Run the line Trail Race Dublin

I picked up Gearoid at around 7:30 am and off we went for the "Run The Line" trail race in the Dublin Mountains. I hadn't heard of this race before but the word on the street (various forums online) was that it's a nice trail and all proceeds go towards the Dublin and Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team.

We arrived just before 10 am at Lamb Doyles Pub and there was already a nice buzz around. Lot's of skinny, spadex wearing, weathered looking heads around, we were in the right spot alright. We got registered quickly and back to the car to get race ready ourselves. Nice and cold out so got changed in the comfort of Lamb Doyles pub and waited around chatting to some familiar faces.

No warm up to speak of and straight onto the start line with about 190 other people. I was somewhere in the middle initially and nearly missed the start gun with talking to people I hadn't seen in ages. Our group of 190 doing the long course (26 km) started at 11 am and then the short course (11 km) people, another nearly 200 people were off at 11:10 am. Pace was nice and relaxed at the start so I worked my way up the field into about 10th position to get a good run at the first hill. I wasn't to sure how I'd cope with the hill running due to the fact i hadn't run up any hills to speak of since the summer. So just took it stride by stride and kept plodding up the hill. To my surprise I didn't feel too bad jogging uphill and kept a steady pace. This was obviously early days and still had 90% of the race to go. After the first big climb up Three rock I was probably in the top 6 or 7. A nice route around Three Rock and then we were directed right along the edge of a forest up to Fairy Castle, the highest point on the course of 537 m. As sure as night follows day, after a big climb like that, there's a lovely downhill to be had. Off we bound down the other side of two rock and ran into pretty thick gorse bush growth which gave my uncovered shins a good scraping, never thought I'd be wishing I had worn tights. Man tights of course.

What happened next I'm not totally sure of but I overtook a couple of people and thought I was going mighty as the trail now took a route right by a barbed wire fence, which I thought at the time was quite dangerous if you slipped and fell on the wire so I was pretty careful. I kept up the pace and ran straight into a big bushy tree which I tried quickly to push around but on closer inspection the tree was huge and there was no way I was getting past. "What in the name of god did the people before me do?!" I thought as I looked right, down the hill a little to see runners I had overtaken skipping along a completely different path I was now standing on. Balls. I heard of no one else making the same mistake so it seemed to be just me that went wrong there so I don't know what happened, better keep an eye out in future. So in realizing I was wrong, I carefully hopped over the barbed fence and bounced my way down the open mountain side through the gorse to join the runners who were actually looking where they were going. No overtaking for a while I thought and just settle in behind a runner in black. This section was still downhill but the path was very narrow and the thick gorse made it tricky to spot good footing so there were a few "leaps of faith" taken to find some good grip. This mostly worked out ok but on more than one occasion it resulted in one foot not getting any footing and then ending up head over hills, rolling in gorse bush. Good fun and all but gorse isn't nice to be rolling around in too much. Eventually made it out the other end of the gorse section and took the fireroad/path down towards the main road and crossed here. Stopped up and had a cup of water, this was about 10.5 km down so another 15 or so to go.

Up again we went so took it nice and steady. Settled in with the runner in Black and we made a few "jaysus, tough going" comments to each other. Without realizing it I ended up pulling away from this runner in Black and I was on my own making my way through the trail. Some really nice trail/forest path sections here so really enjoyed this section. Feeling pretty good at this stage and really enjoying myself I was able to hold a nice pace and push the downhill. I wasn't too sure what position I was in but reckoned maybe 5th or 6th.

After that forest circuit with a nice climb, we were brought back again to the same spot to cross the road with about 10 km left. Threw back another half cup of water and off I went for the last big climb of the day Head down and just plodded up the hill again towards the summit of Fairy Castle. Left before the summit this time and continued around in a clock-wise direction back towards Three Rock. At this point I was out in the open mountain and had a good view all around me. Looking back and forward I could see no one at all. I was sure I had gone wrong again but to my delight after about another 0.5 km, sure enough there was another marshall directing me left, thanks be to god. No humour to take a wrong turn at this stage, feeling the effects of the previous 20 km now the next section was to be a nice downhill to the finish, well mostly downhill anyway. It consisted of mostly fireroad (with amazing views overlooking Dublin) and then back down the singletrack we had come up two hours previous at the start of the race. On nearing the last downhill section I could see another runer up ahead, delighted I might be catching someone I upped the pace and caught the runner who turned out to be Eoin Keith. I took him by complete surprise it seems because he upped the pace two and we were going very hard down towards the finish. We arrived down to the last 500 m road section together and on switching from hard downhill running to flat road running again, my legs had had enough, nothing left for a final kick so I just sat back and watched Eoin pull away, damn. Fair play to him though, serious kick in the last 500 m which landed him 3rd place so I ended up about 20 sec back in 4th place with 2:08:19 on the clock. Delighted with that, what a great event. Gearoid also had a great race finishing in 2:34:46 for a 29th place finish to his first ever trail race and judging by his reaction to it, it won't be his last! Padraig also only just back from injury had a brilliant race finishing in 2:33:02. Next stop, Art O'Neill for him the lucky dog.

