Mike Griffin

I did my first masters race last Sunday, the Dublin Masters XC in St Anne’s Park in Raheny. Liffey Valley had three teams entered, 2x O35 and 1x O50.

The race started off well and I tucked in with Ciaran near the front of the field. Andy was in with us too and we stayed there for the first lap. Coming on to the second lap, Jim let a roar at us and I tried to push on a bit. Started to catch the guys in front and kept at it. Caught up with some more in the next two laps. Half way around the last lap, Andy pushed on ahead of me and even though I tried to hang on to him, he pulled away. I kept plugging away and by the time we came around to the long finishing straight, I thought I could catch him and the others with him. With a big push, I surged past him and just ran out of space to catch the guy in 12th place.

So, another finish just outside the top 10. If I had been 5 seconds faster, I think I could have been in the top 8. Pretty happy with the run out though. I held tough for as long as I could and had a strong finish. It all bodes well for the Leinster Senior XC next weekend.