Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

Last weekend, I took part in my first masters race. I’m officially old. Masters is for anyone over 35, so I’ve been eligible for a while but now it has actually happened.

In classic Ireland fashion, the organisation was relaxed. There was no pre-race information. Or any information on where the event was taking place (St Anne’s is a big park). Luckily, someone from the club knew. I got there and tried to find the registration desk. I marshall pointed me in a direction. It turns out it didn’t exist a and each club just had a pack of numbers. Also, they announced at the start of the race that the 6k was actually a 7k. But everything was smooth from then on in.

The course was muddy. Which is to be expected with cross country. Luckily, it hadn’t rained much in the days leading up to it so it wasn’t full of big puddles. But large stretches of the course were on grass churned up into mud, and so very slippy under foot. This made it very difficult to get traction and therefore the running was way harder. It was lovely to get onto the harder stuff each lap.

Blackrock AC was out in force and cheering us on each lap so it was lovely to be racing with the club. I finished in:

37:20

When Ted said he found the race very competitive I knew I was in for a tough time. I finished 170th out of 179 finishers, so a solid nine people behind me. So close to picking up the lanterne rouge. Maybe next year.

The Chevin Chase has been run on Boxing Day for decades. But I only took part for the first time last year. This week, I was back again,along with 23 other members of Hyde Park Harriers for a muddy, hilly run around the chevin.

The cameras missed me in the wood but here I am looking exhausted having just made it to the top of surprise view.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be the Chevin Chase without the traditional water dip.

My finish time was:

1:08:41

Around three minutes slower than last year. Not bad given I’m now 10% heavier. Lovely to see everyon and a big thank you to all of the volunteers who made the event happen.

I took an easy joy around Tymon for parkrun this weekend as I was feeling under the weather. It is nice enough: two laps and a gentle slope but no serious hills. The park does run right next to the M50, though, which does make it noisy. I had a lovely time, though, and was glad I got out of bed.

The Reindeer Run is an annual 3km run around campus. I was there so I think I’m in this photo somewhere.

I had mixed feelings about heading over to parkrun yesterday. I was out late (midnight) with the dad’s night out from Venla’s school and had been drinking (caffeine). So, my stomach was not feeling chipper Saturday morning. But I did want to try and run a quick parkrun so I put my fast shoes on.

When I got to the park, I did a warm-up lap. The paths were flooded and I tried to dodge around them but the grass was a marsh so I gave up on that plan. It was straight through them from then on. But ankle deep freezing cold water was not the start to my warm-up I imagined 😂.

It is a small parkrun and 14 of us lined up on the start line. The course takes in three laps of the park and each loop included 8-10 large puddles you had to run through. There was also a lot of mud on the corners so I had to take it easy there. I was in fourth on the first lap, but then the front runners went the wrong way and only the fifth runner knew which way to go, so it was the infamous peco incident all over again.

As well as the puddles and the mud, there was a massive headwind on the back half of the course. The wind was up to about 50 kph when I checked it after the run and it felt like it. It was so hard to keep going at any pace that I almost dropped down to a walk, and I was working at around 190 bpm at this point.

I crossed the finish line in 4th overall. This is an improvement on my previous overall best placement when I came 6th in a field of 79 at Fairview parkrun. I ran that in 22:32. Today, I managed:

23:21

That’s only about 20 seconds faster than I ran Father Collins parkrun despite pushing hard this week and using my super shoes, so that was disappointing.

There are lots of mitigating factors: I got there late and didn’t get a full warm-up, I had to slow down for the mud, the wind, I went the wrong way. With all of that gone, I would definitely be sub-23 and hopefully that will improve now I’ve added more structure into my training.

A big thank you to all of the volunteers who showed up despite the grim conditions.

About five months ago I decided to motiate myself by underaking a virtual run around Transylvania. I figured it would take me about three months based on running 30k or so a week. Then I got ill in September and October and it ended up taking more like five. But I’ve finally crossed the finish line!

The medal can stand up by itself and acts as a door knocker.

More parkrun touristing this week. I felt pretty ill on the morning but I forced myself to go anyway and once I got there I felt okay. Better than okay as it turns out: I went out taking it easy and backing off when I was really hurting and yet I managed to run my fastest parkrun of the year. Not bad for November.

23:46

The course was a brand new course due to building work so there is a chance it was a little short. But I’m taking it as a good sign that I’m on the road back to my old self.

The park itself is very pretty. It’s urban and under the flight path but the forst on the grass and the duck pond in the centre were beautiful.

Hartstown is on the outside of Blanchardstown and has a small parkrun in the community park that is also alive with football on Saturday mornings. The parkrun is easy enough: two laps and very flat but it is just running around a field. Luckily, I was there on their 9th birthday and scored two pieces of delicious homemade lemon drizzle cake.

Last weekend the Worfolk family took on Marlay parkrun. It is the biggest one in the city and very well organised with plenty of marshalls, a PA system and an organised warm-up. It is also a single loop with only one realy hill in it making it very attractive.

Everyone laughed when England made it through to the knockout stage. But we were minutes from beating South Africa and ultimately came home with the bronze. Well done, lads.