Gaillimh Abú! Inter-county XC Santry

I ran this last year but I was in worse shape and had a long run in the Wicklow mountains the day before so this year with better preparation and a proper taper I hoped to do a lot better.

Arrived down to Santry in plenty of time and found registration to collect the race numbers. A few of Galways top runners missing so unfortunately for our team, I was in with a chance of being one of the scoring runners (top 6 from Galway County).

As we warmed up by doing a couple of laps of the course, we watched the women's senior race. It was aw inspiring to see Fionnuala Britton do her thing and lead out the race from the start and win by a country mile. She's very unassuming standing still but when she gets moving its a different story, she holds such a powerful stride the whole of the race, amazing to see first hand.

Running about 10 mins late we were off at about 2:35. The pace at the start of these XC races is ridiculous. You'd think your in a 400m race the pace that everyone starts out at. Everyone flat out to try get a good position for the first bend. The start is very wide but coming into the first bend there's legs and elbows everywhere as people jostle to get into a good position on the inside of the bend. Eventually came out the other end of the left hand corner and looked around to see Gerry just up ahead so caught up to him and stuck to his shoulder for a bit to settle into a comfortable pace. Things eventually settle down and everyone found their own comfortable gear. I went passed Gerry on a downhill section and kept what felt like an easy-ish pace. I knew I'd have to keep this up for  ~40 mins so I didn't go too hard. After the first lap I spotted a few sore heads in the crowd, Kill, Dec, Darragh and Bar turned up to show some support, this picked me up nicely and great to see them out supporting! It was just a case of keeping the head down and counting down the laps for a while, trying to keep the pace up but comfortable.

Sure enough with about 1.5 laps to go, Brian went passed as if I was stopped, I'm getting used to this now! I had planned to put down the shoe for the last lap but ended up picking up the pace to try keep with Brian for the last lap and a half. I possibly went out a little too soon so with about half a lap to go I was completely spent and it was just a case of gritting the teeth and getting home in one piece. With about 100 m to go a Donegal runner came out of nowhere and sprinted passed, having none of it I turned on the afterburners and running on fumes managed a sprint finish myself but didn't quite have enough and he held his position very well to come in just ahead, a great finish to a great race.

I was only 10 sec off my road PB for 10 km (if the 10 km distance is to be trusted, it never is in XC) so I was very happy with that. I don't think I could have left anymore out there.
Results are here: http://www.athleticsireland.ie/content/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/interco3013.pdf

Gary Thornton was 1st for Galway with an amazing run in 13th place followed by Vinnie McGuinnes who ran a great race to come 90th in 36 mins flat. Brian Bruton finished in his usual powerful finish to come 105th in 36:51 and then there was me in 111th position in 37:06. 5th and 6th scorers were Gerry Carty and Brian O'Connor.

Some serious standard of running, thought I might have been able for a top 100 finish but alas it wasn't to be this time around, maybe next year! Back to the drawing board.

A new average HR record too: Avg HR: 194 with it maxing out at 201. I can't say I didn't give it my all anyway!

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/405795621

Here's most of us at the finish, one for the mantle piece:

A nice roast chicken dinner ready and waiting when I got back to Galway, happy as a pig in XC muck.

Day 3 of Connaught XC in Ballinasloe

Well rested this week so I had hopes of being nice and strong in this race.

Straight away on arrival, met up with a few from the club and settled nice easy few laps of the pitches with Cian down in Padraig Pearses GAA grounds to warm up (7.7 km!). The course was to be 7 laps of a small loop with plenty of turns. The ground was nice and solid and the weather was fantastic so there should be plenty of grip with the spikes and no mud.

Met with fellow GCH'ers before the start for the all important photoshoot:

At about 3:15, a little behind schedule as usual, we were off. I'm detecting a pattern with these XC races start times! Settled into a nice pace for the first lap, loads of turns in the loop really breaks up the stride, constantly slowing down and speeding up is tough going! Pace felt nice and easy for the first couple of laps and stuck in behind some guy from North Sligo AC called Niall. I felt like I could easily go by him in the first few laps but I knew there was still 5 laps to go so held tough and see what was going to happen. On about the 5th lap, it felt like the pace lifted, looking back on the stats I don't think it did. What ever happened I was really struggling keeping up with Niall. On the last lap, the game was up for me, first Niall started pulling away and I had nothing to respond with, then Cian went past. Brian in his usual strong finish style went past as if I was stopped, on the 2nd last bend only a couple of hundred metres form the finish Gerry caught me and I usually have a nice kick but this time there was nothing. I looked back to see if I needed to pick up the pace to secure my current position but I was safe so just eased off the pace and crossed the line after 8km in 29:20 in 8th place. It turns out Niall was also a Novice so I was 2nd Novice home. Great running from Niall Hoey who apparently plays GAA and only runs twice a week. Now there's a blow to the confidence!

A nice 2.2 km warm down with Gerry gives 17.9 km for the day.

Not too sure what happened today, just didn't have it in the legs. Perhaps the build up week of no speed work and all easy running didn't help? Ah well, all in good time, softly softly catchee monkey.

There was mention of the Inter-counties in Santry on the 17th. Hmmm...