Notes
The Lakes 10km race in Blessington. Went down with Oscar (who was under the weather with a cold). The weather was good for a race but it was a bit windy. We didn't warm up well but still got in some jogging before the race went off. We positioned ourselves in the sub 40 section and it was perfect for us. The first 1 - 2 km were ok but I had the feeling that I couldn't go any faster - the speed just wasn't there. For the next few km's were ok but once again I felt that I didn't have any more gears. Oscar pulled away from me by about 15 - 20 meters and I just couldn't cope with the pace. I was happy to keep the gap at 15 - 20 meters and wait until the latter stages of the race when I was hoping my racing legs would come back to me. I hit the half way in about 20:31 and knew I would have to push on to get a good time. I was delighted that finally my axtra gears showed themselves and I was able to pick the pace up. The second half had a pretty tough (and long) hill and I passed Oscar just at the bottom of it. Despite his cold he was running well and was in pretty good shape when I passed him. The hill was tough and although I went up the first half of it strongly the second part of it was tough. I was passed by Kenny Egan (Olympic boxing medalist) on the hill. Once I got over the hill it took me a little while to recover. I then tried to push to make up the lost time to see if I could break 40 mins. I soon realised that it was out of range as I had nearly a minute to make up. I still finished strongly enough but would have finished a bit stronger if there was someone to target or a time to target. Blister was a slight problem at the end but overall got through the race very well. Delighted to have a time to aim for and very determined to get under 40 mins for my next 10km in 3 weeks (Donadea Forest run)