Back to the road again this time, and I could be racing four road races in total in March by the looks of it! I had a glorious race the previous weekend at Bansha Woods. I didn’t win, but I ran a superb race. Got my tactics right. Felt super strong all the way. Brought out a powerful performance on undulating terrain, and on a day when I started off a little unsure of myself.
Brickey
My last road race was County Novice. This none would be Munster Senior. This was a whole other level altogether, and it was completely beyond the realms of possibility that I would challenge for a top spot here. Odds are that I never will at this level. But that’s the main thing that I enjoy about road races — the high standard. I’d rather finish in the top ten here than win County Novice, as top ten here would be much tougher to do.
I want to win medals, as they’re a nice sentimental reward, but winning fewer will probably push me harder. Winning is the ultimate goal, but it’s better to lose in the long run. It’s a funny little paradox. Getting soundly beaten in races like the National Cross Country or Carrauntoohil is strangely enjoyable for me. I think only one or two of the wins I’ve had would make it into my top 20 most enjoyable races! Even aside from the incentive to improve, I find it an amazing experience to be running side by side with people faster than I’ll ever be.
So naturally, I was looking forward to this one, knowing full well I’d be punching above my weight. Off to Brickey GAA club outside Dungarvan so, to represent Clonmel once again.
Lead up
I hadn’t any concerns in the lead up to this race, and the body felt good. I’d gotten some quality runs in during the week, including some mile trails, and a good speed session comprised of 400 meter intervals. I had been in and out of a mild calf niggle in the early weeks of the year, but it hadn’t reared its head since. It was a pesky niggle — never seemed to noticeably impact any of my races, but it show up come a race or speed session, only to fade away a few days later, before the cycle would continue. I think the weekend off racing and speed work the weekend between Castlecomer and Bansha really helped with this. Had a really good session with the physio too four days before Bansha, where the dry needling was the most intense it’s ever been. I threw something new at my legs this year in the form of more regular and more thorough speed work, and so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s taken my body a bit of time to adjust to.
My morning route before the race was the same as usual, except for the addition of a can of Red Bull. I forgot to mention in my previous review that I downed a can of Red Bull before the race. Since I was feeling a bit drowsy waking up the morning of the previous race, I wanted to give myself an extra jolt. I’m normally fairly energetic and lively, and so this isn’t something I’m used to doing. As such, I didn’t really know what best to use, and at that time of the morning, I was limited to whatever I can pick up in a garage or shop. Red Bull seemed like a reasonable choice I guess! And since I had a surprisingly perky race afterwards, it was only natural that I’d throw another can into the mix again this week. And so I did. Apart from that, everything else was as it normally was for me — jogging around, occasional chit chat, and scoping who’s about.
A nice thing about races like this is that the men and women run separate races. This allows us to watch at least part of each other’s races. And so before jogging up to the start area, I hung around with everyone else to watch the women pass the 1K mark near the finish area. It was already looking super for Clonmel, even at that early stage. We had three in the top ten, another three in the ten, and this included Courtney and Angela in fourth and fifth. They looked course to bring home medals, and shinier than average ones. Off to the start line myself then to dawdle, warm up, chat, and try not to get cold waiting.
Race
After some waiting around, we finally got notice that things were about to get going. At most domestic races, I try to toe the front line if I can. This wasn’t one of them. There is no danger of me challenging for the podium at a Senior level Munster race, and so it was only right to leave the front line for those who could. Once we got going though, I did feel quite boxed in among the pack. The road was quite narrow, and it wasn’t possible for me to get to the outside to get around people. This was probably helpful though in reigning me in a little at the start.
As the second mile progressed, things started to look a little dicey. We had just come through a savage headwind, and I may have fought the headwind a little too much. I felt like I was running reasonably strong, but other runners were slowly edging past me. It wasn’t just one or two though — at least half a dozen trickled past. Was I slowing? I didn’t feel like I’d done enough to have overdone it, but maybe I was about to have the first off-day of the my racing year. This is never a nice feeling! I also don’t have a good record of recovering from a poor start in a short race. When I start to fail in a short race, it’s a death sentence. All I could think to do was to just sit back 10-15 seconds off pace for a minute or two to let my body and my head settle.
