Sunday was the Naas 10 Mile race. There was a great crew from the club taking part. Including Karen who only decided 10 minutes before the race that she was going to do it. She had taken a couple of weeks off training due to a knee injury. I had a goal of averaging 04:25 per kilometre for the race. This was just below my recent half marathon pace. As usual, approaching the start I started to worry I hadn’t trained enough. When the race started I was near the back and began working my way through the crowd. I ignored my pace for the 1st kilometre as it is more a reflection of moving through the bunch then it is how I am performing. When my watch beeped for the second KM it read 4:17. I was pleasantly surprised with that, and delighted as the next 9 kilometres were around the same pace. As I began my laps of the canal my pace slowed ever so slightly but I never got that real stiffness that kicks in in the later stages of a half marathon. With three kilometres to go I caught up with a runner wearing a Celbridge AC running slip. As I pulled up to his shoulder he pushed on. For the next two Kilometres I remained just behind him. With one kilometre to go, for the first time in the race, I was passed by another runner. With 500 metres left I pushed hard, overtook the Celbridge AC runner and finished with a time of 01:10:41. Averaging 4:21. I am really happy with how it went.
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