A Curious Milestone

Up at cockcrow this morning for my long run - this club athletics involvement is playing havoc with my diurnal rhythms. Anyhow, on with the Garmin and iPod and off down the river on a mizzly morning. And hey bridge-watchers - the Samuel Beckett has been swung across the river to the north bank and Spencer Dock. It seems to fit and it must be the first time the engineer that drew up the plans has slept peacefully in two or three years. What if had been half a metre short of reaching across? It is not scheduled to open until next year. Presumably they need to test it to make sure that the fecking thing doesn't collapse into the Liffey, taking all and sundry with it, on its first day of operation.

Plodding along I decided to carry on along Pigeon House Road - where I would normally turn up Sean Moore Road, to seek out the way to Poolbeg. Only to come up against a dead end at the end of the industrial estate there. But hanging a left down between a couple of industrial units brought me out onto Sandymount Beach. And once again I chose the sand to run along being in a very slow mode. On through the DART level crossing, through Booterstown and onto the end of Blackrock Park where I turned again for home. I'm running extremely conservatively at present, very much in base miles style as I seek to find some semblance of form. For me of course speed is very much secondary though, like anyone else, I am keen to record a respectable time when it comes to racing.

On the way home I stopped to examine a real, old-tyme milestone. I must have run past it fifty times without really noticing it. It must be pretty much near its original spot as it shows the figure 4 on one side (to Dublin) but the 3 on the other side had me puzzled. It is three miles from there to Dun Laoghaire but whatever the worn letters said it wasn't that town. It was only hours later that I realised it must be in fact Kingstown, the old, British name for the port of Dun Laoghaire. D'oh!

So there we were - 10.88 miles in a shade under two hours. 22.9 on the week. Maybe I need a Half later in the year to work towards to persuade me to up my game a bit. But at least I'm sorta enjoying my running again.

Dublin Juvenile T&F Champs - Day 1

Action all the way at Irishtown today - once the stadium had decided to open up at 10am for a 10am start. Dublin CC don't cover themselves in glory in the way they manage the centre. The control and organisation of the day otherwise went smoothly with an experienced cadre of officials assisted by various people hooked in from the clubs - me included.

Crusaders have around 50 youngsters in action over the two days. Today they threw themselves into their events with their usual enthusiasm. For some of the newer ones it was a baptism of fire, especially on the track. Even for some of the 'old hands' i.e. those that have been with us for the 10 months or so since the Open Day that kick started the junior section, it was not all success by any means. And the club has a big part to play in helping those young athletes to continue to enjoy their athletics when they are not winning.

But we had a steady stream of finalists and even medalists. Isabel O'Leary found herself on the podium for long jump and (I think) 60m, with hopefully more to come tomorrow in her throws. Niamh Ferry and Emily Shiels made their sprint final. Orla Murray was third in long jump. Alix Hughes returned from her 80m final to take her last five discus throws in succession and won the gold.

There may have been other successes but I was skipping around the outfield after discuses most of the day. As I have said before the Dublin throwing talent pool is low. Most of that talent lies with Phil Conway's older Crusader lads, though Raheny and Fingallians are doing their best to raise the standard. Sarah Fleming - not throwing well at present, had a free pass in the U18W shot and discus with little opposition apart from Niamh McCarthy. We've not seen Niamh at Irishtown for many months, but she is nevertheless throwing very nicely and put out a best 28-metre throw today to progress to Tullamore together with Sarah.

Fair play to Dublin - they keep alive race walking in these championships. This arcane branch of the sport is relatively strong in Ireland with two senior athletes competing at world level. Today however a total of four girls turned out. The first two were just about passable but the last girl on the track looked as if she was walking down Grafton Street with her shopping. Reminded me of how we at Jersey Spartan used to encourage our athletes (including my poor daughter one year) to fill up spare time at the Hampshire Championships by picking up cheap medals in the walks.

So onto tomorrow and what may transpire.

