Seven and a half laps in the sun.
Leinster Masters Champs in SETU Carlow
There was a bit of a debate about this in my head in the morning. My right calf has a slight pull from the last session on Tuesday. I’ve taken it relatively easy since so the question is am I going to Carlo or not?
Tested it with a light jog down the street and back, feels okay, so Carlo it is. ( maybe Monte Carlo :-)
It’s a wonderful hot sunny day, something else to worry about. Funny how at home I feel walking around the track to collect my bib with all the events going on. My event will be around 2:30 pm, so with an hour till then I just change in the car and walk back to the track spikes in hand. The call up tent is at the back grass, so I sit down close by it to observe a few events. The last track event I recall running was the Northern Ireland 10,000m championships, over 35 years ago. I will have a lot to live unto, considering that I won that.
The field isn’t big, just the four athletes and two of those are M70’s. I put down 11min 20sec as my estimated time, simply based on my last 5k race. Martin McDonald has put down 11min 30sec. The implication is that I will have to work for this, but hey the worst that can happen is that I’m second ( provided I finish of course).
| Pat MC CAVANA | Blackrock (Dublin) A.C. | Dublin | O65 |
| Martin MCDONALD | Ballyroan Abbeyleix and District A.C. | Laois | O65 |
| Mick REDMOND | Thomastown A.C. | Kilkenny | O70 |
| Brian MCGRATH | Le Chéile A.C. | Kildare | O70 |
I warmup around the GAA fields out back, not too fast, gently easing my calfs into race mode. Going round the calf gets a bit stiff, but I’ve come this far so let’s see how it reacts to the first lap. Change into my spikes and hear my name over the intercom. Looks like I’m a bit late, so hurry over to the start line on the track. Theres no time to think before the gun starts us.
90 sec laps were what I was hoping for, so keep a decent pace and reached 200m mark at 45 sec, so knew I was at race pace already. With no one ahead I just kept that pace and kept a 91 sec lap pace. My calf kept at the same level of strain after each lap, it just meant that I was not prepared to increase the pace. At least until the last lap, when I tried to recover those lost seconds of each lap.
 with Mick Redmond (1st M70) |
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So that’s how I came 1st in the Leinster M65 3000m championship in 11min 13sec.
Now it get more curiouser. Seems that the championship record for the event is 11min 31sec. That makes me smile. Don’t worry I won’t get carried away, come the Irish champs I’ll be lucky to get close to 19 minutes for the 5000m, and I’ll need that to be challenging for a podium spot.
