Report by Carmel Dolan
The Athletics Ireland 10-miler took place in the Phoenix Park on Saturday last, and what a hot morning it was!
I collected Bronwyn and Anne at 8.45 and we set off on our road trip to take on this daunting task.
As we knew in advance it was going to be a warm one, we drank water by the gallon (literally), apparently Irish water are pursuing Bronwyn having noticed the spike in her usage!
All the red and white singlets gathered around the start chatting about going out slowly and drinking water at the stations, but not me – I snook off down to the back like a BOLDIKOVA to regroup by myself as I get very anxious at the start of a race, and particularly for this race as I hadn’t run 10 miles since 2011.
My longest run this year has been Carol’s Monday night plod in Bushy of 5.5 miles so my challenge was definitely the distance rather than the speed.
Bronwyn had said she would use it as her long run and run with me which was so nice of her, but I didn’t want to hold her back (sorry for sneaking off Bronwyn!)
Most of my fellow runners who gathered around at the start are regulars at the Sunday long run (while I’m at Mass) so they knew they had the legs to go the distance.
There was a slight delay at the start which played havoc with my nerves, then, after about 10 mins, we were off. I decided to stay with the 90 min pacers which was fine up until mile 4, and then I could feel my face getting burnt from the sun and knew that I was catching a few extra freckles! I had to ease back slightly and not think about all the uphill that was ahead of us. I was feeling ok until mile 8 where I had to stop and drink a full bottle of water and as I started up again I was seizing up like an old rusty tractor, but to my delight Maeve came up behind me encouraging me to push on and squirted water all over me (thanks Maeve!) I lost the 90 mins balloon but didn’t mind too much as at this stage I only had 2 miles left and, much to my amazement, I was gonna finish this 10 miler. I was completely buzzed running to the finish line screaming and sprinting at the same time!!
Race reporter Carmel
I sought out all the SportsWorlders to see how everyone had found it and it turned out they all pretty much ran together and used each other for pacing the whole race, which was great and very rarely happens.
Anne Sweeney ran an absolute blinder of a race as like me she hadn’t run the distance in quite some time and has been suffering injuries is just back and back with a bang so watch this space!
Val Power is seriously some operator – out gallivanting with Bruno on Thursday and able to boom out a great 10 miler – you’re just awesome!!
Maria Finnegan also ran a great race even though she was feeling a bit under the weather.
Bronwyn ran a super race – and I’m glad I didnt hold you back!
Conor Kenny (CK) – well, where do I start – It all started with a BIG BANG!
I think I may finally need to do a long run, what do you think? After the gallons of water we drank at the start CK had to make a pit? stop after 400m into the race – I think he skipped the first 2 miles! Well done Conor you ran a fine race.
Olive (the non-runner) ran a terrific race and also hadn’t run the 10 miles before, so well done – you did amazing!
Well done to Anne, Mary, Audrai, Eileen, Emer, Derrick, Sean, Ray who ran brilliant races.
Finally superb running by Garrett Murran who belted home in 57 mins (this meant I was only at the 10k mark when Garrett was finishing!)
Sorry if I left anyone out! Results can be found on Myrunresults.com.
Afterwards, we retired to the Visitors centre where we had coffee, cake, and considerable banter.
Overall it was a great day out and although the race itself was pure torture, I guess the whole raceday experience made it very worthwhile!
Sportsworld results:
11th Gareth MURRAN 00:57:19
12th Enda KERIN 00:57:28
29th Sadanand MAGEE 01:01:10
67 Ciara BRADY 01:07:28
92 Conor KEATING 01:09:38
99 Paul HAMILTON 01:10:25
102 Dermot BROSNAN 01:10:28
107 Sean DONEGAN 01:11:01
149 Karl SHEVLIN 01:13:58
207 Stephanie BERGIN 01:17:47
290 Katie NUGENT 01:19:19
302 Derrick LONG 01:20:01
370 Simone DI RICO 01:23:28
Ray CARPENTER 01:23:00
372 Eileen ROWLAND 01:23:48
397 Mary Colclough 01:24:33
419 Emer CASEY 01:25:30
425 Bronwyn MURPHY WHITE 01:25:42
429 Maria FINNEGAN 01:26:04
445 Anne BELTON 01:26:39
454 Olive FOGARTY 01:26:58
488 Conor KENNY 01:28:14
492 Kieran LONG 01:29:52
493 Mary O’HARE 01:28:40
516 Valerie POWER 01:29:16
606 Carmel DOLAN 01:32:56
621 Meave KEANE 01:31:42
757 Audrai O’DRISCOLL 01:39:26
855 Sean O’BYRNE 01:40:17
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