Craughwell 10

This race report is going to be short and sweet. Arrived to very cold and windy conditions (as was expected). Only 3 degrees and with the wind chill factor it was effectively below zero. I did a shortish warm-up with Sean down to the start (approx 1.6kms) and soon we were all lining up ready for the race.

The horn sounded and I settled in behind Gerry Ryan and Mick Clohisey for the first 400m. They soon started to work away from me and by the time I hit the first mile marker they were well up the road. With the wind on the back and the downhill start it made for a very quick pace but I knew in the back of the mind that the second half of the race was going to get nasty.

Just after the mile and Mick Shannon came flying past me. He had missed the start and was running everyone down. I tried to stay with him for a mile but was fighting a losing battle so I went back into running solo mode. As each mile ticked by I seemed to be slowing and by the time I went through 5 miles the wind started to become a real factor.

I tried everything to keep the pace up - changing which side of the road I was running on to try and find shelter, shortening the stride, bending lower. Nothing seemed to be working. It's a great advantage having long legs but on a day like today I was doing my best impression of a sail and I was tacking along at best.

Through 10km in 33:20 so still good at this point but with the benefit of the wind I should probably have attacked more and gone through in sub 33. The last 4 miles were very difficult and I fought a losing battle with my motivation and concentration. A bit of shelter from the wind down the country lane between 8 and 9 miles but really struggled on the long uphill climb to the school to the finishing line eventually crossing the timing mat in 55:13 for 4th place.

One of those days where it didn't happen for me. The only positive is that the shin seemed fine and I don't think the race has taken too much out of me. The conditions didn't seem to bother some people with some fine PB's recorded. Chris, Sean and Dee all fell into that category with some great performances. Well done.

For the record Mick Clohisey won the race in 51:16, Mick Shannon was 2nd in 52:19 and Gerry Ryan 3rd in 52:38 (then a big gap back to me!).

A 2km warm-down and a quick dash home to climb into the warm shower. All up 19.7kms for the day and 58.4kms for the week.

Here are the splits:

Mile 1 5:03
Mile 2 5:14
Mile 3 5:18
Mile 4 5:19
Mile 5 5:36 (26:30)
Mile 6 5:39
Mile 7 5:44
Mile 8 5:47
Mile 9 5:43
Mile 10 5:40 (28:43)

Total 55:13