race report by Ann-Multiasker Clyne
After the high of the Clontarf 5 mile back in November, I started to look at other races of similar distance and signed up to the Lusk 4 mile event. To my horror, I discovered that the last race of the Meet and Train and the Lusk 4 mile were scheduled for the same day. Not to worry the races were scheduled for 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. respectively and it seemed possible to do both. Not one for doing things on my own I persuaded Alison Mackey and Michelle Byrne to sign up and be as mad as me in doing two races in one day. There is comfort in numbers after all!
Race day came and as weather conditions worsened we began to question our decision. We left the comfort of the Meet and Train post-race tea and biscuits to head across to Lusk. We arrived in Lusk with plenty of time to check out the race start area and decided to head to the nearest coffee shop to take cover from the heavy rain. Seemingly Lusk is a farming town and there are no Starbucks, Costa or similar coffee houses to be found. We headed to the second pub in the town where the bar man was kind enough to direct us to the bar area and placed us in front of an open fire. This is where we did the warm up of our wet runners, socks and clothes. It brought a whole new meaning to pre-race warm up!
It was hard to leave the pub and our pots of tea but as we had travelled this far we were now committed. By the time we got to the start area we were wet again and decided to take some cover in the local church porch some might say we were looking for divine inspiration to get us through the race. Alison, Michelle and I decided we would run this race together, we were feeling so miserable at this stage that we needed each other to get this race over and done with. The course was a relatively flat 2 lap course with a 200m hill to the finish. The route takes participants on the outskirts of the town onto the motorway and back in passing building sites and warehouses. If you read Catherina McKiernan’s race report (female winner) she is much more positive about the course!
Despite the rain and being soaked to the skin, we enjoyed the run and delighted with ourselves that we managed to run two races in one day. We were also delighted that we managed to complete the course before the snow came down. I’m not sure I’d recommend this race but the goodie bag certainly made up for the crazy day we had!
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