopefully this race goes from strength to strength in future years as the course certainly makes it enjoyable and unique.

I finished up with a kay warm-down before making a swift departure to get home for a hot shower.

All up 8km for the day and a paltry 65.8km for the week.

I should mention that later in the day I lost at darts to my Dad 10-6 (despite hitting a 180 and a 144 checkout), then he took money off me at cribbage. He had great pleasure in announcing that I hadn't won anything all day and that I was a loser. Nowt from 3...