I first really heard about the Dunshaughlin 10KM a few months
back, probably via the Irish Runner. A quarter page advert.
Usual thing! Sounded like an interesting race, albeit a bit
away from HQ in Athenry. What made it a much more viable and
doable option in recent weeks was the fact that it was now
going to be on the same day (25 June 2005) as Limerick were
playing up in Belfast in the All-Ireland Hurling championship.
That I also had a good friend living in the Co. Meath village
of the race now meant that I could take out three birds with
the one car journey. Got the OK from homebase so off I
went...
It was going to be a bit of a squeeze, though: there was a
good chance that I mightn't make it from the match to the race
start in time. Out of Belfast around 4:00 PM on Saturday
afternoon to make Dunshaughlin by 7:30 PM? The former, a
place I'd only been to once before; the latter, to me, a dot
on the map in the jungle that is now Dublin's hinterland. I
packed my gear in hope rather than expectation of making the
race!
Left Galway on Friday evening and made it to Tallanstown
(outside Ardee) by night fall. Stayed with my brother and his
partner there that night. Made Belfast without any further
incident Saturday morning. Eventually found Casement Park.
Got complimentary tickets on the way in from the Limerick
County Chairman and saw the entire mis-match. Could have met
Gerry Adams but didn't - his politics and mine don't interact.
OK, Limerick scored 4-25 but I didn't see anything in our
performance that would unduly worry the big three of Cork,
Waterford and Kilkenny. Laois and Galway over the proceeding
two weekends would tell us more about Limerick than Antrim did
this time.
Now the clock was ticking: get to Dunshaughlin in under 3.5
hours. (Aside: don't send text messages up north unless you
have no problems paying THIRTY-NINE cent each for the
privilege. In fact, turn off the mobile altogether as roaming
charges there are probably the best way to bleed you dry,
outside of buying a house in this country, at the moment.)
Anyhow, to cut a short and boring car journey short, I got to
Dunshaughlin with over an hour to spare, even after taking the
wrong road out of Ratoath.
Found my host's house with no great problem and was ready and
togged out with over a half an hour to spare. Lovely, lovely
evening for a race. Had been sunny much of that afternoon.
No wind. Dry. A little close but very acceptable for a
mid-summer evening's trot.
My host had entered me in the race beforehand to save some
time. Reminder to self: still owe him for that. Lovely to
get a little booklet about the race as part of the bulging
goodie bag. Reminder to Athenry AC: something to keep in mind
for our own race at Christmas time, the booklet.
Training in the weeks preceding to the race had gone well.
Did a mile PB of 5:41 six weeks before and also a PB for
Ballybrit (1.45M) of 8:37 a month ago. Had done long runs for
four or five of the previous six weeks i.e. >10 miles each.
General training times had been coming down too. In fact, I
was finding it hard to run slow. Putting it all together in a
race was going to be tricky though.
Felt fine on warm-up. Had been slightly troubled by a throat
the previous day but it was gone by race time. No lower back,
no achilles, no left instep, no hamstring, no hip flexor, no
calf strains/niggles. All a bit too convenient?!? Hadn't
really eaten since breakfast - nearly 10 hours before - but
this was par for the course for me on race day. Never seemed
to affect me in the past. I'm very much an evening person
too, so races later in the day suit me perfectly.
About 150 lined up down a smallish country lane just off the
N3 about .5 miles outside the village. Soon after 7:30 PM the
whistle blew. Good quality field. Didn't seem to be too
many, if any, walkers or fun runners. The field strung out
quickly and I quickly found my pace and partners for the 40+
minute odyssey.
The first KM clicked through quickly. I try not to run my
races via my Timex Ironman but let, how I feel, dictate my
pace. This was going to be hard to do as Dunshaughlin had
youngsters at all the mile splits - yes they had both KM and M
markers! - shouting the elapsed race time at the runners as
they passed.
Two KM and then three KM passed by and I was still feeling
strong, quite surprisingly strong. I was still passing people
out, amazingly, with more ease than I would have nomally
expected. I knew I was going well as I got to two miles well
under 13:00. One lad passed me around four KM but he must
have started late as he finished over a minute ahead of me at
the finish.
By now, the race had settled down and I wasn't to pass anyone
else after that myself. I never look behind myself during a
race so had no idea what happened down the field, outside of
hearing the constant panting of the fella (Paul O'Hare) who
eventually did pass me with about two KM to go.
Three miles and then 5KM came up *very* quickly. I heard my
three mile time and was very happy with my 5KM time, both PBs
on all known form. 20:15 for 5KM was well inside my track PB
(20:34) for this distance. I still had another 5KM to do.
This, obviously, worried me a little.
Having done very quick calculations in my head, I knew that if
I got back in under 21:00 for the latter 5KM, I'd be over 30
seconds inside my PB for the distance. I also knew that the
course had been extremely flat to date and that the two hills
mentioned in the booklet beforehand must be looming. Or had I
passed one of them already, and not known it, according to my
split for the 5th KM?
Race, now...worry about the splits/times/PBs afterwards!
