Arrived at the Phoenix Park around midday and the conditions weren't to my liking. It was very blustery so it was going to be another tough day at the office.
After collecting numbers, dropping off bags, it was time for a short couple of kms warm-up before lining up for the 1:30pm start. This race is like no other in terms of quality - you have the best Irish athletes in the country toeing the line, plus some really classy international elites including the likes of Bekele and Birmingham. No excuses for not getting fired up.
The gun sounded and I settled into my running. The first km takes us straight down to a roundabout and by the time we reached this the leaders were already a good distance up the road. Through km 1 and I took the decision not to look at the watch today. I managed to lift the pace in the second km with the benefit of the wind and a nice group of half a dozen runners had formed including my GCH teammate John Greaney.
Not much happened until just after the long downhill in the 5th km. Looking back perhaps I was coasting a bit too much at this stage and should have been pushing it a bit more. Anyway at the bottom of the hill we had the first nasty climb up to the 5km marker. The group was starting to thin out a bit now and I tried going to the front to push things along.
The second half of the course didn't seem as bad as I remembered it from 2 years ago. There were some nasty drags, especially the long one up past 7km, and also some switchbacks which were very tough in the wind but by the time I had reached 8km our group had whittled down to just me and one other guy and we took it in turns to try and get away from each other.
I lost a bit of momentum in the 9th km and by the time I hit the 9km marker the other guy had opened up a 10m gap on me. I really pushed the last km which was nice and flat with the wind on the back but I could not make any inroads eventually crossing the line in 33:36 for 36th place.
I felt like I really ran a strong race and even though the time wasn't great, it felt like I had ran a bit quicker. The consensus on the day was that the wind was worth at least 30 seconds and the likes of Bekele (who won the race for the 2nd year on the trot) were over a minute down on the previous year. I guess I have to keep racing in the hope that I get a nice still day soon!
The good news is that I look to have won my age category so another national title to add to the collection. That was the main objective so got to be happy with that.
No warm-down - a lift back to Galway (thanks Martin) and then home for a few beers. All up 12kms for the day and 66.1kms for the week.
Splits:
1km 3:20
2km 3:08
3km 3:20
4km 3:21
5km 3:20 (16:29)
6km 3:28
7km 3:24
8km 3:28
9km 3:30 (estimate - missed split)
10km 3:17 (estimate - missed split)
Total 33:36
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