We've been longing for a day like this for quite some time now, after the wind and rain of the last number of months we got the most absolute perfect conditions today for the annual Craughwell 10 mile and boy did it show in the results. All the talk was of PBs at the end, some very big ones too for Athenry AC runners, so lets start the report right there.... Ray Treacy 1:09:09 (8 min PB), Marguerite Wilkinson 1:24:33 (7 mins) Majella Cummins 1:32:50 (6 mins).....Jane Mangan 1:28:05, Mary Rohan 1:15:23, Dave Meehan 1:00:44, Sinead Martin 1:16:00, Caroline Concannon 1:23:24,  Deirdre Brophy 1:06:56, Adam Leadbetter 1:01:22, Yvonne Fehily 1:05:53, Kevin Devane 1:24:32, Ronan McCarthy 1:06:16, Jacquie Lynskey 1:35:39, Niall Hardiman 1:05:49, Sean Flaherty 1:17:36....all PBs. i'm sure there are more to come in too which i will add to the report as they do. There were plenty other Athenry AC members running too which can be found in the main results, by all accounts everyone we spoke to really enjoyed it and had a pretty good day out on the roads. The race was won by Matt Bidwell in a time of 52:56, Matt was followed home by Liam Feely (52:50) and Brian Furey of Rathfarnham (56:09). The ladies race proved to be a thrilling contest with just a minute seperating the top 3, Sarah Collins of GCH was first to cross the line in 1:04:51 with Siobhan Egan (GCH) second in 1:05:28 and Athenry AC's Yvonne Fehily third in 1:05:53. 

For the main report the first thing I will do is apologise, this could be a bit long and a bit too personal but it is written in the hope that other members, and I myself, will read it again before other races and maybe approach days like this with a little bit more belief and self confidence......

