Sunday morning was up early as I had to go to Cloghan before the race and I made it over to Mountbollus for about 11:40..race started at 12 so I had some time to prepare..togged out in the car and put on the harriers singlet for the first time and was ready to go about 11:45…Ciaran had me registered and I got my number 69 and we headed to the GAA field to do a few laps of the field to warm up…warming up was something I never would have done before..any race I did before i would have just arrived at the start line…chatted a few before the race started and then headed off…doing a warm up definitely was a good idea as I was ready to go when the race started and I did the first few K’s in a quicker than normal time…John told me and Ciaran to run at our own pace so after starting the race with a good friend of mine Gary Mahon who was gone after about 20 sec.. I then looked around to see if there was anyone I could run with…I caught up with Paddy Roland who was wearing the Tullamore GAA jersey and we had a good chat for about 2K and then I had to let him off as he was going a bit faster than I was able to keep up with..I could have stayed with him longer but something John had said to me about going out to fast and then dying for the last part of the race was in my mind so I ran at my own pace and let Paddy go….for the rest of the race I was running on my own and between 3K and 5K I was overtaken by about 10 runners but was happy enough to keep going at my own pace..
With 5K completed there was a water station and I got some water on-board and then turned the corner to see a hill with no end in sight…this stretch was for about 1K and it was very tough both mentally and physicially…I was very tired at 6K and I could hear someone coming up behind me and Sharon Daly went past and she gave me some encouragement that was appreciated...and then for the next 3K it was up and down hills and I just kept telling myself I have run this distance before and to keep going..when I got to 9K I remembered John had said the last 1K is nearly all downhill so I pushed it on a bit…Finishing the race I got a lot of encouragement again from the harriers crew....i finished the race with my best ever time for a 10K…it was 56:05…I enjoyed the banana and bottle of water that was given to me when I finished and I waited for Ciaran to come in..he was just behind me and we were both delighted with how we did..Adrian then organised a photo with all the harriers crew and then John had us do a few laps to cool down….as we ran around Paddy Roland was on the pitch running around with his top off exposing his torso and this gave the ladies doing their streaching something to admire…afterwards we had a quick shower and then enjoyed some refreshments in the community hall before going home..really enjoyed the whole event even though looking at me going over he finish line you wouldn't think so..
Back to training on Tuesday for week 4…Ciaran and myself were up in Midlands 103 with Michelle Mullaney(Club PRO and regular contributor to Will's show on financial matters) this morning on the Will Faulkner show giving an update on our progress…the audio is here if you want to listen.. http://www.midlandsradio.fm/custom/public/files/tullamore-harriers-1.mp3 . Temperature for training was in the late 20’s and we were up in the harriers for 6:30…I drank about 4 pints of water between 5 and 6:10 before I left the house because I was so thirsty…got up then for a light run or so I thought(John had told us this on Sunday)…John appeared with a belt for holding water bottles so me and Lynchie knew what he was up to…we’ll run the Ross Road he informed us (7 mile)..good god…my legs were still score since Sunday..anyway drank another pint of water before we left and we headed out the road…I found this very tough and was feeling the pain even at the finger board..the water bottles that John brought for me and Lynchie were drank by me mainly..we had to refill them in Mucklagh and I had them gone again shortly afterwards…eventually got back to the harriers and was completely shattered…Between 5 and 8:30 I drank about 8 pints or 4 litres of water and I didn’t need to visit a toilet until nearly 11 o’clock that night..don’t know if this is good or bad for the body but I have never experienced that thirst before and I would say to anyone reading this how important it is to get water on board when running on warm days..had a good chat with Ray Martin and his wife Angela about running etc and Angela was telling me that John that lined up a group of girls to join us for our long run(10 Mile) for next Sunday so it will be good to have company for the longest run either Ciaran or I have ever done..
Did nothing again on Wed and we were up in Charleville this evening running up and down the lane from the big tree to the castle gates…this is about .7 mile one way and we ran up, down and up again…this is 2 miles and we did this 3 times with a break of 2 mins between each run...Sandra Busteed joined us this evening for a while and all the harriers crew were up there again. John was filling us in on a guy called Denzil Jacobs from the club that is doing 10 marathons in 10 days down in Sixmilebridge in Clare…..he has 7 done as of today 11th July…then Larry Rigney stopped to chat us and he has done about 170 marathons and he was down in Clare last weekend running the marathon with Denzil and is going down again on Saturday to run another one with him….said he couldn’t go down today as he was working and had to bring in the hay…he was talking about it like it was a short run with a friend..…anyway another example of the great spirit that is in the club with everyone supporting and encouraging each other..the school principle in Cloghan John Healy is also doing the 10 marathons in Clare and out of the 26 people I think that started it..only 16 are left..just shows the different challenge people set themselves…the half marathon is something I’d like to achieve…for other people running a 3K, 5K or 10K is a great achievement..whatever you want to achieve..set your goals and keep going…
Next Sunday we are going to be doing a 10 Mile run and we’ll be leaving the harriers at 8am and anyone that wishes to join us is more than welcome…we should have about 15 people doing it so the more the merrier…Hope to have 2 audio blogs out at the weekend…keep up the running and don’t forget the relay if you can get a friend to do it with you…..you can run or walk the 10K …you still have 6 weeks to get there and you can register online via the website http://www.tullamoreharriers.com/
Also don't forget Ciaran's blog where he has a daily post on our progress http://fatdadrun.blogspot.ie
Until later........
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