In flying form these days after a few quick races, so I entered the Stoneyford (Kilkenny) 10km with high hopes of bettering last years race.
I arrived in Stoneyford in good time, and managed a decent warm up, although my only slight worry was the fact my left ankle has been acting up a little recently so I was trying my best to monitor it, in the warm runs.
Due to the layout of the initial start line, which runs up the village main street and then back down again, I was determined to find a good starting position. I did and really the next thing to get clear in my mind was to pace myself from the start, which simply isn’t easy to do !
The first 1.5km was good, then I hit the long up hill stretch out of the village, I felt I was tipping along fine until the 40 min pace runner cam flying by me and then I knew two things, one I had started too quick again and two at the 3 km mark I was starting to slow from that early quick pace.
I found my stride and took on the hills as best I could, I know I still have to do some training work in regards to hills, I’m just not achieving the right pace on them. There was a great down hill stint at the 6km mark, however the 7.5km mark hill that came up next was really tough ! There was a lady that passed me at this stage, but she was great in giving encouragement as she passed, which really helped as I pushed towards the end goal.
The last stint of the run was super fast, mostly down hill, although there was one chap on a real flyer past me at this last stage, but never the less I was feeling good coming into the finishing line area.
Beating 43:35 from last year was the target and as I looked at the big digital clock coming into the finish I was over the moon 42 something was on clock, I could do it, I could break it and sure enough from the official time sheet [pdf] I grabbed a time of 42:52.
A full 40 secs better and not only that but broke the 44 minute mark, I was really, really happy with that run, not that the picture shows it !