All postings on this blog are provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confer no rights.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here:
Cookie Policy
After a great summer, were I kept up the training even in the searing heat of Spain, I’m back to race in the Piltown 10km. I was looking forward to this one as I lived for sometime in Piltown, and I even train on the bog road from time to time, so this was really a home town race.
I made it to the start line in Kildalton College, it poured rain, but still there was a decent crowd there, and I think everyone just wanted the race to start and when it did, boy did everyone go for it, damn the first 2km was fast, too fast in fact I hit a small hill and blew a cylinder, from there on in I just couldn’t get into my stride.In fact looking at the charts the 6 km mark was my worst point.
I tried to up the tempo once I got onto the Bog road, but a few people caught me and even their encouragement didn’t move up my tempo.
Adidas miCoach track of the Piltown 10km
On the watch I clocked a time of 45:04 (although the GPS on the phone was a pain as it kept dropping out), and on the official timing sheets I was given a time of 44:47 and placed 80th out of 192.
I must say I left the race feeling disappointed I wanted to at least hit a personal best after all the training put in over the summer break, but on this occasion it wasn’t to be. However on reflection it was clear that this was a race, a real race as in there were very few walkers, joggers, hence the quick pace at the start, I shall learn from this. Onwards and upwards towards the race in Kilkenny in September., it’s obvious that some constant training is needed in the next few weeks.
Back to race pace again and this time in Stoneyford, Co. Kilkenny and the Stoneyford 10km run.
The finish line at the Stoneyford 10km run
The first 2.5km was a bit funny as we ran up the street and then round some bails and down the street again and the crowd was a little too bunched to get around those bails, but once we hit that first hill the groups of people really got stretched out.
Nice course, well in fact it felt more down hill than up. The watch had me at 43:30 and from the results sheet [pdf] I had an official time of 43:35. Wow thats a personal best and some! I’m proud of that.
Adidas miCoach track of the Stoneyford 10km
I placed 39th out of 335 runners/walkers/strollers. Kate also helped with the counting of the finishers at the end.
The only sour note was in the final 2km spotting a chap being picked up by an ambulance. He was panned out on the road, completely out of breath.
The crowd was really bunched at the start so it seemed to take a while to get started. The rain, when it came was cold, but really once I was in the swing of things I didn’t notice so much.
There was only one long hill to this course so overall it was flat enough and in the end the clock had me at 0:44:12 and from the tag 0:44:05. That was just fantastic a personnal best I’m over the moon ! I placed 27th out of 361 which I’m also pretty happy with.
First run of the year and I start with a tough one, the hilly (which I only found out during the race) SplashWorld 10km out in Tramore Co. Waterford.
Still off the watch I clocked a time of 45:38 and from the official timing, I was set at a time of 45:49, and placed 60th out of 205 runners/joggers/walkers.
I’m still pretty happy with that.
Start Line of the SplashWorld 10km: I'm in there on the left
Finished a tough course in a race time of 0:47:26. When measured on the official timing chip it was 0:47:23 which makes sense as it took a few seconds to cross the timing mat.
Wow I must say that was a tough olde race in driving wind and rain, and to boot some tough climbs in there too. I was still left a little disappointed with the time, however I have my doubts it was 10km, my GPS tracker pegged it at 10.27km. On the tracker the 10km mark was measured at 46:03 which isn’t too bad after all. Still though I’ll try it again next year and see what happens.
Start line of Clonmel 10KM: I'm in there on the right
I was as nervous as hell about this Kilkenny 10 km, my first attempt at taking a run seriously!
Although in truth there was one other race back in the late eighties. I took to one County Kilkenny cross country race (in football boots), ending up just one place outside of qualifying for a national event, oh to the glory days … not !
Any how I took some time the previous evening studying the course. Lucky enough it was on MapMyRun which was really handy as I scoped out the hills, and figured the first half of the race was more or less a steady incline, but after that it was down hill or flat.
