Before Covid became a horrible reality, I had the pleasure of running the last running of this race back in 2019 (3 years – yikes!). A lot has happened since then as we know but somethings still haven’t changed, the England men’s football team still can’t win a penalty shoot out, Mayo (not surprisingly) have not won Sam and the route for this race is was the same as before but none of these are necessarily a bad thing. I bumped into Trevor at the start but I didn’t realise that Timothy and Deirdre were further up. Not that it mattered as I wouldn’t have stayed with them anyway. Ann Higgins also made an appearance and off we went.
The course is quite rolling at the start due to the bridges over the canal. The second 2k or so was a lovely run along the canal which I would have been more than happy to continue on but we turned back on to the main road to head back towards Lucan Harrier’s very impressive track. I personally think it is a good challenging course due to the wind, the long straits and the rolling nature of the course. The field was well spaced out so there wasn’t much shelter in groups either. I left the 40 minute pacer after 1km and could see the 35 minute pacer at various points ahead but I knew I wouldn’t get across as I knew I started to slow. You do need to keep something in reserve as it is in the second part of the course were you can claw back time. I actually ran close to my best 5k time over the last 5k of the race. My time was 38.36 which I was happy with to some degree but as I hadn’t done many races this year, I felt I wasn’t race sharp which probably explained the slow start. Special shout out to Timothy who ran an absolute blinder and his time was just over 30 minutes. Trevor also won his age category.
As always Lucan Harriers put on a really well organized race with the marshals doing a great job in ensuring the 5 mile stayed a 5 mile and nobody went off course. Plenty of nice food and refreshments too at the end and the club hosted some children’s races before the race which gave a real family feel to the whole thing. I caught up with Deirdre, Timothy and Trevor at the finish line. Trevor found the last bit of the course hard work as the hills and straights had taken their toll. Over to you Trevor – My view of the course was not coloured of course by the fact that the wheels came off after 4 miles! I had nothing left in the legs for the last 1/2 mile which was my slowest km. Despite this I managed to win my category so I shouldn’t complain!
Overall a great morning out and would strongly urge Sportsworlders to do this race next year. It’s easy to get to on a Sunday morning and there is plenty of parking at the Super Valu close to the club house. It’s a cracking Super Valu by they way with the biggest cake counter I’ve ever seen in a Super Valu. Worth the trip alone for that
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