I rob...and was robbed. County 10k report.
There’s lots to love about small rural road races on summer evenings. For the second year running our club hosted the Kilkenny County Road Races (10k for men / 3k for women). The route is not for the faint hearted, an undulating out and back course over winding country roads. This is a race without fanfare or palaver. You show up, you warm up, you run – you get a drink of water and have a chat at the finish before warming down and going home. No chips, no portaloo’s, no goodie bags, cakes or “everyone gets one” medals. The fields are very small – maybe 25 in the men’s race and less than 15 in the women’s. 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”