Dublin Juvenile Relay Champs & Team Competition

The weekend was an undoubted watershed in the life of Crusaders AC, especially the junior section. On a gorgeous Saturday morning at Irishtown I counted no fewer than a dozen coaches in action. Many of these have just completed the entry level course and are showing huge enthusiasm to get involved and to learn. It all means that the young athletes can be split into smaller groups and can get more focused attention. It was all highly pleasing.

Compare with only a few short months ago when at one time we were reduced to one, maybe two coaches trying to deliver a quality session to a mixed group.

So onto Santry on Sunday lunchtime for (1) a little combined events team competition for the U10s and U11s and (2) the Dublin Juvenile Relay Championships. And for the whole of the day the distinctive white and red of Crusaders was prominent. (A year ago this meet will have taken place without a single Crusaders athlete). Medals abounded and there were so many high spots and only a few tears. Successes were greeted with great group acclaim and defeats were accepted with good grace. Picking out names on such a good day wouldn’t be right but the high spot was probably the win by the U12 girls’ team. The tragedy was the boys’ U11 race when, with a win well on the cards for a talented quartet, the baton went down at the first handover.

So we ended up with several teams qualified for the All-Ireland finals next month and we’ll look forward to that.

Most of my day was spent watching the action from the judges’ stand and out at the second handover zone waving green and red flags. The only downer on the day was my having to endure an aggressive and ignorant tirade from a Metro St Brigid’s member which lowered my good opinion of his club. Fortunately my officiating colleague persuaded me not to find another, more novel, use for my flags.

Relieved

A popular running podcast is entitled Running From The Reaper. As I type I imagine - after my downbeat post below, that my personal running reaper has decided to chill, sit down, have a fag and leave me alone a while longer.

After an OK-sorta early morning week of 2.5 miles (Mon), 3 (Tues) 4 (Thurs) and 4 (Fri) I set off with some trepidation for my long run this morning. Grumpily I had to haul my lazy ass out of bed early doors due to events happening at Santry later on. A warm morning and humid with thunder in the air. I trotted off very cautiously with a view to a standard 10 miles, downriver to Blackrock. On my iPod I had Phedippidations 190 - A Longer Life With Purpose. A nice episode, and spiced up again with further feedback on Steve's recent tirade against Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy because of their stance against the MMR vaccine. And for all of Steve's spirited defence of his position (which I tend to agree with) I'm not sure he has come up with the facts to convince the waiverers.

But how pleasant is it to be just plodding away along Dublin Bay, the sun shining warmly on the ships out in the bay, Howth Head to the north and Dun Laoghaire harbour down the coast, and my hat dripping sweat. It is a long, long time since I have felt 'in the zone' where everything is effortless. And it didn't happen this morning either. But at least I finished up my run nicely tired and satisfied rather than feeling like I'd been in a train crash.

And I have finally put aside my Asics Gel Cumulus with about 1250 miles on the clock, and have broken out my new pair. I have had a little knee niggle and, just in case everyone else is right and I am wrong, I am playing safe. Annoyingly the niggle is suddenly less apparent...

Maybe I am wrong - unlikely but ...

Concerned

Connemara was 11 weeks ago and I ran a good, aggressive race. And quite honestly it was the last time I ran really well. I have struggled along fitfully since, more or less managing my maintenance miles but without really feeling good. My two races since (Adamstown and Cork) have been very moderate efforts. This morning was a low point. After a lazy few days resting a knee niggle I set off for a routine 10-miler only to turn around after 1.5. Nothing there at all, no energy, no enthusiasm, nothing. I suppose I'm particularly concerned looking back at what has happened in the past.

A few years ago, still fairly new to running, I was training for what would have been my first marathon, the new Jersey Marathon. I had entered (and as a consequence still get their e-mails to this day) but suffered a pretty catastrophic running collapse. After two fairly tough back-to-back runs in training I suddenly found I was pretty much unable to run. At first I figured my body was telling me to back off a bit. But this went on for months. I'd set off hopefully only to grind to a halt a half mile or so down the road. Time and again. Just occasionally it was better and this kept me trying. Eventually, to my relief, things got better and I recovered totally.

