This was the first run of the 3 Counties Challenge summer series 2013, a series of races organised by the Carrick Roadrunners.
The Faugheen 5K was out in the lovely little village of Faugheen, which is just north of Carrick-on-Suir and really is on the boarder of Kilkenny – Tipperary and believe the centre of a lot of rivalry.
The course in this case was essentially a run around the block of Faugheen finishing up in the centre of the village. I’ve not been feeling the best for the last 2 weeks, blocked nose and all so there hasn’t been too many training miles put in, so I was unsure as to how this run would pan out.
It was cold, damn cold at the start line, but the crowd of over 200 at the start line kept the breeze away.
Number 3 heading for the start line
The pace at the start was mighty quick, in fact too quick I clocked a time of 3:45 for the first 1Km and even 3:55 at the 2Km mark, but I just wasn’t able to keep that pace going for the remainder of the run and so dropped back a bit. Once I found my rhythm my legs were a little heavy, but I carried through and clocked a time of 20:21 on my watch.
From the official timer I had a gun time of 20:27, a chip time of 20:22, and out of 213 participants I was placed 77th.
I’m not unhappy with the overall result, but I must get back into the training plan.