Where:

Dundrum, Co. Tipperary.

When:

6 July 2005 @ a little after 8:00 PM.

Distance:

10KM.

Conditions:

Drizzly, breezy, dull.

Course:

Two lap circuit over quite varying road surfaces.

Competitors:

100+ including five from Athenry AC, four of whom were wearing

the new club gear (very, very sharp!). I was the odd one out,

still parading around in the dowdy old stuff!

Detail:

Started out fast thinking that I wasn't going to do much this

evening. I was still in recovery mode after my Dunshaughlin

exploits 10 days before. In between, I hadn't really tapered

at all, tucking into a "fast" (7:20s) 11.15 miler on Saturday

morning last and a H-P company race the previous afternoon up

in Ballybrit.

The first few miles were quick but I was in trouble early on.

Got to three miles and 5KM as fast as I could. I'm certain I

broke 20:00 for 5K, perhaps dipping as low as 19:48, which was

30 seconds faster than Dunshaughlin. I badly fell off the

pace from there, losing over 15 seconds on Mike Tobin in less

than half a mile before the 4th mile marker. Me slowing down

or Tobin quickening up? A bit of both, probably!

The second half of the race was just an excruciating exercise

in hanging on as much and as hard as I could. I could feel my

hamstrings tighten up and a calf strain I first experienced on

the long run last Saturday started to "pick" at me a few times

as I tried to lengthen my stride around the 5th mile marker.

I kept expecting Ray O'Connor and James Corbett to skin me

around then but neither did. No one else! The crew in front

of me kept going further away from me, however. I didn't look

at any of my splits after mile two, again running totally on

feel.

Fell over the finish line and was relatively surprised how

long it took for Ray to dive in after me. Looked at the watch

and was gratified to see I'd broken 40:40 for the first time.

another PB! Considering that I felt absolutely sh*te before

the race (almost getting car sick on the way down), my race

warm-up being crap and I was in all sorts of trouble early on,

I can't complain. Nor would I, but...

If I had tapered i.e. hadn't put in the long run four days

before and/or hadn't run the previous day, would I have taken

much more off my time? Who can say for sure? Perhaps 10 or

15 more seconds might have come off? Perhaps not?

Fair play to Tobin for breaking 40:00 for the first time.

BAST*RD! Will never heard the end of it now. His smug and

knowing smile won't wear off for months to come ;*). I

contributed my own little bit to that effort though. Surely

worth me a pint of Club Orange the next time we meet out?

Fair play to O'Connor and Corbett too for PBs, O'Connor

knocking a full minute off his previous PB. No doubt, he

sweated blood not to be too far behind me last night. Corbett

was a little further behind but could see all the action up

ahead again, easily dipping in under 42:00 for the first time.

There's more in the tank lads, I'm sure, from both of us!

Peter Delmer almost broke 36:00 last night too, taking a whole

0.5 seconds off his PB. Mick Rice finished just over 37:00

but had to "take" a call during the race; luck for Peter I

say!

Another late night back into Athenry. Completely buckled

again but any time you knock 9 seconds off a hard-earned PB,

isn't bad work, is it? Aside: technically, my three, four and

five miles times were PBs as well last night.

Only 1.635% more...

06:08.92

06:26.56

06:31.20 - 19:06.68

06:47.19 - 25:53.87

06:41.57 - 32:35.44

06:44.40

01:19.37

--------

40:39.21

James.