Monivea 5km

Out to Monivea for a 5km. This was where I had my first race in Ireland and it holds fond memories as it was also my first win!

I wasn't going to put any pressure on myself today - just go out and enjoy it. The conditons were splendid - a little too hot if the truth be told. That helped get the numbers up to well over 200 - good to see. This race is a little unique in that the first half is on the road with the second half of the race being run on a forest trail.

A warm-up of 4.9kms basically running the guts of the course. Then it was race time. I immediately hit the front with a couple of runners on my shoulder. The race starts with a lap of the village before heading out towards the trail. Through the first km and feeling good and then time to put the foot down for a quick second km. At this point I had gapped the chasing field and by the time I hit the woods I had a good enough lead.

In an instant I went from feeling good to hanging on. I had slowed a good bit but the course would warrant that. I still ran a decent 3rd km and was still confident of breaking 16 minutes but then I must have fallen asleep during the 4th km (see splits below). It contained lots of twists and turns but it didn't feel that slow and I then took the last section relatively easy as I couldn't be bothered killing myself. Coming up the narrow finishing straight there was a mother and son just ahead of me competing in the 1km fun run and I simply jogged in behind them for the last 100m as I didn't see any point in trying to push past!

Not my greatest work but a decent hit-out and good to win this race again after my second placing last year. I then ran a couple more laps of the course to give my 19.7kms for the day with a few of the other guys (Jason, Steve and Timmie).

Splits:

1km 3:09
2km 3:05
3km 3:15
4km 3:23
5km 3:31

Total 16:23

And 92.5kms for the week.

Later that evening it was out to Clarinbridge to watch the Ireland game. I had arranged to meet up with Timmie for a few pints. The footy was poor but we made up for that with a good drink. I promised Timmie I would give the darts a mention.....we found a board and had a game and after telling him how good I was I struggled big time for a 3-2 win. A good night but not getting home until 1am is a little bit much for my old body...