I spotted this one on the calendar shortly after the recent 4 mile race and initially though I’d be better getting a long run in but then I really thought about it and I just know there’s more to gain both mentally and physically out of a good hard 10 mile race than any long run or session. I’d have loved to be doing Antrim but couldn’t justify the almost 10 hour round trip. That’s the sort of half marathon that you target solely, not run it flat out as part of a build up 4 weeks before Berlin. This one suited better, only an hour away and 3 miles less, with no real expectations. Even though the miles were pretty heavy this week I was going into it feeling pretty good especially given the encouraging session on Wednesday.
Given my newfound appreciation of punctuality for races, I aimed to arrive in Galbally for 9:30am with an 11am kick off. The weather was sunny, very sunny with a light breeze and I knew that would be making things interesting. I had looked up the left-turning looped course on a map and it seemed reasonable but from experience, it’s best to set expectations of all Irish country road courses to ‘difficult’. A few of us piled into a car and drove the course with the coach and only then did I start to realise it was going to be a tough route. There was essentially a 3 mile drag to start, a steady fairly flat midsection, a difficult climb from 7-9 and then a quick final mile.
The start was a mile away at the actual abbey that the whole town is built around and named after. It just made sense to jog there for the warm up. I wonder did the person(s) who designed and built the abbey envisage a 10 mile road race starting right outside it hundreds of years later. Probably not. It’s really such a beautifully scenic area and just looking around on the clear sunny day with the Galtee mountains looming in the background, you couldn’t but smile and appreciate it. But not for long, it was almost 11am and time to get racing. I have to say there was a great buzz around with people in great form and it’s just great to see these events happening and being organised so well. With a PB of 54:00 from 2018, I reckoned this was due a renewal and barring disaster this was an inevitability knowing in my last half marathon I’d gone through in 51 high.
So we all lined up at a bridge in the midday sun and having a look around on the start line, there were a few runners on my radar along with training partner John but it all didn’t really matter, this was a day and a course to just go out and race like hell.
Mile 1: 5:09
A countdown of 5 and we’re off. Myself and John seemed to quickly start to breakaway and got into a good stride, side by side. It was the first mile, I was feeling pretty good as was everyone else I’m sure. Around halfway into the mile we climbed into the village where we were welcomed with the discernible melody of ‘Chariots of Fire’ on a crackling tannoy. I chucked and almost felt like running in slow motion past the villagers but that of course would have been foolish and may have massively hindered my chances just for the sake of hilarity. I soon saw 5:09 pop up on the watch and though that was a decent start but the drags were only just starting.
Mile 2: 5:22
The start of the 2nd mile felt like 3 bags of sand had been immediately attached to me but we were just getting going with the drags. I felt completely deceived and tricked by the drive through of the course earlier, it didn’t look that bad at all but then again humans are appalling at estimation and I am a human. I just tried to focus on relaxing here and keeping a good honest pace knowing that it’s still early days. Pretty uneventful and when I clocked 5:22, I was now thinking that running a good time should take low priority today, just run for the win. I assumed it would be a flip of a coin between myself and John with no one else deciding to come with us early on.
Mile 3: 5:19
We’re still climbing, it’s actually getting quite stingy and I’m already feeling the pinch of the midday heat but my focus was to get to 3 miles where I know it starts to level. There shall be relief, just grind through it. Oddly enough here John was starting to fall behind. It was way too early for that so I suspected something was up with him. I’d notice a gap here and there before he’d quickly close it but before halfway through the mile he just completely fell off. I know the shape he’s in so I just put it down to a bad day or the heat and what else could I do but kick on and run my own race. Nearing the end of the mile, I hit a nice downhill and for the first time I started to relax a little after a pretty intense start.
Mile 4: 5:07
I was getting into a decent stride now and almost halfway through the mile, I take the first of the left turns, a very sharp almost-hairpin turn taken very carefully as I sneaked a peek back to the chasing group. I counted a group of 4 who were maybe 10 seconds behind me, including John now tucked in behind them. It would now be a straight road for 3.5 miles and looking down that lonely road, I was starting to wish I had people around me. Focus is so hard when you’re alone. The feeling I just had of settling into the race had now withered and despite the relatively flat terrain, I wasn’t at all feeling settled and starting feeling like I had a long way to go. Maybe I just had too much time to think. I hit 4 miles in just under 21 minutes which was fine but in my head I was thinking there’s at least 30 minutes to go – not the ideal thought process at that point.