There was a small knot of runners up in front of me for most
of the race including a man (Eddie Reid) who was just between
me and that bunch for most of the second part of the race. I
slowly bridged the gap and made it up to him as we were going
up the big hill around 8KM. It was around this time that
O'Hare bridged the gap with me. The three of us ran together
for a very short while before the two lads hightailed it off
on me. That little extra effort I had expended getting upto
Reid had left me with nothing to push on with. I should have
learnt my lesson with Ray O'Connor down in Bilboa earlier this
year :).
Four miles and then five came up without fully processing the
times being shouted at me, though I felt I was still going
well. I felt like I was slowing down a little, not an
altogether unexpected consequence of having set out so
quickly. No one was passing me out, however, and I wasn't
really losing the few people ahead of me, unlike in previous
races of this distance and quality.
Missed the 8KM marker on the road - would have been only 45M
before the 5M marker, if it was present on the road at all.
Broke 33:00 for the five (33:04), another PB, and obviously my
8KM PB (32:53) was also now gone!
Two KM to go and time to dig in. Physically I still felt OK
but I was running out of puff a bit. I concentrated on just
getting around the next bend; the next hump in the road; the
next house; the next pole; the next spectator; the next
"anything" to put ticks on the race clock. Keep shuffling
along, keeping concentration on the runners in front of me. I
didn't resort to counting my steps but can't have been far
away from it, if I'd remembered the technique that is.
Anything happening behind me, of which I could hear absolutely
nothing, was inconsequential. If I was to be passed, there
was no dishonour in that. It was me versus the clock and
nothing else mattered.
Don't remember anything about 9KM. Don't even remember
looking at the split. All focus was on getting to the finish
in the fastest possible time.
My final KM was helped by the placement of _X00M To Go_ marks
on the road. 900, 800, 700, 800, 500, 400, 6M gone, 300, 200,
100... We were coming back in towards the village at this
stage and the crowds were out to cheer us during that final
KM. All 10s of them :). My 100M splits were very consistant
during the final KM, all in the 0:24/0:25 range, with a slight
quickening up over the final 200M, with the finish line just
off the main street in sight. During that final KM, I felt
like one of those people in the movies who is caught under
water and has to perform some daredevilish exploit before they
can come back up and take their next breath. I wouldn't
breath again fully until I staggered across the finish line.
And stagger I did, as I saw later that evening when a video of
the race was shown in The Arch bar. I saw myself coming into
the finish, in what looked like a gentle jog. I was
astonished! I was bursting a gut to get in and there I was in
the cold light of a digital video recording, looking as if I
was out for a leisurely jaunt in the country with the wife and
kids in tow :(. Laugh, I nearly cried!
Crossed the finishing line and quickly spied the watch, after
first catching my first proper breath in 40+ minutes :-0.
40:44.81 nett. 40:48.49 on my watch. 40:47 officially.
After taking a few minutes to do the maths, I realised that
I'd taken a whole 69 seconds off my PB, very close to 300M on
the road. I also knew that I'd probably also broken all my
road/track PBs from 3M up to 10KM, 6 in all (see below).
Don't think I'll ever see 6 PBs in one race again so had to
write about it while it is still fresh/seared into my memory
:).
Went for a quick warm-down soon afterwards but was completely
buckled. Good buckled but buckled nonetheless. Caught the
end of the awards ceremony in the local school afterwards.
Quite a crowd stayed around, always a good sign of a race.
Overall, a nice event in a nice part of the country organised
by good people who put a big effort into making it a real
runners' race! The winner's time dipped under 30:00, which is
a real achievement too. Not quite a course record but there
aren't too many road 10KM events won under 30:00 any more!
Most importantly for me: the course is Jones countered so the
10KM is cast-iron distance-wise.
No resting on my laurels for the rest of the weekend either.
Travelled down to Cork the day after, hoping to see Limerick
win their first Munster Minor Hurling title in 21 years. In
vain! We were well beaten by a much superior Cork side who
had the measure of us all over the field - our 7th time losing
to this opposition in finals. Came back up home on the way
back to Galway, in the process calling into a few family
friends I'd not seen for a few years. Got back home in the
wee small hours of Monday morning, in one piece, car and
myself. 675 more miles on the clock.
Overall, what I take out of this race is the fact that with a
little bit more training, that the elusive 40:00 10KM is now
within my compass. All I need is to squeeze TWO PERCENT more
out of myself! A bit of speed work and a long run each
weekend on top of two other sessions during the week should be
enough to get me very close to 40:00 territory before the end
of the year.
Next up is to break 1:40:00, and more hopefully, 1:35:00 for
the half. After that, who knows...the big one?
Kilometre splits:
3:56.15
3:58.42
4:08.72
4:00.00
4:11.89
3:53.72
4:07.09
4:19.84
4:04.99
4:03.99
--------
40:44.81
Mile splits:
6:20.29
6:31.64
6:40.24
6:28.39
6:46.96
6:37.05
1:20.24
--------
40:44.81
Records:
19:32.17 3M
20:15.18 5KM
26:00.56 4M
32:35.83 8KM
32:47.52 5M
40:44.81 10KM
James.