The National Road relays took place today in Raheny. This is one of my favourite races of the year. Since I began running with the club in 2009 I have ran all but one of the road relays. In previous years, I ran the 1 mile leg which I honestly prefer but in recent years as more of our Senior runners at into the Masters category I’ve been running the two miles. It really is a great team event.
This year I haven’t had that much training. I really only began properly again at the beginning of March. Contract that with last year where I had one and a half years of unbroken training. I went out today ambitious as ever to run under 10 minutes for the 2 miles. Did I think I can do it? To be honest not really but the best way to actually do something is to picture yourself doing it. However before the race I was feeling a little under the weather even dizzy so I’m glad it went off without off smoothly.
The first mile today was really good. I ran a solid 5 minutes. Once I got to the halfway point I was struggling to maintain that pace. Last year I felt full of energy at that time. Today I tried to push as hard as I could into the wind on the second lap. This works pretty well as I didn’t lose any more places until the last 150 metres. My problem as of late has been that I don’t have a good turn of pace. This is my natural strength. The 2 lads i was running with kicked and I was left.
This Wednesday the 1st of the track races of the year takes place in Santry. I hope to run the 800 metres. It’s at this time of the year every year that we say to ourselves why didn’t we start training on the track sooner. The road relays are exactly like a track race. Intense and demanding from the start. It really is go hard or go home. There really is nothing like a good fast paces middle distance race. This time next year I’ll be running as a master. Crazy I’ll be 35. Lets win this thing.