For the 2 weeks leading up to the race the thought process had been 68 minutes, that would be a 2 minute PB and i thought it would be an achievable target as training was going well and the forecast looked good for the day. On Wednesday, out on what was planned to be a 10k easy training session, something inside said lets make it 10 miles and lets push it a little bit to see how it goes, it didn't go too badly at all. The 68 minutes was on. I eased up on the training for the remaining days and woke up with a spring in the step on Sunday morning. On the drive over the brain was running over the km splits, 4:13kms all the way and a fast last couple would do it....68 mins, 68 mins 68 mins. Parked up the car and started the walk to number collection.....here's where things took a sudden change. "Wow, it really is the most perfect running day, maybe this is the day to throw the plan out the window and just go for it". Out comes the phone and a quick check on McMillan as to what something closer to 65/66 mins would be, 4:05 kms. Head says, "Crikey, big difference between 4:05s and 4:13s".  Heart says, "Arra look it what about it, ditch the plan, these days don't come around too often so why not just go for it and if it doesn't work sure what about it". Usually on race day the head is in control but maybe this was a day for change. No real plan, just run!! I headed in to number collection and met Ray Treacy, Niall Hardiman and Dave Noone, outside we bump in to Mary & Gearoid Rohan and the family, the quick chat about what everyone was hoping for and out of my mouth comes "I'm thinking of maybe going for 65/66 and just see what happens". "You're dead right" says Gearoid "and sure if you have to suffer a bit in the last mile what about it at least you've given it a go". Spot on, mind made up, lets do this. There was the usual abundance of Athenry AC singlets down at the start line which was great to see, with so many skipping the race due to Spring marathons only weeks away and alot out injured it realy shows what great shape the club is in. There was a slight delay at the start line which would normally add to the nerves but wait....No Nerves????....Is this what it feels like to be just going for it on the day???? I'm liking this feeling!! It's a bit of a frenetic start in Craughwell so the first 500 metres you really just make sure you don't get tripped then it's down to racing before hitting the first mile marker. I quickly settled in to a group containing about 12 runners including 3 of the leading ladies, our own Deirdre Brophy, Sarah Collins (GCH) and Siobhan Egan (GCH)  with Niall Hardiman also sitting in this group I felt comfortable, always nice to be running with a few maroons in the pack. I only ever took a glance at the watch when it beeped after each km and at some of those kms it was actually a distraction. Around 8km there was a push put on at the front of the group and it split the group to pieces, i fought hard to stay with the 3 pushers but got dropped on a little hill, first crisis in the head..."Oh no, did i work to hard to try and stay with them, will I start suffering now", the heart responded..."will ya calm down just stay running you're fine, i think we're going well here lets just enjoy it". The water station popped up and I took just a few sips and poured the rest over my head, it cooled the body and the brain. The next few kms seemed to fly by, I tried to avoid the watch and just focus on catching the runners I could see up ahead. One of those happened to be the great Brendan Monaghan of Tuam, Brendan i'm sure did not know it but he had pipped me in the last 3 races I had run so I knew if I got to him and could pass him it would be an added bonus. I put the push on and worked really hard to overtake him, maybe too hard, crisis no.2 in the head "Shoot i'm starting to suffer now, I've really blown it, i'm breathing too hard, my legs are getting sore". The heart responded again..."You've done the training, just relax, loosen them shoulders a bit and check your stride, hey you haven't looked at your watch in a while maybe take a glance", holy crap there's 15kms gone i'm almost there. Niall Hardiman powers past me at this point, he is finishing really strongly, i'm not quick enough to grab on to him so i stick to the target ahead...a Westport Triathlon club jersey, he pulls me along and then all of a sudden I can hear the finish line and on what is a tough uphill finish suddenly there is no pain and it's just all out running...this is what it's all about...just running...enjoying running those last few hundred metres knowing that you've pretty much given it all you had on the day. I empty the tank in the last 400 metres and stop the watch at the line, once i've gotten my breath back I take a look, 1:06:16, almost a 4 minute PB. I'm stunned and overjoyed, THAT is why I started running, not for the time itself, for the feeling at the end of a race where the heart says "Well done you gave it your all" and the head goes "I'm sorry i doubted you, good job". The first person i speak to after the finish is Brendan Monaghan who comes in just behind me, i tell him about how he's pipped me in a few races this year and we have a quick chat about the race, he is a true gentleman and as he walks away i say to myself "i hope i'm running like him in 10 years time". As more and more gather at the finish line the fantastic results start filtering in, all of the PBs mentioned above but also some wonderful performances from Yvonne Fehily, finishing 3rd female, David Meehan and Adam Leadbetter finishing inside the top 15 overall, Mary Kealy first female home over 50. With the race also being the County 10 mile Championships there will be county medals heading to the club for Yvonne and Mary, hopefully some team medals too with the womens team looking like they may have gotten silver and the men possibly in a fight for bronze, those results will be confirmed by the County board in the next day or 2 so fingers crossed. Finally, back to the reason for such a long and personal report, if you managed to get this far fair play to you...Had I stuck to the original plan I would have gotten home in 68 minutes and I would have been happy with that. But there are days like this when everything feels good that don't come around too often and I think so many of us are guilty of not taking advantage of them. Why not change the target at the last moment? Or maybe just get rid of the target altogether? With so many big PBs today maybe a few others did exactly that, I hope so! We runners have a great habit of talking ourselves down, we do it way more often than we should, and maybe we're not so sure why we do it.....Are we doing it for ourselves?....or is it for the people we're talking to? Is it a little safety net that we use too often just to fall back on? I will in no doubt go back to the watch for the majority of races i run in the future but maybe every now and then it might not hurt to ditch it, or at the very least not be a slave to it. Sometimes you just need to go out there and run your heart out, there will be days it won't work out but at least you have given it a go. There will be days when it all comes together and everything clicks and those are the days that will live long in the memory, those are the races that you will talk about when you are looking back. Had I not done so today I might never have found out that a 4 minute PB was actually in there!! Hopefully there are plenty more good running days ahead with loads more PBs, but maybe in 10 years time i'll be standing at the finish line in Craughwell again with Brendan Monaghan saying "You know this race 10 years ago was the most memorable and enjoyable i've ever had".

Results available http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/Craughwell10mile_2016.pdf

Report: Ronan McCarthy