Race report Gareth Murran
The Sunday of the National Road Relays rarely fails to get the April sunshine. This year was no exception as the sun shone down on Raheny. The event is held in Raheny around a V shaped residential 1 mile course . The 1st runner on each team has the easier job of having a group to run with, whilst the rest of the team end up chasing for places.
Thanks to Paul Mitchell for his photos and all the club supporters out around the courses. Disappointingly we had no womens teams taking part this year but 2 mens teams.
First up at 2.30 were the mens masters mens with Derek showing a fine return to form with a fast sub 5 minute opener. Michael took up the difficult 2 mile laps and Trevor anchored the team home for the final one mile lap. The masters format is shorter with a 1-2-1 relay.
Michael seemed and Trevor seemed to be negotiating who would take the 2 mile 5 minutes before the start but they put that to one side once the gun went. The lads finished in 13th.
Club Sportsworld 00:21:09
Athlete 1 Saville Derek 00:04:57
Athlete 2 Cunningham Michael 00:11:02
Athlete 3 Sweeney Trevor 00:05:10
Our 4 man senior mens team were racing at 3.30. The senior race is a longer race with a 2-1-3-2 mile format. Such is the standard that all you can do is go out and hang on for as long as possible and fight with some of the smaller clubs. I was first up aiming to run under 10 minutes for the 2 mile laps. The advice from Emily and Myles was to go out as hard as possible whilst not putting it all out there in the first last. It’s a strange but exhilarating experience to be running along and see some of the best runners in the country just a couple of meters ahead.I went through 1 miles in 4.55 on par for my sub 10 minute clocking.
Coming around the first bend after the cheers have died down it’s easy to let the pace slow but now is the time to push. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to quit pushing, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement. Someone you know goes past you and you realize you want to beat that guy and there is enough in the legs.
Dying with 900M to go a short downhill gave me a chance to get my focus together. By that stage I was starting to chase down a few of the lads in front. With 400M to go Myles was perfectly placed to give the final shout. As I turned the last corner the lads in front were getting away. There was no more acceleration in the legs.
Trying but failing to increase my turn over it was a struggle to the line, almost running Kevin who I was handing over to down in the process. After looking up from the ground I was delighted to see the clock read 9.56. Under 10 minutes with a few seconds to spare. without doubt my toughest run in a while.
Kevin has been running great of late and put in a fine run on the one mile lap. He is sure to keep moving up over the summer. Getting progressively stronger and faster over his favored longer distances.
Karol ran a fine 3 mile time trial taking 2 places as he went around 3 times. Gavin then took over for the grave year shift. Gavin ran a strong 2 miler to bring the team home over 20 seconds faster than 2014.
Club Sportstworld A.C. 00:41:31
Athlete 1 Murran Gareth 00:09:55
Athlete 2 Curran Kevin 00:05:15
Athlete 3 Cronin Karl 00:15:47
Athlete 4 Finley Gavin 00:10:34
