Well last week’s Sportsworld email headline has well and truly backfired on me. After calling out for race reports, somehow, I now find myself writing one. And all because I committed that most mortal sin – I didn’t wear my club singlet in a race. I also called out Conor Cavanagh for the same sin in the Dromana 5 last week. Talk about karma. Well, I can explain…. Last Sunday the first of the Dublin marathon race series took place, the Corkagh Park 5 Mile. I work with Irish Life, who are title sponsors for the marathon race series and the Dublin marathon itself this year and was doing the event with a group of colleagues. Irish Life Health kindly organised running t shirts for us. If something like this happens again, I will avoid photos with Sportsworld and go in disguise.
Anyway, back to the race and despite it being relatively nearby, I’d never been to Corkagh Park before. We’d been told parking was limited, so worried I might miss the start if I struggled to find a space and unfamiliar with the area, I convinced my husband to drop me out there bright and early on Sunday. He wasn’t impressed but I was glad of the lift as there were tailbacks to get into the car park and the place was already bustling with activity when I arrived.
While it was a bit cloudy initially, the sun soon came out and as I jogged around to warm up, I noticed my tired legs, possibly thanks to the Docklands 5K and Pride Run the days before. I gave up on the warmup and just made my way to a very crowded start area. I found Eileen, Padraic and Siobhan, we chatted for a minute or two and then suddenly we were off. I thought I’d tag along with Eileen, but after less than a mile gave up on that notion. She flew off into the distance. I cursed the sugar laden aperol spritz habit I picked up in Florence in April and settled into a slower pace. Once we got past an incline along by the road and turned back into the park, I took in how pretty it was. Corkagh Park was opened to the public in 1986 and consists of 120 hectares, formerly part of a manor house and its estate Corkagh Demesne. Running around it was not the worst way to spend a Sunday morning, out in the sunshine in a park full of wildflowers, around a pond, and with brilliant support encouraging us on along the way.
The temperature went up over the final few kilometres and it was a bit of a slog, especially the twisting and turning approaching the finish line, but we were well rewarded when we got there, with that happy finish line feeling and a goodie bag containing a t shirt (I do like a nice race t shirt – take note Mini Marathon) along with drinks and snacks.
Overall, a great morning and very well organised event. Well done to all who took part! And just so we are all clear, if you don’t wear the club singlet, don’t be surprised if you end up writing a race report.
