Dungarvan 10 mile race 2014

Dungarvan 10 mile 2014. Week ending 26^th January

 

I will come to the above later but the running was going well. Monday was the usual 4 mile recovery jog thankfully showing no reaction to the 17 mile run the day before. Tuesday was a planned 8 mile run with 7 miles at a fast pace. Very happy with how this went running 8 miles in 59.50 minute. My first run in this range since last May. I felt i was finally turning a corner and this was confirmed on Wednesday running 8 miles at what was meant to be a relaxed pace. I was happy to see I ran the 8 miles in 1hr05mins24mins. Hr was 148, again all very positive. Work commitments meant a day off on Thursday and Friday from the running and I used Saturday to get that stiffness out of my legs.

Headed down to Dungarvan via Mallow. I offered my club mate Tony a lift. He told me later had I not offered him a lift he wouldn’t have ran the race.I was glad of the company.

Down at the race start line I bumped into the usual familiar faces. I had hoped to get in under 75 minutes, perhaps at a push get under 73 minutes. This was my first race since last July and while training was going solidly enough I knew racing was the best way to improve my running.

The heavens opened up the first 2 miles and I was a bit dismayed to find myself stuck behind the 80 minute pacers. However by mile 3 the field had separated out and I was glad to get moving. The 75 minute pacers were in front of me at this point and I was feeling very strong. The splits for the first 4 miles were 7.57,7.45,7.20, 7.03. I was wondering if I had started closer up the field maybe i would have been in a better place timewise. Anyway it couldn’t be helped now.

Tony was over my shoulder all the time and we hit mile 5 in 7.13. At this stage we were level with the 75 minute pacers and it was time to push on. Mile 6 was 6.57 and I was feeling hopeful of getting close to 72 minutes. Tony overtook me at mile 7 and was flying ,all the more impressive when you consider he only ran his first 10 miles in training last week.

 After a nice stretch of the course in mile 7 and mile 8 I was recalling how crappy I felt this time last year. At the very worst I was going to get a course PB. I didn’t feel in the least bit under pressure, were this a half marathon I would have been doing well but 10 milers are harder faster affairs. It was time to press on hitting mile 8 and mile 9 in 7.00 and 7.14. The breeze had knocked me back a bit at this stage and I think my lack of race time cost me here.

 By mile 10 I crossed the line in a clock time of 1.12.53 which meant a second half split of 35.23. I was happy enough crossing the line. I state happy rather then chuffed, after all I didn’t come close to PB’ing (1hr09mins53secs) but it was a good solid time. Still though lots of work to be done.

A lot of the guys from the club did very well but hats off to my cousin, Don Ryan, who took 4 or 5 minutes of his PB time to finish in 1hr07mins24seconds. Serious running. Amazing what a good diet can do ;-)

What now? Forget about races for a while and get back to the marathon slog...............

35 miles this week, a cutback week. Monday 4 miles, Tuesday 8 miles, Wednesday 8 miles, Saturday 4 miles, Sunday 10 mile race with 1 mile warm up.