Today I competed in the Aware www.aware.ie 10K in the Phoenix Park. I made it out there at about 9.00am. The sun was just coming up over the Dublin skyline off to the east and combined with the frost laden ground was a very picturesque scenario.
Unfortunately, with this came ice on the park's roads. This was a major concern for the organisers as the start approached. I jostled my way to the front and as we set off I decided to follow those who had ran over ground in front of me and not come a cropper. Conditions were fairly treacherous underfoot but I did not see anyone take a tumble thankfully. My first mile went well elapsing in 06:29; mile two in 06:16 and mile three in 06:11. A sub forty minute 10k was looking possible. Mile four, which was primarily downhill elapsed in 06:14. Mile five passed in 06:33; during this mile we began an uphill section and mile five was a series of undulating hills that I found very tough and my heart rate went into the 180s. Mile six I slowed considerably and this is where I lost the possibility of achieving a sub forty, completing it in 06:58. On a positive I responded well in the last kilometre, which was a gentle negative gradient, completing it in less than four minutes. I crossed the line in 40:21, which beat my previous PB by twenty-eight seconds so I was very pleased with the morning's work!
The picture is of the Waterloo Obelisk, commemorating the Irish General, Arthur Wellesley's, AKA the Duke of Wellington, victory over Napoleon in June 1815.