Mile 5: 5:17
I felt a little in no-man’s lands around this point, almost going through the motions and thinking what is the minimum I need to do here to maintain this lead and just get to the finish without anyone reeling me in. It was a bit of a draggy mile but I just focussed on the permanently blinking hazards on lead car ahead. I tried to stay in the shade where possible though the camber and disrepair-ness of the road edge at times meant I drifted into the middle. Utterly useless information there but I need to fill each mile with something half interesting. First half in 26:18. Would I take another one of those right now? Abso-bloody-lutely.
Mile 6: 5:12
There was a little bit of a downhill in this mile and while I’d have loved to (and wanted to) be running closer to 5:05’s today, I simply couldn’t push much harder as I just knew in my bones I was running the right effort to get to the end in one piece. Anything faster and I’d be getting peeled off the road at 8 miles.
Mile 7: 5:12
Mile 7 is still downhill and I’m getting a little second wind and feeling ok, just ok. Tolerable and starting to relax a little. I hit 10k in around 32:30 and was pretty pleased with that, if I could keep it going. At around 6.6 miles, I come to a cross and take the 2nd and final of the left turns. Coach Donie is there and calmly lets me know I’ve 100m. I find it hard to visualise a 100m gap and translate it to a number of seconds. This conundrum occupies my mind nicely for the rest of the mile but I’m suddenly not as relaxed as I was a few minutes ago and I know there are people in that chasing group capable of gobbling me up. I must keep focus.
Mile 8: 5:24
I’ve now entered the most difficult section of the course though from the drive earlier, I’d have never thought it. It’s really getting hard now and a quick glance of the pace tells me I’m slowing considerably but I honestly couldn’t tell if it was because of the drag or I was tiring badly. Breathing is really becoming laboured now and my sole purpose right now is to get to mile 9. Once I’m at mile 9 I was confident I’d have enough to take it home. I swore I could hear footsteps here but couldn’t break the cardinal rule of not looking back. At one point I stopped my breathing for 2-3 seconds just to have a clear listen. It was the most eerily quiet 2 seconds but I felt safer after it. I didn’t heard anything, I think. Soon after, what I did hear in the distance behind me was that familiar crackling tannoy music and it was getting closer. As it approached me I recognised the song “You’ll never walk alone”. I couldn’t but smile and wince a little at the irony as the car overtook my lonely rag-doll chassis, chugging up the hill. I wished I was in a car. I had no idea what was going on as there was already a lead car ahead of me. A very strange few minutes really but the good news is the finish line was getting closer. I saw a clever sign on the side of the road here that amused me – “It’s a hill, get over it”. Nice touch by the organisers.
Mile 9: 5:30
Onto what was the hardest and slowest mile of the lot. Again, still not sure if I was blowing badly or this hill was worse than I thought when we drove it. It turns out it was thankfully the latter. I was doing just fine. I still had no idea the gap I had but I couldn’t hear anything behind me. All I needed to do was summit the hill and trust I’d have a fast downhill mile in me. I could really feel the heat, breathing was really laboured and I was really puffing up that slope. What could I do but keep the head down and grind it out, it’s too close to stop pushing now. Eventually the hill started levelling just before the 9 mile mark, and it was all downhill from here. In a good way.
Mile 10: 4:46
This was a bit fun. Once the breathing settled and the rag-doll costume discarded, I really got into a good rhythm. A 5 minute mile would have been fine by me but once again my eyes had deceived me in the drive and this was way, way quicker than I though with a net loss of 137 ft. Once I saw pace was in the 4:50’s I knew I had it in the bag now so I just let the legs go wild and really kicked for home, trying to squeeze every second in getting a new PB. Eventually the fun was over and the line started making its way to me. I crossed 1st in 52:26, the 2nd half in 26:08 and really happy with that time considering the solo run, difficult course and heat out there. I was about 30 seconds ahead of mountain the mountain goat, Bilbao’s John Kinsella in 2nd place and club mate John impressibly persevered from falling off at 2 miles to hang on for 4th. A PB day is never, ever a bad day. I feel my quads might be paying dearly for that mile tomorrow. There was a lovely atmosphere around afterwards and that ice cold can of coke hit the sweet spot. A really good athletics event run by proper athletics people.
All in all, a great day out and I’m really glad I did it. That will probably do more for me than any session would have done this weekend. I really had to battle away some negative thoughts at times where it was feeling a little too difficult but the fitness came through in the end and I’m feeling well on track to being able to put together a good marathon. There was no doubt fatigue in the legs today with the midweek session, the front-loaded miles and the hard 20 miler last week. Considering all of that, I’m actually really pleased with it and I will certainly relax with a PB beer tonight and a day off tomorrow. One more big week to put in and I feel the bulk of the work is done.