When a marathon plan says that you are due to do a 3 hour run (20 miles), thinking up an excuse for not doing it is high on the agenda. Running a 10K race was my solution for at least postponing this inevitable almost-marathon. Today was the 4th annual 10K race in aid of Carlow Hospice, which started at the Rugby Club and went by Oak Park, onto the Dublin Road and then back to the start.
My wife and my running partner joined me, (Rozz did the 5K). I really wanted to break the 45 minute barrier for this race. I’ve never really gotten too near this but I had a feeling that if I got a decent start this morning I would be able to do it. Rozz wanted to break the 30 minute barrier for her 5K but neither of us told each other this before the race!
Thankfully, I did get a decent start, with my first km in under 4:30min. I found myself running with 3 others in a small group but 2 of them sped up to 4min/km fairly quickly so I slipped behind with some other guy, who wasn’t in the mood to chat.
I kept up a general pace of under 4:30min/km for the rest of the race so was delighted to get a time of something around the 43 minute mark. I forgot to turn off my time on my phone so it recorded the 0.04km extra where I was trying to catch my breath. I’ll check my official time later.
For the first time in a long time, Rozz wasn’t at the finish line to greet me. Due to my weekend travels and long runs the last month, we haven’t had a chance to celebrate my birthday properly. One of our traditions is to make a luxury breakfast for each other. 3 weeks after the big day, I got my just rewards with bagels, smoked salmon and loads of other yummy treats!
However, in bad news, my running partner hadn’t registered for the marathon yet so we decided before he left our house, (he joined us for my birthday brekkie), we would register him. We tried to do it online but it seems the closing date for entries was the 1st of October so he won’t be able to do it. To make up for it, we’ll do the Waterford half-marathon in December but in the meantime, he’s still going to keep training with me and cheer me on on the day.
Predicted Marathon Time: 3:19:57 (Ha! No chance!)












