St. Laurence O'Toole 5k and 10k

BeepBeep67

Thinking of heading down to this one anyone done it before?
http://precisiontiming.primo-solutions.co.uk/ps/event/StLaurenceOTooleRunforLife2014

Bahanaman

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Thinking of heading down to this one anyone done it before?
http://precisiontiming.primo-solutions.co.uk/ps/event/StLaurenceOTooleRunforLife2014

Thx for putting this up BeepBeep! Had forgotten all about it. Think I'll do it alright. It'll be my first race of the year after returning from a long term injury. I've only ever done one 10k before so it'll be a good way to set a benchmark for myself for the rest of the year. I'm a Carlow man so it's nice to support the local races. I've heard it's a good one too.

echancrure

Yes I am doing the 10k too: it's my local race !!!

Last year's was two loops of the 5k, this year the 10k is a single loop.

Slogger Jogger

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Thinking of heading down to this one anyone done it before?
http://precisiontiming.primo-solutions.co.uk/ps/event/StLaurenceOTooleRunforLife2014

Looks interesting. Might give it a pop on my way back to fitness.

tommycahir

I'll be heading to it and from locals I have been talking to there should be a good turnout for it..

johnruns

Did the 10k this morning,good turnout,well organised,nice spread of food and drink afterwards as well.Course itself is flat enough was a little windy in parts today but well worth the trip down from Dublin.

BeepBeep67

Not as well as I had hoped to run, and now for the buts:
- pretty fatigued this week
- built a deck yesterday evening and this office body is not used to manual labour anymore
- I went out too fast trying to hang onto a group
- large sections into the wind which I had to run on my todd
Results here: 6th in 36:33 and 3rd auld fella
Very well organised, but some road sections were quite dangerous to cross, more food than you could shake a stick at

echancrure

Lovely race, well Marshalled and a nice free massage afterwards. Lovely homemade food too. Fantastic value and great causes.
Smashed my time from last year at the same venue, which was my first ever race: down from 44:25 to 38:10 in a year for 10k !! Not bad after running a 5k flat out on Wednesday in 17:59.

Drinking my shamrock right now cos France lost !! Great game !!

Back to serious Connemarathon training on Monday or Tuesday and good living.

Happy St Pats to all.
Race report to follow.

Bahanaman

Hoped to break 40 min in my first real crack at a 10k. 40:15!!:mad: Ah well! a benchmark at least. Great race though. Well done to all involved!

echancrure

Here's is my short race report.

Unlike last year the conditions were beautiful for this year: last year is was freeze, sleety even, but this year's race was under blue sky, a little wind but great. Having seen the weather in the morning turning for the better I choose my lightest running gear. I also left my heavy training runners (Asics Kurow) at home and dusted my Asics DS trainers...

As this was my only 3rd 10k (44:25 last year and 42:25 in Moone in September) my goal was set for a long time in achieving an under 40' time. I am also training for the Connemarathon so I did not put any specific 10k running: I just took a break from the training this week. For fun last Friday I ran the 10k course, my GPS app on my phone played up and I was not sure I did 10k but I ran in exactly 40'...

I also ran a 5k fun run on Wednesday (17:59).

So ... little by little I thought under 40 was well within reach and that I should aim a little lower and see what happens: so 3'50'' per k was the aim I hacked 2 days before the race: meaning 38'20'' . For me that was quite ambitious but I thought that if I blew up it did not matter and that I am still 3 weeks away from my first marathon giving me time to recover.

The start was well organised on the St Laurence O'Toole track, much better than last year I thought. I had no problem positioning myself in the front row. I didn't do any warm up apart from jumping on the spot and a few squats: I have absolutely no idea if this is a good or crazy idea, just couldn't be arsed and I was outta time anyway, having queued a little too long for one last pee.

I went out quite fast in 7th position I think with very few other runners around. I looked out for the 1 k marker on the road (I have no gps thingy) and hit it at 3'35'' ... I am really not good at judging the pace of the k it seems... Slowed downs a little to hit my 3'50'' pace, got passed by a couple of runners.

At 3k I gained a fellow runner on my heels who started to try to talk to me about the weather, was spitting every 10 seconds and talking to himself in general: not great. I got stuck with him for most of the race !

At roughly 6k we hit a short sharp descent onto the main Dublin road and I was feeling ok and hitting my pace (although I missed a couple of the k markings on the road).

At 8k I got passed slowly by another runner and tried to hang on to him. I did manage it for a while (30'' ?) but really was feeling that I was overreaching and my breathing was all over the place: I let him go.

I missed the 9k marker: darn! That bothered me because although I knew the road I did not pay attention as to the exact location of the finishing line. I was on the limit and I had no idea if the finishing line was 800m or 500m away ... not ideal.

For the finish we were joined by the 5k runners so as I started to sprint I didn't know if the guys behind me were 5k or 10k runners... was I gonna be passed just on the finishing line? All these things crowded my head as I looked at the timing on the finishing line: it took me a few seconds to realise that I was looking at the 5k clock. I did manage to see the other clock just passing 38' before putting my head down for the final push. Why I just did not look at my watch I have no idea. Not a very serene finish by any means!

Anyway crossed the line and even managed to raise my arms as I did so. Pretty much could not speak for a minute afterwards. I had to wait the official results to see my time of 38'10'', 11th, which I am very delighted with.

After a lovely free sports massage (my first!) I felt OK.

Today, Sunday, a day, a few beers and a bottle of wine after , I ran 5 miles at 8'15'' and my legs feel fine if a little tights, I don't think I have done any damage to my Connemarathon preparation (I'll just delay my last 20 miles,which was supposed to happen today, to the coming Wednesday).

Healthy living will wait for Tuesday.

Happy days.