I had wanted to break the 36 min mark on this and after the underwhelming Deadman’s 5 mile race decided that a slightly more conservative approach might work. The goal was to hit 3:35ish pace throughout – and try get an average pace around that zone to finish in the 35:45 – 35:59 area.  Immediately after the off the racing snakes sprinted off into the distance, with the top 3 opening up a gap on the rest of the field. I ran with one other guy for the club over the first 2k – just keeping the pace in check and not worrying about those ahead or behind me at all.  After 3k, that run dropped off and i was joined by another who sat on my shoulder for a couple of KM  drafting off me. I slowed and let him go ahead and then the pace dropped, so i had to up the pace and soon enough the footsteps behind me were gone.  The course markers were absolutely bang on until the 4th km (my watching beeping as i ran over the mark on the road) - however as i approached the turn it beeped with about 35 metres to go...sugar – the course was long. A quick turn around a bollard in the middle of the road, grab a cup of water and it was back along the route i had come – giving me an opportunity to see that i was probably 15 seconds ahead of 5th place and 20 seconds down on 3rd. I upped the pace at this stage, just concentrated on brining every KM in under target pace. By 7k it was starting to hurt, and by 8k i was really struggling after each of the three or four sharp hills. With about 1km to go i saw a runner ahead and it was Tommy, who had been leading the race by a considerable margin but had pulled up with an injury.  I tried to finish as strong as i could and by the end i was pretty spent.

I had stopped looking at my watch, and i crossed the line and pretty much fell onto my hands on knees – quick check of the watch 36:10...oh feck....  On a much, much brighter note, i had fortuitously won a senior county medal (and a second scorer for team gold) and in the words of Ben Johnson...they can’t take that away from me.  The sub 36 will come soon enough.

KM :  3:34 / 3:39 / 3:39 / 3:38 / 3:36 / 3:36 / 3:34 / 3:33 / 3:34 / 3:35 / 3:37  = 35:55 + 15”

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The race was the Deadman's 5, a 5 mile road race that is part of a four race series in Tipperary / Waterford and kilkenny. The race is great value for money, a €10 online entry fee brings you chip timing, good prizes, showers and food after in a local hotel called the carraig. The race runs flat for the first mile, generally uphill for mile two and three before downhill mile 4, and a flat mile 5.

Instruction from JB was to relax on the hills on mile 2 to 3 and aim for a pace of between 3:30 - 3:35, and a finishing time of 28:00 - 28:25. After a 20 min warm up, a record 190 people lined up for the off. The first mile leads you through the town and the three top runners quickly legged it off in the distance. I ran with two others, but a quick glance at my watch showed 3:20 pace for the first km, I also knew from the running style of the two lads ahead that they weren't going to be able to sustain their paces, so I took a quick glance over my shoulder and saw another group of runners just behind me so I eased off and dropped in behind them. Soon enough we came to the first of the climbs and our group of 6 caught and passed one of the two ahead of us, and as we went through mile two our group was down to four. Mile three is an up and down mile; gaining elevation throughout the mile though, I was just about still hanging on to the back of this group, working harder than I probably should have at that stage of the race, but I knew if I let a gap open that would be the end of any chance of gaining a place later. This entire section was run into a killer headwind that was really making me toil to keep the gap to 5 metres or so. As we approached the 3rd mile, i had closed the gap conpletely and was able to take a quick breather. Just after mile 3 the hills crest and it's downhill to flat the whole way home. As soon as we turned the corner and started the downhill run for home, the gap opened again and the group split with about 20 metres between the 5th place runner and me, mile four was a nightmare as I struggled to stop tying up, and rather than bring able to use the downhill to drop my average pace I was only able to average 3:35 k pace. I finished 12 seconds down on 7th place and nearly 20 seconds down on 5th, all of that 20 seconds lost on the last two miles.

So, pretty happy with the outcome, even though my training has been good recently my lifestyle has not. We've had 5 weekends in a row now that have been boozy and messy, my diet has gone to pot, and work has been heavy going. So, from today it's back to good life living, so that means no drink for a month, good diet, and lots of good rest. Hopefully there will be a little more fight in the dog come my next race on the 25th June.