Bupa 10k 5th April 09

I drove to my friends house a couple of hours before the the run. He lives close enough to the Phoenix park to run/jog to the start. His wife and son and my son were helping out at the race so they headed off early.

Sean and I jogged over to the park and did some gentle runs along the grass as a warmup.

The weather was perfect, sunshine and no wind worth talking about.

There were 11,000 people registered, the start area was jammed with bodies, some running, some stretching but most were just standing around nervously waiting for the race to start.

As we made our way to the starting pens, Sean hopped into the 35-45 minute section. I kept walking towards the next section 45-55 minutes. I mentioned previously that I wasn't well prepared for the run, I had also been ill earlied in the week so I was just hoping to finish in under 60 minutes (60 was my out loud time, i was really hoping for something closer to 50). At this point I had no idea how the legs would react, I was a bit nervous about not finshing at a run. I had a mental picture of myself waddling across the line at a slow walk surrounded by grey haired old women.

Eventually the run started. It took me a couple of minutes to get to the start line.

Here we go !!
Start the watch, ipod on, get the legs moving.
Actually would like to move a bit faster.
Can't do it, it's wall to wall bodies, try to get through some gaps as they appear (not good at the gap thing).
Ah well, just go with the flow.
At the 1km mark at the roundabout I check my watch 5.38 (Sean tells me later his group went through in 4.30)

As they slow down the fat fuckers are still blocking the road. From the start to the 5 or 6km mark I have passed 100s of fat arsed people who obviously have a very high opinion of their abilities and packed into the 35-45 minute section. Some of these are still going to be on the course as night falls.
Don't get me wrong I'm no Eamonn Coughlan, I was overtaken by plenty of people too but I really got irked by the amount of slow runners who placed themselves at the top of the field.

I called out and waved to Christopher at the water station, I was on the opposite side of the road as I didn't need water at the time. Don't think that I had broken a sweat yet !

I had been chatting to a guy at the start, he was in his early/mid 20s and was saying that his target was 50 something (can't remember now). I met him on the hill just after the water station. I have to admit that I really enjoyed patting him on the back with the obligatory "well done, keep going" as I glided past.
I spotted a guy in a red top on this hill who was moving well through the crowd, I moved in behind him and used him as a target for a few kms. This also seemed to make the time fly by.

The downhills especially at the Kyber Pass (?) were too packed to make any time. In fact on a few occasions I had to do the baby step shuffle so as not to step on the people in front of me.

In the last 3 or 4 kms there were still quiet a number of people going backwards. It was noticable at this point that the arses were smaller.

The final straight (long run in) I managed to stretch the legs a bit and finally finished in 51.50.

Handed in the chip, got the goodie bag and escaped the melee at the exit.

Ran back to Seans house. I did receive some funny looks on the way.

Overall a very enjoyable day and some valuable lessons learned.