ALG 5K – 16:37 for 15th
By no means a goal race, and at an awkward time of the marathon block with it sitting 2 days after a 33K long run and 4 days before a half marathon, it is safe to say I did not have much expectation for this race. When Seán scheduled an AM session on the same day of 4 x 5 minutes as a little primer, this also gave vibes of “lets see how we go”. Throw on top of that Seán saying “Your legs will definitely be tired” and you have the recipe to let be whatever will be. There were almost more caveats than kilometres to this race and that meant that there was such little pressure to make the race (almost!) enjoyable.
This was part of a work challenge and I was drafted in by some lads in my company who were looking for someone to help them fill a team. A hard 5K effort was a nice break mentally from the long marathon sessions that have been occupying my Tuesday’s for the last number of weeks. The corporate 5K’s are a funny beast because you never know who will be turning out at these things, especially at the upper end. When I arrived to the start line after warming up, there were a few sub 15 minute 5K guys and then a load of tech bros, bankers and IT wankers. Not wanting to solo run this 5K, I was desperately looking around for someone who I recognised that would be somewhere around my pace. As if God sent him himself, out of the corner of my eye on the start line appeared Matthew Collins; noticeably faster than me over the marathon but I reasoned that he would be a good lad to gage the pace off and run with. As the gun went, the tech bros had a good 400m sprint and then slowly died off. Emerging from their ashes were myself, Matt and a man who cut every corner on the course. For the first 2K, we must have overtaken close to a hundred people and I am not even exaggerating. The quays of Dublin City looked like the end of a marathon or cross country race, such was the sheer numbers of bodies dying on the tarmac. Our little group were moving nicely and I found myself tucking in behind Matt.
On the first of the 90 degree turns, Matt went tight to the corner, I opted to go wide and the third lad just took the turn about 10 metres early. Baffled, but unperturbed having taken the corner quite wide, I lost touch with Matt and the other guy and slowly started to reign them in. I caught back up after a hundred metres or so and we were motoring again. The wind was very much in our faces for the next 2 kilometres but the pace picked up a touch and I once again slotted in behind Matt. We turned left over the Samuel Beckett bridge and left again towards the docks towards the second of the 90 degree turns. Once again, this other guy cut the corner and then, even more insultingly, under took me again by going on the footpath for not one, but TWO, turns. We headed into the final kilometre and the other guy made a move for home and broke away from Matt. I had watched this man essentially cheat 5 times in the last 14 minutes and was not going to let him beat me now. I moved away from Matt and caught up with the other guy pretty quickly with about 600 metres to run. My last kilometre split was 3:18 but I was moving much quicker than that for the last 500 metres of the race, my watch telling me I was at 2:48 pace for at least some of it. I broke the other guy and he came in a couple seconds back, with Matt a few seconds behind us again. I crossed the line in 16:37 and was pretty happy with the days work, especially considering the session in the morning. My team also placed 7th overall. I had to decide between a warm down or getting a lift home to eat some homemade taco fries and I think you know what I decided.
Ratoath Half Marathon – 1:17:07 for 16th
After the 5K, the rest of the week was geared towards being in the best place possible (with most of the above caveats) to have a good run out in Ratoath. Seán cautioned away from thinking about times and was pushing for a solid effort and trying to place as high up the field as possible. I was happy to hear this as I wasn’t really sure how this was going to go but I did know that I was looking forward to it. I checked the weather forecast the day before and it was looking like it would be a small bit on the warm side. What mainly caught my attention, though, was the wind. Heavy gusts and prolonged blustery conditions were forecast – stoked!
I woke up having forgotten about the wind but reality hit when we parked up at the Fairyhouse Racecourse and it was very blustery. I set off on my warm up into the head wind and was finding humour in how strong the wind was. It was reminiscent of the Trim 10 mile in February. Wind is a great leveller and, at this point, it was too late to let it annoy me. Everyone else will be affected the same and with me not going for a time, the wind ultimately didn’t matter.
5K – 17:57
Similar to the 5K during the week, there was an odd group of people up the front of this race. The Charleville Half Marathon was on the following day and with that incorporating the National Half Marathon Championships, it took a lot of people away from this race. Most people around me were identifiably faster than me so I was looking around to see who I would likely be running with. Matt Collins was there, just like on Tuesday, but he told me he would be aiming for around 1:13 so I bid him adieu and kept looking.
