Traning-wise I was happy though a little underdone. I knew I'd be good until around 8 miles, and then the last couple were going to hurt. My plan was to run the first 10km in 32:45 and then hang on. My best times on this course were all negative splits and the way the breeze was blowing today it was going to be a tough first few miles, with a friendlier run home. That worked well for me.
A few kms warm-up and then lined up for the start. Mick Clohisey was the stand-out runner - with a big group of Raheny green and whites for company. The race started (one of the weirdest starts I can recall - we all looked at each other as if to say "was that the start?"). And we were off...
Mick hit the lead and I went straight into second. Nobody went with me so within 400m and I was in no-mans land. It was going to be a 10 mile time trial. I felt good from the start and despite running into the breeze you get a nice downhill to get the revs up. My watch was set to 1km auto-lap so I had the updates from the watch each km, and I was manually keeping an eye on my mile splits by making a note of the time as I passed each mile marker,
After the first mile it was starting to get a bit tougher and you could certainly notice the breeze. Mick was already a good way up the road and I'd opened up a decent gap. I knew if I could run a solid first few miles it was going to get easier. The course is tough but fair - a few drags here and there where I really focused on keeping my cadence high and I knew from my km splits that my time was okay.
At around 3 and a half miles we took a right turn and it got a lot easier - I could feel my pace lift straight away. It was all about keeping focused and ticking off the miles. On reaching half way I looked at the watch and I was around 26:30 and I knew I could run the second half quicker. Just had to do it. After another right turn it got easier again and I really started to motor. My km splits were well under target time but in the back of my mind was the nagging doubt of the wheels coming off at some point. Through 6 miles and still felt great and then crossed the 10km point in 32:41 so I had a bit of time on my side....
It was a shade over 6kms to go and I knew if I could hold 3:20/km pace I had a new PB. That's pretty much what happened - I was on the km countdown and my splits were all good. If I ran a slow one the next one would bounce back to get me back on track. Just before 8 miles we took another right turn and this is the twisty part of the course - a small country lane. No support whatsoever down there and I was glad to take a left hand turn back onto the main road and I got a good lift from the supporters on that last mile and a half stretch back up to the finish. I was still feeling okay and I really attacked and lifted the pace and felt very strong right up to the finish line where I recorded a new PB of 52:41 for second place. That's 5:16/mile pace or 3:16/km pace so a very solid race.
Well done to Mick who won in classy 49:29 (on tired marathon training legs). He'll have a super run in Rotterdam in 3 weeks time when he freshens up. The Raheny lads then filled up the next 4 spots and then a few more familiar local faces started to filter through the finish. All in all a great day and I was delighted how I ran as I felt in control the whole way.
Here are the km splits:
3:04 / 3:19 / 3:25 / 3:18 / 3:19 / 3:26 / 3:13 / 3:18 (8km in 26:22) / 3:09 / 3:10 (10km in 32:41) / 3:22 / 3:14 / 3:14 / 3:17 / 3:24 / 3:08 (16km in 52:19 - second 8km in 25:57) / 0:22. Finish 52:41.
That's 87.9kms for the week. According to McMillan that's my best ever run - any distance so that's extra pleasing. It still doesn't give me the sub 70 minute half though (70:16) but I'm sure it's there or thereabouts....
4 comments:
Fantastic effort Matt! You keep on keeping on, don't you! Great to see someone who loves racing so much. All the best
Yes, congrats on the new PB.
Go for that sub-70!
Congratulations Matt. Great run for a PB on your own.
Great run for a man of your vintage Matt ;-) , superb.
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