The race at Slievenamon wasn’t really a race for me, nor would I have been able to compete properly at it if I had tried to. The next race on the calendar for me, Brandon Hill in Kilkenny, would be a normal race again.
Training
I had another two week break after Slievenamon, but this was of my own making, rather than through a lack of races. I was tempted to race in Curragh Woods on the Sunday in between, as it was a race I performed reasonably well at in 2017, despite getting killed on its very steep hills. It would have been the perfect time to compare a repeat race after my improvements in hill running. I toyed with the idea all week, but decided close to the weekend I’d give it a miss. I’ve been racing as often this year so as I had been in 2017, but I need to maintain focus on this year’s plans to target races better. I was better off taking a weekend break from racing, and instead getting in a longer training run.
So on the Saturday off my weekend off from racing, I did a marathon length run around Limerick. I’d not ran over 20 miles in around six months, so it was nice to do it again. Other than that, my gym training has lightened a little, now that my real race season is approaching soon. I do fewer heavy sets now, and most sets are of higher intensity.
Brandon Hill
On the few days leading up to the race, Ireland was basking in a glorious little heat wave. I don’t like to put much poke into any of my runs the day before a race nowadays, but this time I had the freedom to do so. As I’d already notched up five decent results in the South East league, I could afford to experiment a little in races now, though within reason. I dialled down the late week carbs a little bit more than usual, and I was planning to pull back the pre-race nutrition by another 20 minutes or so than usual. In conjunction with all of this, I added an extra run later in the week instead of one of my gym sessions. I was just trying to tinker to see how close to the edge I could go in terms of race preparedness. With the lovely weather then, I threw in a pokey 5K on some local fire roads, seeing as I was experimenting.
I had modified my rep range for my leg exercises in the gym earlier in the week, just to throw a slight curve ball at them. Unfortunately, this added a bit to their recovery time, and so I was still feeling a little in them all the way through to the weekend. Perhaps for this reason, combined with the Saturday evening fire road run, I felt quite drained that night, and went to bed quite early. I wasn’t feeling the next day’s race at all, and was a little worried I’d overdone things a little too close to the race. I probably feel asleep still thinking of all this.
The following morning when I woke up, I had a bit of that feeling still in me, but the long sleep had given me a slightly renewed outlook that I could rebuild from, and that’s what I did en route to the race. I stopped along the way for my usual can of Monster and Rice Krispie Squares, which have served me well this year. On reaching the registration area in Graiguenamanagh though, I was disappointed to hear how few had registered for the race. It wasn’t exactly in the middle of nowhere, and the race director was far from a newbie, so I still can’t account for the low interest in it.
Once we got up to the race location then, I went for a quick half mile jog as a warm up. The weather was chopping and changing, but with the prospect of open mountain, I decided to go with long sleeved compression gear. This would turn out to be a poor decision.
The race
As soon as the race started, I pushed ahead to lead the pack. It’s easier chase than be chased, especially when on technical terrain, but this year I’ve tried to take leads early, even if I have to give it up later on. There are still certain types of terrain that I can have difficulty on, and one way of mitigating that problem is to have made up plenty of ground before reaching it. As it was going to be fire road for a while to start with, I had all the more reason to try to lead.
As it happened, the first mile or so was along varied types of fire road, all at a runnable, but firm incline. Slievenamon and Annagh Hill tested me with big showstoppers of hills, but I’d not raced on a long gentle grind of a hill in a while, and I actually surprised myself with how well I handled it. I maintained a dominant pace the whole way, knocking out a 7:07 mile through 80 meters of elevation, which is certainly up there with comparable mile climbs I’ve done on trails. I was already going to be taking a positive from this race now, no matter how the rest of it turned out.
The fire road veered off into some easy trails after this first mile, though the gentle incline remained. I’d felt another runner on my tail for a while by this point, and decided it was time to let him go ahead. With things getting a tad more technical, I didn’t want to set the pace any longer, and it was too early in the race for me to get caught in a battle. Judging from his name and accent, I believe he may have been Spanish. I had a nice bit of chit chat after the race with him too. Really nice guy. After maybe half a mile of this gentle trail, another two runners came past me, right before we came onto a section of rocky open mountain. An inner city runner might have called this section open mountain, whereas a seasoned mountain runner with big bushy beard might have called it fire road. It seemed a cross between both — there was a wide beaten track, but I wouldn’t put my car on it. This section would go on for around two miles in total, with sporadic changes to its topography, and it really should have been my strongest section of the race, but things went a little awry before long into it.
