Your best ever race?

Great thread!

Predictably, my greatest race was last year's DCM where I trained my ass off and got a sub-3. I also got an official HM PB and a Strava 10M PB that day.

However, I have a soft spot for my local Fingal 10ks, especially in 2016 where I broke sub-40 for the first time.

Another one that comes to mind was my first Trim 10 mile in 2015, very early in my running career and ran it about 12 minutes quicker than I set out to do. The joy of the incredible gains when you're new to running is great, and it gave me a huge amount of confidence to keep running a lot more.

However I also ran my mile PB on the track at a NIA event, easily beating Sonia O'Sullivan, who may not have been in great shape at the time but it's a good story for the pub

My best race was National Masters Indoors 800m in 2013, where I ran from the front for the first and last time. First time running on the new track in Athlone and I had the confidence to go for it. I just missed out on the M45 national record by 0.3s but won in a 2s PB. I came back two weeks later and ran 3s faster in 2:02.45 for the record but it was that first attempt that stands out in my memory.

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=83144206&postcount=472

Beating my Dad (a former school sprinter back when they did it barefoot) in a race for the first time. I was 15 and he said it was a draw

Another great thread! I really enjoyed reading back on some of those fantastic reports and results.

For me there's really only one, with another a very close second

Kinvara half marathon 2016 I had been training my ass off using meno's plan for Rotterdam and this was both my finest hour and the beginning of the end. Looking back I'd change nothing as the result and elation was worth it. My target was to break 2 hours (not fast I know!) and I manged 1.56.41 with the support of so many here.

The other race that stands out for me, apart from Trim 10 mile in 2016 was this one, Stook 10 mile in 2015. After lots of ups and downs with my training it was all starting to come together, I was learning to think positively and believe in myself a bit more and it paid off here.

Ah the good ole days

I don't normally do race reports - or even remember the details of individual races - but this is a really special memory for me.

And just because you do middle-distance races doesn’t mean you can’t do a marathon race report!

My best race was also in one of my favourite events. I ran the anchor leg for Donore when we won the Master Men's title at the National Road Relays in 2016.

4 years ago yesterday to be exact! 17th April 2016.

As has been noted on some of the busier threads in the forum the past few weeks, running is a selfish, individual sport. Whether you train with your club mates or not, you win and lose on your own. So the few occasions you get to compete with your club mates as a collective are special. And, when you’re lucky enough to be on the same cross country team as some runners who are competing at the sharp end, or in the same club as a group gunning for a title, it drags an extra few seconds out of you to know that you could be playing a part, no matter how small, in the club picking up a medal.

But even in championship cross country races, we’re still running for ourselves and for individual positions. If the team has a bad day, you can still score for the county, break the top 50, the top 10, or pick up an individual medal.

The road relays are different.

It’s not like xc where there are others who can fill in for you if you have a bad day. You can’t check out halfway through the race or chalk it up to experience if you don’t fancy it. If you fúck it up, the whole thing gets fúcked. And the beauty (and horror) of the National Road Relays traditional loop in Raheny, all 1650-ish metres of it, and its finishing straight on Wade’s Avenue, is that everything unfolds in front of a large - and vocal - crowd.

2016 was my second year doing the relays. In 2014, I ran the first leg, but we lost out to Raheny on the final straight in the third leg.

In 2016, I got to run the anchor leg, with two of us pulling clear from a group of four just as we turned up Wade's Avenue to enjoy a proper head-to-head sprint finish up the straight.

Loads of memories from the day, apart from the victory, including a very unflattering Sportsfile photo of me doing an accidental Chicago Vice Lords gang sign as I crossed the line. More than anything, the win was just a massive relief of pressure that had been accumulating for weeks, maybe months, in the build-up and on the day.

I had been struggling with (what I thought was) an ongoing hamstring injury that had prevented me from training properly since the start of the year.
There were a couple of weeks where I couldn’t train on anything with bends or hills. This led to a few innovative sessions, including an 80 x 100m session (in sets of 10 with a turnaround after every 100m and a jog-back between sets) on the Donore track.