Race morning was a little hectic as I decided to bring my whole crew along but we arrived early enough to watch the start of the half marathon. Then we headed into the grounds of Kilkenny Castle where I did a series of warm up’s and warm downs.
Pre-Race Warm Up in Kilkenny Castle
I didn’t go for any fancy energy drinks or bars, just had some water and bananas. As the start time got closer and closer, he headed down the Parade, towards High Street, with my whole crew still in tow.
PdL's await the start of the Kilkenny 10KM Race
Then we bumped into my Dad, who was just passing through Kilkenny on his way to a Rugby match, so he took a few shots.
Rafa PdL pops by to say hello
Finally the call over the speaker system, the 10KM race was about to start. As I was setting myself up in the middle bunch of people I bumped into Frank Bradley. Frank is someone I’ve bumped into just a hand full of times, mainly at Kilkenny Open Coffee I mentioned to him that it was his post on Google+that altered me to the race.
The Kilkenny 10KM Starting Line
Now it was getting really close the buzz of the crowd was getting louder, and then suddenly with a round of applause we were off. I must admit I just couldn’t stop laughing, I don’t know why but I couldn’t.
Miguel PdL Passing the starting line
Everyone had warned me that the start of races can be quite quick, but I must admit the start to this race was so much quicker than I’ve ever experienced in training, and the down hill element of the first part of the run really didn’t help. A significant hill at the 1.5km mark put a stop to the early adrenaline rush, and got me back into a true rhythm.
The next part of of the race was fine, until I hit the 4.3km mark, I started to hit a steady incline, with head wind, right in my face, I found that hard, really hard. The steady incline remained until the 6.2km mark at which point I knew the rest of the race was more or less down hill.
I had this feeling that I had lost time on the incline so I tried to make it up on the decent, however around the 8km mark my legs started to wobble a bit and so I was never more glad to see the water station.
The last 1km was erratic, as in my running style went up and down and it wasn’t until I spotted the top of Kilkenny Castle that the last blast of energy came through and I headed for the line. I was delighted, I was finished in 46.25, which was just outside my imaginary goal time, still though I was delighted.
Picked up a medal for the first time in ages, well okay everyone got a medal, but still it topped of that sense of achievement.
The final running chart, and it’s for the race which looks like this
Kilkenny 10K Run
Here are my final thoughts at the finish line.
According to the official race results, I finished the race in 46 mins and 13 secs and placed 22nd out of a field of 80 (Mens section). Now I must say in reading that it made me very happy indeed although I noticed a number of guys finished really close behind me, which means if there was anything left in the race, they may have caught me !
They say it is all done in the training, and I can say this really held true for me, I really enjoyed the sessions as they were laid out for me through Adidas miCoach, and found a great knack to holding my phone while running, although I found holding the phone during the race was not the best, simply because I could not hear the instructions, well that’s a lesson learned.
Finally a word on the video blog which was also a first for me, I wanted to try it in some format and this felt like the best option. In fact the only time I felt it was bad was when I couldn’t train and therefore couldn’t post a video, and this feeling kept me motivated to complete this whole effort. I’m not sure I’ll do it again.
Slightly overestimated the half way point of this last training session, which meant I had a longer walk back home as I stopped dead once the 20 minute mark hit. However I was determined to keep it steady today, store up as much energy and enthusiasm for tomorrows official run.
I’ll head up to Kilkenny city later this evening to collect all items from the registration desk, in this way my head will be completely clear for the run tomorrow.
I have to say I’ve found the Adidas micoach mobile app, and accompanying web site just fantastic. It really kept me to schedule and heading into tomorrows race I feel confident that I’ve put the training in.
Yes I feel ready, the thing I loved most about this run was the steady pace kept throughout, it at least allows me to think I’ll be able to finish the official run in a decent time.
10K Session 27: Penultimate training session and I'm pushing it
Okay I’ve been so happy with the recent training sessions, but sprinting, boy to I still hate sprinting, I only managed to reach max speed on 5 of the 10 sprints!