Around the two mile mark though, I felt strangely confident all of a sudden. Whether mental, physical, or a bit of both, I just felt more capable. I hadn’t hit the wall, and there were still two miles left. I felt I could start winding the intensity up, and just daisy chain my way back up the pack. And I did just that. Once I start daisy chaining my way up through a field of runners in the final few miles of a race, I always stay going strong until the end. It’s one of the hallmarks of my racing style. I get fierce momentum from passing people, and it just energises me in a kind of feedback loop.
I enjoyed this one. I recovered well from early doubt in a short race. I place 12th in the Novice category, and 21st in the Senior category. Unfortunately, Clonmel’s men couldn’t get a team placing here. Lots out injured at the moment, and when combined with this level, it was a tall order. A few of the men did bag individual Masters medals though, and right up in the categories too. Our club has regular representation from people more than twice my age. I placed second on the Tipp team that took the bronze Novice, and third on the team that took bronze Senior. Combined Novice, Senior, and Masters events at Provincial level are very complicated when it comes to totting up scores. I think it’s all done pretty much by hand too. If someone can point me to the appropriate people, I will literally create a software application myself to help calculate placings after races.
Clonmel’s women stole the headlines here for the club. They took gold in the Senior team placings, and silver in the Novice team placings. And they did it with some breathing space too — had any single one of them not raced, they’d still have taken home the same number of team medals. Oh, and of course Angela McCann brought home her share of individual medals! Well, I actually brought them all home, as I said I’d hang on after the event to collect all the medals.
Totting up the placings took a few hours, but hanging with Dundrum’s Kevin Moore helped pass the time. Kevin won the Senior race here, which continued the unbelievable run he’s on at the moment. He recently won the Brighton Half Marathon, and also won the four mile New Year’s Eve run in Central Park over in New York City. Superb runner who’s still got it all ahead of him, and an absolutely sound out lad to pass the time with and shoot the breeze about racing. I regret thinking in recent years that road runners weren’t very fun people. A few bad experiences made me think that, and made me appreciate the laid back mountain runners more. The more road runners I’ve gotten to know in the past 18 months though, the more wrong I realise I was. Road runners and mountain runners are generally quite different kinds of runners from my experience so far, but there are many great folks and a few eejits on each side of the fence.
I have some pre-conceived notions about triathletes too, so hopefully doing one or two triathlons in the near future will show me that they’re largely a sound bunch of lads too. I’ll not hold out the same hope for fundamentalist CrossFitters though 😉
Next
Next up is a big one for me — the Kilsheelan 10 Miler. It’s a big one because Kilsheelan is home, and that matters a lot to me. I’ll be gunning for this one. I’ve a pretty good record near racing near home in the past 18 months, but I’ve yet to win a race really close to home.
This race presents another challenge for me, in that it’s a fair bit longer than the kind of races I’ve focused on in the early part of this year. Ten miles isn’t long for me, but I’ve not raced longer than six miles in over three months. All of my races in that time have been fast and intense. My training has been geared towards short distance too. It gives me a good opportunity to test how well I can adapt to a different distance in a short space of time. Ten miles is fine though. A half would take a bit more effort, but ten is fine. I’ll be more than ready for it.
It would have been nice to run at Runamuck on the Saturday, and I redeemed my free entry from winning it the previous year, but having a road race as the second race of a double race weekend just doesn’t work. I could manage an obstacle race or a trail race on a Sunday after racing the Saturday, as those kinds of races allow for more shifting of pace/load and opportunities to recover. A road race though needs 100% commitment, and this one all the more so. I’ll do everything I can to win this one. A ten mile PB is a must at this, and hopefully that’l be enough to get me over the line first. But if not, at least I only have a three minute drive home afterwards 🙂
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