Looking back now, I can see that I was actually in pretty good shape despite the constant interruptions. Even still, the tune-up races still came as a bit of a surprise given the training I was doing. I finished with a good kick to come 3rd in 21:24 in the BHAA 4-miler in St. Anne’s two weeks before the Relays. And then the following weekend, the week before the relays, I won the Great Ireland Run 5k in the Park in 16:19, again finishing strongly putting about 15 seconds into 2nd place in the last k.

However, I was still struggling to do any training at faster than 5k pace and even up to a few days before the race, I was debating whether or not I would (or should) do the race. Just being selected and making the start line was a big deal.

There was pressure because the other two guys on the team were Irish Masters XC internationals. If we didn't win, it was probably going to be my fault!

The race also took place on Jim McNamara's birthday, a month after he had passed. All the Donore teams wore black ribbons in his honour. Apart from being a living athletics legend, Jim was just a lovely, lovely man who was interested in everyone's running. I'm not a sentimental person but I really did want us to able to pay tribute to him.

The adrenaline just kept on rising. I had decided I'd take a chance on a pair of runners that I hadn't done more than a couple of strides in, the day before, but that were essentially weightless (the NB MRC5000 if anyone's interested).

All the signs pointed to it either being a very special day or a shítshow of the highest order.

I’m still not sure who decided the order on the day but I was given the anchor leg, which meant I had to stand there and watch the other two guys race. The second leg is the leg that *really* matters in the relays. You can only win a medal if you've got one of the top guys on that leg, but the third leg is the one with the highest stakes. The anchor leg is about all bringing it home: if you’ve got a good position, hold on to it, and, if not, hope that your second leg runner has left you close enough to the action to improve it. While you might end up píssing your teammates’ efforts away, you have also the opportunity to grab the club’s reflected glory.

I actually didn't watch much of the first two legs. I knew I was going to be in a medal position, and didn't want to waste any nervous energy getting caught up in the excitement of the unfolding race.

I was given a 1-second lead over Newbridge (who had won the previous year) on the third leg, with Rathfarnham and Sligo following behind them. Cue more pressure being ladled on.

But I just remember everything feeling really clear in my mind throughout my leg.

I took it out, but wasn't pushing it at all and by the time we were halfway down the Howth Road, a group of four had formed, with me leading. I remember being very conscious that although I hate running from the front, I felt pretty comfortable. I was checking my breathing, doing various calculations in my head, the sort of thing you do while you’re still in control of your faculties.

The Newbridge guy would be a good bit ahead me on xc and probably everything over 1500m on the track too. In fact, the only distance I might have given myself a chance against him would be 800m. I didn’t know too much about the Sligo athlete other than some previous times but, either way, I knew that if it was allowed to come down to a kick on Wade’s Avenue, I’d probably have the edge over both.

The Rathfarnham athlete was the class of the group of four. Not only is he faster than me over every distance from 100m to the marathon but he also has a great kick.

Towards the 2nd half of the All Saint’s Road section, I had the thought of allowing one of the other guys to take the front, so that I could sit in and get set for the finish. I'm still not sure whether it was fear or confidence that made me consciously do that. And I remember seeing one of our club coaches at this point and thinking - very clearly - that he probably thought I had blown it when he saw me relinquish the lead (he gave me a lift into town after the race and confirmed that he did, in fact, think I had blown it!) .

As we turned into Wade’s Avenue, with about 300m to go, the Rathfarnham athlete started to move away from the rest of the group, with me on his shoulder.

I was conscious of two things. One, there was a lot of shouting. Two, I felt very, very calm.

As we were heading up the straight, I could only hear cheers for him and, to this day, I still remember hearing, above all the other noise, one of his team-mates shout “Show him your heels!!” At this point in a middle-distance race, you'll take that extra bit of motivation wherever you can find it so this steeled me a little bit more! I was still on his shoulder as the finish line and tape came into clear view.

