Monday 16 May 2011

Sportsworld Five Mile Classic

My first race ever was the five mile race that constitutes part of the Adidas Race Series that annually build up to the Dublin Marathon; this was back in July 2007 and was the only five miles race I have done. Consequently, my five mile 'PB' was a tad soft and Sportsworld's Five Mile Classic in Terenure was a good opportunity to change this.
As it took place on Sunday at 10am I decided it was easier to run the 4.5 miles to the start as a warm up than to negotiate Dublin's Byzantine transport 'system'. I got to the start line with a little over five minutes to spare and we were off exactly at 10am. The course was a double loop of quiet roads of Terenure and begins with a gentle downhill gradient allowing a fairly comfortable 06:03 opening mile split. By now I was passing a considerable number of people who had set off too fast.
The second mile ended with the first climb up the loop's hill, which was a gentle enough but was into a very stiff headwind and resulted in a 06:10 split. The majority of the third mile took us to the top of the incline and ended on the flat stretch at the start, which combined with the stiff headwind slowed me to a 06:21 split; encouragingly I continued passing people. The fourth mile largely covered the same route as the first mile with a corresponding split of 06:03 and feeling strong. The fifth mile would be largely uphill against that stiff breeze and I began to suffer! Here I encountered a runner closing on me in a blue singlet and on about a dozen occasions he attempted to overtake me and I responded in kind; this continued for at least two thirds of a mile and we both passed about six others but the breeze's strength increased and eventually I buckled and he was gone, as were a number of those we has passed in the preceding half mile. Mercifully the end was in sight and the last mile split of 06:31 but a HR approaching 180 illustrated the difficulty of that last mile.
I crossed the line in 31:19, good enough for sixtieth place in a high quality field. Not what I had hoped for but with the windy conditions and considering I completed a marathon less than two weeks previously I could not be entirely disappointed.

2 comments:

ElmerM said...

Damn straight... and don't forget the "warm up"

Grellan said...

Good conditioning Westley and remember a PB's a PB. I know that with the right preparation and warmup you'll get much closer to the fast side of 30 minutes.