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Another short and easy run on Saturday, about 6k
Sunday, down to Tullamore for the Masters Track and Field Nationals
I'd decided ages ago that I'd do more track races next year, so I thought I might as well get some practice this year and give this a go. And rather than go all the way down to Tullamore for one race, I'd do a field event too :eek::cool:
High jump? :pac:
Pole vault? :pac::pac::pac: (not on in the Masters anyway)
Long/Triple Jump? mmm, no, too much risk of injury
Throws then
Weight for distance? More injury potential
Discus? argh, no, can't get the hang of releasing the thing
Shot? hmmm, maybe, but I really don't look like a shot putter
Javelin? Javelin it is. Javelin throwers look almost normal, and it looks cooler
(But also - I'm coaching under 11s and under 12s. They throw the turbo javelin, and start the real thing at under 13, so learning how to throw myself would be very useful. I might have to start the shot putt too for the same reasons...)
So for the last few weeks I've been getting some practice in. My technique has gone from 100% ****e to about 96% ****e and 4% extremely poor - go me! When I started, every time I threw more than a couple of metres the javelin would flop on to the ground. Now my throw is perfect - run up, side step, lovely point-first landing - but is all in slow motion. Jog up, shuffle sideways, wave my arm lazily forward and see the javelin fall out of my hand. Old age and distance running have killed whatever fast twitch fibres I may once have had, so I'd be perfectly suited for a competition where you had an hour to throw as often as you like and the distances were summed, but putting everything in to four throws? Not happening.
Anyway, arrived down in Tullamore yesterday with kid A in tow to cheerlead and a long javelin wedged in to my small car. Lovely sunny day and we sat out on the open stand with some clubmates for a while (true to club form, the four men competing that day won two medals between them, the two women won two medals each) until it was time to get the javelin weighed and measured and do some warming up. Naturally, the sun went in as soon as I arrived on the infield. Then the first raindrops started landing. Then the heavy rain started. The officials asked if we wanted to continue, we shrugged our shoulders and said yeah, but five minutes later we were in the middle of a downpour and had to be taken off the field because of the risk of lightning.
After about ten minutes we could get under way. There were about 20 guys throwing, M35-49, and they divided into some obvious categories - a guy from Sli Culainn was throwing about 10m, me at about 15, another guy at 20 - all of us chancers
Some guys in the 25-35 range, who looked like throwers but not javelin throwers. And then the real competition started in the 40s. Anyway, all my throws were much of a muchness - 14.58, 13.07 (lost my balance on release), 16.47, 16.07 - and then I ran off to get ready for the 5000m. I'll be back!
(Incidentally, the top 5 finishing order was M3 48m, M3 46m M2 46m M3 42m M1 42m0 -
The 5000 was starting just a few minutes after my last throw in the javelin so no real warmup, but I jogged around a bit and loosened up. There were two races, first race M1 to M4, second race M5 to M10, 30 of us in the first race so a split start.
Anyway... I was happy with how I ran BUT I didn't count the laps as I went round and when the guy on the finish line said 2 (and I got the bell on the 'last' lap) I took his word for it (not his fault, my responsibility) and I ended up finishing a lap early. There was no finish line clock, and though I had a watch I didn't look at it during the race or at the finish, only when I was walking off the track afterwards, and then I didn't know how long the race was over
I didn't hang around after the race, but the official results just went up and I didn't run 16.56 so I've mailed in to have it changed to a DNF :(:( Next time I'll run with a set of fecking rosary beads 
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I can only assume I was the only eejit
There were M1 to M4 running together. M1 was 14.56, 15.20, 16.00, a few more 16s, a 17.xx, and an 18.xx. M2 was two 16.xx, two 17.xxs, and an 18.xx (and me) M3 was three 16s, three 17s, an 18 and a 19, M4 was three 16s, three 17s, a 19 and a 20.
So you'd want a sub 16 to get an M1 medal, and a sub 17 to get a medal in M2 3 or 4.
From what I could tell of the events, it was very dependent on who turned up. In every event and every age there are some people who are very good at that event (like dna_leri), some people who are pretty good, and some people who are doing it as a second event, for fun, for the day out with clubmates, whatever. Depending on how many of the grade 1 people show up, the medals will sometimes go to grade 2 people, and sometimes even grade 3s0 -
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just under an hour around Tymon. Usual slow start, but today for a change I took the bridge over to the other side of Tymon- don't know if it was the adrenaline boost from walking on the wild side or fumes from the meth labs, but I kept accelerating all the way, so I was running at 4.2x when I crossed back inside the M50 0
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Got a lift in this morning from theboyblunder with some clubmates in the Sistersmobile. (We played Allanis Morrissette, talked about our feelings and had a bit of a cry and a hug.) (Actually it was a white-knuckle ride of daredevil driving - ending with tears of shock and hugs to reassure ourselves we were still alive) We needed to get over the journey, but luckily we had plenty of time during the walk from the car to settle down.
Met up with some more clubmates for a while then went off for a warmup. Well, I did half a warmup and got lazy, went into the (completely empty) pen to get a good spot before any of the Tallaght athletes arrived. Sure enough, just as I was getting comfy, DrRaoulMills showed up :rolleyes: We did consider boxing him in for the race but the poor guy was all on his lonesome so we let him go.
Off we went eventually. A little too fast at the start, 3.48, 3.49, but slowed down as we passed the zoo. I had AuldManKing just in front as my personal pacer anyway. Everyone got over the first mad rush on North Road, so I had to start moving forward and pass AK, though I could hear from the MSB shouts he wasn't far behind. The wind was a bit of a pain on the exposed section of North Road. I put in a burst to catch up with a group in front but they weren't much shelter, so I resigned myself to dropping some time here but determined to use the wind at my back on Chesterfield. That was a nice stretch, between the slight downhill, the wind, and the surface, so I was back on track at the halfway mark (exactly 31?)
Kept working the rest of the way down, got into a mini-race with a guy from Raheny from the embassy all the way out the gate, which kept us both honest. Slightly ahead of pace here, but that was the plan.
Didn't expect the wind on the road outside, that was a pain in the arse, so I was working more than I'd like on that stretch, and that was before the Hill of Doom :eek:
Luckily I had a couple of people ahead of me on the hill, a clubmate and a guy from Sportsworld. The hill itself isn't so bad (but still 4.06 and 4.07 for that stretch, by far my slowest), but in the 5 mile I felt I had nothing left after it. Today I had a couple of targets and I was able to pick up the pace again off the top and go past people. Turned onto Furze Road just as a spectator was telling her friend that it was a killer because it seems to go on for ever :rolleyes: but was ale to keep pushing and picked up a few more places in a 'sprint' at the end.
62.30 gun time, 62.25 chip (183/184) 24th M40 3.53/km pace overall
(and the team ended up with an average of 60.0x I think, so not bad)0 -
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