The race set off before I locked in on anyone to run with and the first two kilometres were into the wind. The goal here was to race and be smart and I did not think it smart to run my own race solo and be in no mans land with the wind howling. No mans land is basically where I found myself though; after the first kilometre, I was leading a pack of about 30 runners, which is not at all where I wanted to be. We took a left hand turn and slowly the large pack broke up and a smaller one formed around me, with about 9 of us ticking off kilometres between 3:33 and 3:38 pace. After we took that first turn, the wind was to our sides and wasn’t really a factor at this point and the group really got into it’s running. Before I knew it, we were through 5K in 17:57.
5K – 10K: 18:01 (35:58)
Not long after the 5K mark, our group thinned out as some hero decided to move out and push on ahead, taking 3 other lads with him. We were now down to a group of 4 but the splinter group got reeled in after a few minutes. We went past them at a pretty steady pace and none of them were able to latch back on to our group and keep up. I still don’t understand why the guy made that move and, less so, why people followed him.
The route was now meandering through country lanes. Having run this race in 2018, and cycled a large chunk of it last year, I had harboured hopes that the hedgerows were going to provide shelter from the wind but I was mistaken. The pace of the group definitely helped reduce the pain that the wind was inflicting but I could feel I was slowly starting to burn some candles during this portion. The second 5K split of 18:01 was almost the same as the first but the effort was slowly starting to ratchet up. The group stayed together for this portion and we tackled one of the only climbs of the day; a 40 or 50 metre incline outside Sweeney’s pub. When we crested this hill, our group was still at 4 but we had lost one and accepted in a straggler that we had picked up just on the hill. The straggler was here when the watched beeped for 35:58 through 10K.
10K – 16.10K: 22:19 (58:17 for 10 mile)
The race is now just all wind. My head had started to wander a bit in this section and I was starting to become slightly disillusioned with just how bad the wind was and how right in my face it was. My stoic acceptance and moving forward pre race had now truly been dispensed with. I had entered the Death Zone and I realised that I would have to properly focus now to make it through in a respectable time. The group had slowly moved to single file until just before the 10 mile split, my Trim AC man Tom Feeley finally started to pull away and gapped us (he finished about 45 seconds ahead of me in the end). He was the driving force of keeping the pace so consistent throughout, moving to the front of the group and taking the wind if the pace started to slow. I was genuinely sad to see him go. I was now in a pack of 3; I knew one of the guys and based on other races we’ve done together, I was surprised he had got this far at this pace. As for the other, his breathing was laboured and then calm so it was hard to gage how he was feeling. We were all beginning to slow slightly but I was at the front of the mini pack and broke away from the known quantity with the unknown soldier sitting in behind me. Considering we had slowed, I was pretty stoked to see the 10 mile split of 58:17.
16K – 21.1K: 18:50 (1:17:07)
I have been through many death marches in my time but none compare to the last 5K of this race. Specifically, the last 3K. The race finishes where it begins at the Fairyhouse Racecourse and takes in one lap of the racecourse itself. This is roughly 3K and is completely exposed to the wind. The route is an ever so slight incline that starts to turn right and then circles back to where you came in, with the finish line just beyond. I had been thinking about this for the last few minutes and knew it was going to be hard but was shocked at how bad the head wind was. The hardest I ran all day was the 20th kilometre and I split a 3:56. At this point, I was with the unknown solider and a Raheny lad who had came back to us. The three of us looked at each other and laughed through the grimacing. It was one of those moments where you are bound together as a result of PTSD. Mercifully, the race course does eventually turn back and the head wind becomes a tail wind for the last kilometre home. When the wind was finally out of my face, I remembered what Seán had told me to “race the people around you”, so I decided to try burn off the two lads and make a run for home. The unknown soldier quickly fell off but the Raheny man was sticking close and I could still hear him behind me. The finish to the race is quite slow with two left hand turns before the finishing straight, with a 100 metre section made entirely of sand. Hitting the sand and taking the left, I could see the Raheny man was close and by the time we left the sand, he was level with me and only 100 metres or so to go. I still had a bit of the kick in me from Tuesday and was able to stride out, gap him and come home to finish 16th.
Considering the differences in distance and competition, finishing 15th and 16th in back to back races is remarkable consistency. I’d happily take a 15th or 16th finish in Dublin Marathon in 6 weeks time.
Buckets of Rain 