With a recent set of good runs in the blood I thought I’d give this Kilkenny Cat Run a go, well the 10Km version as I feel more up for the shorter runs.
Kilkenny Cat Run
The morning of the run was cold, the first cold day in ages, and by the time I got to parking lot at the O’Loughlin Gaels pitch, it was raining. There was a large field of runners for this race, and the fast majority took shelter within the club house. With just a minute or two before the gun, people started to file out to the start line and then it struck me, I’d forgotten my running watch, ah what a pain now I couldn’t pace myself correctly.
Anyway at the start line there was this weird little aerial device in the sky, more than likely a model helicopter but to be honest no one could figure out what it was, and I wondered if it was taking pictures, but in the end never found out.
Once the starter got us underway we went from the O’Loughlin Gaels club house at a mighty pace, a quick start again, but I felt up for it, so didn’t think much of it and nothing to report until the 3km mark. Then at this 3km mark I was running just fine and as I hopped a curve my bloody right hamstring just popped ! Ahh that made me mad, a cold day and I just hadn’t warmed up correctly, and that was it, race over.
Well not quite, I was in the middle of nowhere, so I had to run back to the finish line so I just kept on going, steady pace all the way, carrying my leg a little, well sweeping it really because if I ran in the normal way I could feel the hamstring pull again.
There was a stream of rain, but the course wasn’t that bad so I didn’t notice so much and as I made it back to the finishing area I caught a glimpse of the timing clock …. holy crap I was running my fastest 10km ever. I couldn’t believe it, this was really strange and I still crossed the line in a hobble, in fact a guy finished right beside me.
I stopped the clock at an amazing 41:34. Now I just cannot say how thrilled I was with that time, and yet I still had to slowly make my way back to the car park. Nothing more to say other than I’ll have the miss the race in Waterford next week, as there’s no way this hamstring is going to be ready by then. However this latest time is really going to set the bar high for next years runs.