26 Sportsworld runners toed the start line this past Saturday for the annual 10K in Dunsaughlin. Thanks to all the supporters on the course.
We have two separate takes on the race from Gareth and Denis below. Click here for photos: Sportsworld Gallery
Gareth
The crowds come back to this race year after year. A combination of the June sunshine, relatively flat course and a great post race hospitality from Dunsaughlin AC.
Everything kicked off at 7.30 with a fitting tribute the late great Robbie Matthews who was a well known and respected runners around the local scene. Robbie sadly passed away last year. Like any fast 10K course, if you go out too fast in Dunsaughlin for the first 5K you are going to pay for it later. With a good block of training behind me I went out with a plan to run 32.4X. That meant sticking to 3.15 per kilometer for the whole race. After a slow start I started to work my way through the field. Hitting my targets along the way.
I went through 5K in 16:10. The first half is easier so it was all going to plan. By 6K I was starting too fall off the back of the lads I had been running with. It’s frustrating when you start to slow down. In training, you listen to your body. In competition, you tell your body to shut up.It’s hard to remember that sometimes until after the race.
People always talk about the hill at 7K and 8K. In truth they aren’t that bad. But like most I had probably pushed a bit too hard in the first part of the race and now any hump in the road looks like Everest. Love it or hate it, this is the part of the course with all the classic running quotes “Pain is temporary..it may last for a minute,hour, or day or even a year..but it will subside. If i quit, however, it lasts forever” Personally I find them welcome distraction as I’m generally getting anxious around this time that I’m slowing down too much and going to run a crappy time.
I love the last kilometer in Dunsaughlin. You come out into a wide open area with great support from the locals handing out water (note to self: learn to not drop all teh water cups) on either side of the road. As you get back to the center of town the numbers increase. It’s a tired but strangely easy kick to the finish for the last 400M. I’m always left feeling I could have given more when I can run 3.11 for my last K after feeling like I was gone at 8K.
Racing to get under the 33 minute mark and left questioning why you didn’t push on just a tiny bit more. Running is not about instant gratification. You have to work hard for it, sweat for it, give up sleeping in on Sunday mornings.
The runner’s high is a sensational reaction to a great run! It’s an exhilarating feeling of satisfaction and achievement. It’s like being on top of the world, and truthfully, there’s nothing quite like it.
Well done to everyone. I know lots of the guys ran PB’s including Karol, Gareth, Kevin, Eoin, and Sean. Great to see Damien back also. Apologies to anyone I missed.
Denis
You know it’s the very middle of summer when you are at the Dunshaughlin 10k.
Like Dunboyne a few weeks ago it is all that is good about running.
Clubmates, sunshine, fresh air, country lanes, friendly atmosphere, lots of local support and the best of food and refreshments.
Gave a lift to Conor, Anne and Madeline which was a great idea as for once I was early for and managed to do a proper warm up.
They say it is a fast course, well it probably is if you are a fast runner but for the rest of us it is to fast as I am to tall.
You hear mention of a “bit of a hill” at 6k,
(it’s a small mountain, and just when you think you are over the top of it you turn a corner and its little annoying brother rises before you.)
“There is a bit of a drag in the second half” they say.
(It climbs for a few miles, a few in these parts being 4 ish)
“There is a downhill finish”
(Yes there is…… for at least 50 yards)
So no it’s not fast or easy but that’s not what makes it great, it’s the good weather, the country setting, the locals with water stations outside the houses and one even had a garden hose for the horses really feeling the heat.
Oh and one other thing,
THE RICE CRISPIE BUNS THAT THIS YEAR WERE MADE WITH m + m’s AND SPRINKLES.
You see the trick to successfully running Dunshaughlin is not the fitness or race planning or winning, it’s knowing not to hang around after the finish line vomiting and wheezing and gulping water while trying to better every story of how hard that was.
It is to get the 10k done as fast as possible, beat as many competitors as you can on your one good leg and then tear back to the sports hall cos they only make about 10 Rice Crispie buns.
Others may not know about them, some rumors say they don’t even exist, that’s because I speed eat them once I find them. Sorry rest of the field, you snooze you lose.
The Dunshaughliners make a reported 4 million ham sandwiches but only 10 Rice Crispie buns. I don’t know why, I just know my stomach feels sick cos’ I ate them, all of them, and the m+m’s.
10km’s as hard as you can go, lose about 3 pounds weight, quickly followed by putting on half a stone in buns and biscuits.
And that folks is what Dunshaughlin is all about!
Sportsworld results:
Karol Cronin 32:21
Gareth Murran 33:02
Gavin Finlay 33:40
Damian Kelly 35:24
Kevin Curran 36:11
Michael C 36:16
Joe Byrne 38:06
Olivier Privat 38:31
Ronan Masterson 39:27
Noel Tobin 39:33
Sean Donegan 39:49
Eoin O’ Brien 41:40
Denis Mccaul 42:24
Adrian Lanigan 42:55
John Flaherty 44:05
Anne Dalton 44:58
Ann Higgins 45:40
Killian Dirwan 47:16
Aileen Melody 47:45
Ray Carpenter 48:01
S Willoughby 48:14
Madeleine Byrne 48:13
Conor Kenny 48:42
Clare Paley 48:56
Emma Barry 50:21
Maria Finnegan 50:22
Sean O’Byrne 58:44
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