I Have now raced 4 times in 2012, having made a concious decision to try to fit more events in to the year. I certainly want to race more of the short IMRA mountain races and hopefully get up to Dublin and Wicklow more often for these. So 2 weeks ago I did exactly that for the 3rd race of the Winter League at Annagh Hill. It was 9k of pure fun! People pay ridiculous money these days to enter novelty races like Tough Guy, Mud Runs or various forms of obstacle courses, all with their own wacky course to cover. But at Annagh Hill we had plenty of mud, sink holes, pools (described as puddles by Paul Joyce, the race director) and a hair raisingly fast and technical descent at the finish. All this combined to make it one of the most enjoyable races I've ever done. Mick Hanney managed to get a little video of the latter part of the course
After a fairly keenly contested race for 2nd place I managed to hold off Jason Reid by the skin of my teeth but there was no catching the man in form at the moment, Turlough Conway who is flying, in preparation for the Rotterdam Marathon
In hot pursuit of Eoin. Getting used to this view!
Swim exit!
Donadea 50K
6 days later I was heading back up the Dublin road for something a little different in donadea Forest Park. Ten 5k loops was the order of the day and the start list indicated that, for me it would be as much a social get together with some running buddies, as it was a race. John O'Regan, John Byrne, Daniel Doherty, Keith Whyte, Gerry Duffy, Eoin Keith, Thomas Bubendorfer, Jeff Fitzsimons, Jarlath Hynes and Tony Brennan were all there along with other familiar faces that I hadn't previously had the pleasure of meeting, like Barry Minnock, Rob Cummins, Jim McCormack, Vasiily Neumerzhitskiy and Mick Rice. So there was plenty of top quality runners towing the line.
The Pacer and the group at the start
I ran the first 6 laps in the company of Eoin Keith, a situation that we were replicating for the 3rd time this year. Some of the speed merchants were gone from the off and that was the last I saw of them until the finish line. I opened a little gap on Eoin at the start of the 7th lap and thats the way it stayed for the remainder of the run. I did manage to catch a few more lads in the last few laps, finishing in 3.28 and 5th place which rounded off a good day out and a useful training run in this early part of the year.
John Byrne ran a great race and a very fast time of 3.07 to take the Irish 50k Championship title with Barry Minnock 3 minutes behind and David Simpson less than 2 minutes back in 3rd.
Here's some nice pictures of the day's events courtesy of Paul Daly.
You're spending a suspicious amount of time staring at Eoin's backside these days. ;-)
Donadea was a fab day out. According to the time splits, you came within 3 seconds of lapping me right at the end! I had no idea you were so close behind me.
Geat to see you in such good form so early in the year, long may it continue Paul :)
ReplyDeleteYou're spending a suspicious amount of time staring at Eoin's backside these days. ;-)
ReplyDeleteDonadea was a fab day out. According to the time splits, you came within 3 seconds of lapping me right at the end! I had no idea you were so close behind me.
You're in great form so early in the season Paul. You should have told me IMRA organised Aquathlons.
ReplyDelete3:28 and no-one breathing down your neck? That's flippin' impressive.
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