With about 200m left, I remember thinking about the fact that he had to make up seven seconds to catch up with the group on the Howth Road. Which is a lot of effort to put in at the start of a mile race. It was absolutely the right tactic under the circumstances but it gave me a buffer that probably wasn't obvious to the crowd watching. And I had a sense that I still had something left - not a lot, but something - and that if I just relaxed and let it go, I'd get away.

And that was that. With probably less than 100m to go, I went for it. All out, arms pumping, crossing the line, arms aloft, with a face ridiculously contorted by the effort.

I have two pictures of the finish line.

One is the official Sportsfile photo where I am in focus crossing the line and the rest of the background is blurred but I found one in Sportsworld’s gallery from the day where you get a much better sense of the occasion. In this one, you can see the faces in the crowd, my team mates running up the road to check that I did actually make it to the line first, and the whole lead group stretched out down Wade’s Avenue. It really does gives a sense of the occasion.

Anyway, got great satisfaction from the whole thing, my performance, the team win. Still get a kick out of the photos from the race where you can see the whole final 300m unfold in scene-by-scene stills.

Obviously, the fairly important detail missed by everyone watching was that, ultimately, I ran the final leg 5 seconds slower than the Rathfarnham guy (4:46 to his 4:41 for the 1,650m loop).

The other reason I probably dwelt on this race for a long time was that, three weeks later, I ran a 1500m PB as a season-opener and woke up the next morning with a busted achilles again, which took me more or less until 2018 to sort out properly.

Apologies for the length and self-indulgence of the post. I'm usually spending too much time thinking about my next races to think about the races past. But, with no races coming up and nothing specific to train for, I've spent more time thinking about getting back to the type of race shape I was in on this day and I thought I'd write it up before I forgot!

My best was the Lanzarote marathon 2018.
Prepared very well for it but straight from the off my heart just wasn't in it. I got as far as a bike rental shop(around the 12 mile mark) hired a bike and cycled back to the pub. Got p1ssed, great night!

Great stuff Sacksian ...

Loved the line

"All the signs pointed to it either being a very special day or a shítshow of the highest order."

Sums up all important races really...

Sacksian wrote: »

I've definitely had races where I've been really well prepared but was missing that knife-edge feeling and ended up with a disappointing race or time. I think it's usually a sign for me that I'm going to run okay (and that level of adrenaline helps with the shorter races too!).

Strangely I've had some of my better performances having felt pretty sh1t during the warm up. You never know until you know.

Ok so my story doesn’t deserve to be in this thread with all you serious runners. But anyways I’m on lockdown like the rest of you so I have time on my hands.

My most memorable run was when I finished about 50th out of 200 at a fundraising 5km fun run in 2018. 12 months previous to that I was nearly 22 stone, my knees hurt when I tried to run, I couldn’t go more than 300 meters at a time and I couldn’t even play chase with my two kids.

So after a over a year of loosing weight and getting fitter in the gym I got down to 16 stone I signed up for my first run since the Galway 8km in 2004.

The first 1km was a 6 minute one, I had not even practiced a 5km beforehand so had no idea what pace to go at. I was just determined to do it nonstop without any walking.

At the 3km mark I was feeling good and gently increased the pace and now I was passing out a few of the really casual fun runners. I was feeling great. I was feeling like I can go faster and I am actually fit enough. Got faster in the last 1km and the finish line was ahead of me.

As I crossed the finish line pouring in sweat and panting like an old man I did 5km just over 26 mins and was met by the smiling faces of my young two kids and their father thankfully can play tag and chase with them.

I have been doing a good few 5kms since then and love going around to different places and events doing them. I think my best was 21.30 last year but I have to get my weight back down a bit having gone back to 17.5 stone.

One thing I learned is it is so much easier to do a 5km with a crowd than on your own.

At a recent 5km/10km event I saw the winner of the 10km do it in 30mins. Incredible running to see.