Mike Griffin

Pauline pointed out that I was on a one a month posting schedule for the last few posts and I was sure there was no way I would keep that up last month. There was the National Senior XC and the MSBAC St Patrick’s 5k so I should be able to at least get two posts out in the month.

But no.

Things happened, circumstances conspired and here I am, a month later filling in past history.

The National Senior XC was held in Tullamore in the grounds of Charleville castle on a cold crisp spring day. By the time the race came round, the sun was peeking through the clouds and warming us all up nicely. We lined up in the usual pens and off we went for 6 laps of undulating but reasonably firm ground. Myself and Michael were making the early running for the club before he pulled away from me on the third lap. I was struggling badly at this stage but managed to pull it together again for the last lap to finish strongly and pass out two others that had been ahead of me. Overall the team came in second in the B grade with the girls coming second in the C grade in their first senior race as a team.

Next up was the MSBAC St Patrick’s 5k. This was one that I was hoping to go out and break 16 minutes. The weather was pretty good if a little cold on the day. I went through my usual warm up routine, strides, stretches and the like before taking my place near the front of the starting line. I think I ended up a little far back and to the left of where I should have been but it wasn’t a bad position.

The gun went off and I tucked in to a group but as we moved onto St Stephen’s Green, I thought that we weren’t moving fast enough and pushed on through to the front of it. I ended up in a group with about 6 or 7 others and was holding in well until about 3.5k in. I started to drop back a little from that point. I saw a marker for 4k and a quick calculation told me I was pretty close to where I wanted to be. It turned out the marker was in the wrong place which blew my calculations out of the water.

I tried to push on as we moved back on to Stephen’s Green but I couldn’t catch the Donore guy ahead of me. As we turned on to Dawson St, I tried to open up a little and held my place until I was passed by a Rathfarham athlete right on the line. I ended up in 18th place over all with a time of 16:11, equalling my PB.

I was disappointed at the end because I thought I had imploded and run 3:30 for the last k but when I got to look at my splits, I was closer to 3:15 for the last k. The markers were in the wrong spots all over the course it seems.

So it’s back to training now and a couple of club races before the National Road Relays. Maybe even a post or two about how I’m getting on before then too!