A little into this section, with three runners in and around me, I rolled my left ankle on a sharpish turn into an incline. It was the most pronounced ankle roll I’d had in almost a year, and it took me a good two minutes to get a steady stride going again. As much of a nuisance as such an incident can be, I find some enjoyment in dealing with the unexpected in a race. Ankle rolls to me are not a license to back off. Instead, they instil in me an obligation to up my focus. I managed to get back into the mix after a few minutes, but then came another problem that I should have been prepared for — the heat. The sun was blasting down now, and I was just after going through a few minutes of high octane action — my long sleeve compression gear was overkill kill now, and I didn’t want it anymore. Unfortunately, I couldn’t remove it, as I didn’t think it would have been acceptable to run topless, and it would have been a chore to pin my race number to my shorts during a race. I won’t run again in long sleeves without having a shorter sleeved top with a race number in my backpack. It was sizzling heat, and I was suffering a little now. Thankfully, after a glorious fast technical downhill section on contouring stony ground, we hit a stream. I took an extra second or two here to splash my whole upper body. Worth it.
We were now onto a constant incline towards the summit, which would largely consist of a lightly rocky and dwindling path through heather. After my earlier woes, another two runners were now ahead of me too. I was in sixth, which really wasn’t good enough. I also looked to have lost a little too much ground to make up, given that there were only two miles or so left.
Chris passed me just past the summit, going onto the descent. He’s always there or thereabouts near me whenever we race each other. I put up no fight whatsoever here. The terrain was similar to the climb on the way up — a dwindling path through heather. Unfortunately, while the rolled ankle was manageable on the climb, I was unable to descend this terrain at a good pace with it. This was frustrating, but I just had to take it slowly. To be fair, I don’t think I would have had much of a chance to have caught Chris even with a good ankle here, given how flawlessly he flew down through the heather.
At the end of this section, I was into fire road again, and a marshal indicated it was fire road all the way now. I checked my watch, and could tell I had just over a mile to go. I knew too that I was around half a minute behind Chris. It had to be almost all downhill the rest of the way, so I just went for it, as I always do in such situations. I powered on down to the finish so, knocking out a 5:25 mile, and regaining one of my lost places along the way — a small personal win on an overall disappointing race day.
An achilles niggle I’d been nursing for a few weeks didn’t cause me any problems here, nor did my delayed leg recovery from earlier in the week. My energy level throughout the whole race too was just fabulous, especially when able to knock out that final mile like that after eight action packed miles. If you want to tell me I need to be carbed to the max on a daily basis to perform well, you’ve lost that one. Some positives to take so.
And so that was how it all went. The result was disappointing, and I learned something from it. I always try to find some positives from a result, but it’s important to accept when the negatives outweigh the positives. This was my first genuine underperformance of 2018. After the race then, I had a quick dip in the river near where I parked my car. It’s not often there’s an opportunity to do that after a run, but cold water is known to help with recovery.
As for the event itself, it was very well run, as I’d expect from an organiser like Cormac. There wasn’t much guesswork needed on the route, but there was still a marshal everywhere one was needed, and clear markings everywhere else. The atmosphere was great too, helped along by the sunshine. Everyone there was willing to chit chat before, during, and after the race.
The route too was lovely. It would have been a great one for beginners, with enough in it too for more accomplished runners. There was plenty of variety in it, without getting too technical, though it had some small technical parts. It’s nice to start and finish with a fire road, ensuring no early bottlenecks, and allowing sprint battles at the end. And of course, it’s nice to get a full eight miles of a race, which is longer than the typical weekly IMRA race.
Next up should be my first double race weekend of the year — a light OCR in Offaly, Croghan Hill Challenge on the Saturday, followed by the opening race of the MMRA summer league on Sunday in Clonakilty. I expect to race both, barring getting too battered on the Saturday. I’m optimistic about Saturday too, given I always race well after a cinema trip the night before, and this Friday night looks like a cinema night.
For anyone looking to get into a bit of trail running, have a read of my post on the topic, which is part of a series of posts aimed at getting people Tough Mudder fit in time for Tough Mudder Ireland’s July event. Use code TM18PAUL for a discount.
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