By Sinéad Brody

I really don’t write much about running, I mean I could give you a lecture for hours on how to run badly, about the quality of that.. but all my news is out of date I’m telling ya, the starting-out-too-fast syndrome is common knowledge but I think for us three ladies, Sinéad Foran, Miriam Wall and I, this syndrome is fading away.

I arrived in good time and I bumped into Sinéad Foran upon arrival and about 20 minutes before the race start of 7pm we headed out for a warm up along the Claddagh. After doing a few strides and lining up at the start I failed to get a hot spot so resorted to being squashed like a sardine in a tin. Over 2000 runners.

Gun went off on time.

Another one of those messy starts. There was some breeze to deal with, and it was trying to rain, but nothing too bad. I went through the first km like a bat out of hell but I wasn't looking at my Garmin.  It was just at the top of  Merchants Rd I copped “This thing called pace, amn’t I meant to…? Ahhh..” The penny drops. Welcome to running! Pace yourself. Everybody should try it.

 I climbed up to Eyre Square, and I headed out towards the Cathedral. After the Cathedral there was a tough drag as we ran along University Road. Soon we were to make a left turn down Newcastle Road.

I think it’s important you run behind someone you feel totally confident in running wise, know they won’t try something ludicrous and fall apart pace wise. At the same time you might not feel the same way about them being in front of you. I ran behind SinĂ©ad Foran for most of it, from a distance of course, and then behind James Lundon from 6k. Miriam followed close behind. There was a bit of a slump for me after the 6th, ran out of juice I guess. The roadwork had taken its toll on me but others, older ones are passing me by and I’m thinkin “how do you do this man, what’s the secret?”   Keep on moving I guess. Upon seeing the 7km marker it was time to kick. Short lived.  I ran the last 500m as best I could. I'm happy enough with the time as I did feel like I'd run a bit slower. That's a new PB and few positions better than last year so happy days.

Post-race thoughts

 I’m always learning about this thing called pace but when you pick it up it’s a great way to run, I mean what is it anyway? You do 1km like this, the next few like that, try a little bit of that then  finish with a dash of Bolt.  Not so simple. Even if you think you know it all you never do. There is mystery in the racing.

I can’t say the roadwork has taken its toll on me yet and I think it’s the same for the other girls as we haven’t been in the game too long. Performance on the day may be all tossed up in the air yet getting times down is difficult and although I don’t recommend starting off fast to anyone, what happens is what happens, it can seem perfectly natural to start out fast in races  as long as nobody is arguing so go ahead.

Every race gig is different which is why I never get bored taking part in this stuff….take any race I’ve done so far  there’s still that same sense of adventure. You don’t want everything to be same, that’s the antithesis of competition so in retrospect racing has proved very interesting for me.

As a team, it was great to be positioned so well in such a broad field.

Onwards and upwards – hopefully!