A couple of years later this happened again, for no reason that I could figure. This time I got a battery of medical tests done - and was amazed at the good results, which didn't help my problem. I looked at dietary issues, food allergy stuff etc all to no avail. Again I'd have the odd run where I believed I was OK again, but they were false dawns. The day before I left Jersey for good was a similar story as I abandoned my farewell run. Two days later, on Christmas Day 2007 in Birmingham, it suddenly all came right with a great long run. Since that time, after arriving in Ireland, I've been fine and enjoyed my running. Not all of it has been great but only on the rare occasion has it been a disaster.

So things aren't quite that desperate yet and maybe this will turn out to be just a bad patch.

Dublin T&F Champs - Hurdles & Hammer

Low key was an understatement as these two events, universally hated by meet organisers, were played out at Santry this evening. (The main body of events take place at Irishtown in a couple of weeks time).

It is increasingly obvious that too few young athletes in the Dublin region have an inkling about technical events - i.e. those that are not pure running. This is no fault of the youngsters themselves but of the lack of both coaches and facilities. Those clubs with these particular advantages can expect to produce successful athletes over a period of time. However we at Crusaders, who have enviable resources, are a very young club as far as junior athletics is concerned.

Nevertheless several athletes made it through to the All-Irelands - Ciara Barry (U13) and Alix Hughes (U14) both securing fourth place in the sprint hurdles. Grainne McGuill and Orla Murray gave it their best shot but the hero was Matthew Behan who crashed and fell at the first but he picked himself up and got going again to finish the race.

Over at the barely populated hammer circle Sarah Fleming (U18) was hampered by an ankle problem and did not throw well, but well enough to progress to Tullamore. Alix Hughes was surprised to be swinging an implement lighter than she had been training with but did well enough to finish just 10cm behind her only opponent, finishing her series by taking on and completing a nice turn. Liam, one of Phil Conway's boys, was due up next and has no doubt progressed. However I was long since headed for The Yacht at Ringsend by that time.

Cork Marathon Relay

Gorblimey, thank goodness for sunscreen and peaked caps. For one day a year Cork City gets blessed with Mediterranean weather. The trouble is it's always on Marathon Monday. There was significant carnage yesterday amongst the full marathoners. Those that managed to complete the full 26.2 have my total awe and respect. The state of many of them who crossed the finish line left no doubt as to how difficult the conditions were. Many others sensibly dropped out rather than risk serious damage whilst dozens of others required medical attention.

My previous ill-fated attempts at the Cork Marathon were in similar (maybe not quite so warm) temperatures and I'm beginning to think now that this was more of a factor than I previously had thought.

But this year it was happily just the 5.9 miles for me - from the quays in town out to the final relay handover at Model Farm Road. I walked that section of the course the day before. This proved to be a good move as I realised it is in fact a tough-ish little run that I ought not to be taking lightly.

I was guesting for Boards AC, an offshoot of the internet forum www.boards.ie - specifically the athletics/running/triathlon sub-section. We had two teams, mine being the slower B team. It was fun putting some faces to nicknames over a pint in Dan Lowrey's the night before!

On race morning I was up early to meet our second leg runner blind_hurler who had driven down from Waterford that morning, to hand him his race numbers etc. Then back for the 9am start in St Patrick's Street, by which time it was already getting warm. A minor panic when my lead-off runner Funkyzeit rang to say 'it is a 9.30 start isn't it?'. But he not only made the start but ran a stormer to bring Boards B to the first handover ahead of our elite colleagues. Meanwhile I made the short journey over to where I would pick up the wristband as the race came back to town. There we were able to greet the leaders as they came through. A clean handover saw me set off around the quays and out along the South Ring before turning off across the roadbridge to Turners Cross. Already it was becoming a battle - I'm not running at all well plus the sunblock was running into my eyes making things decidely uncomfortable. But there is no option, especially in a team situation, but to battle on as best one can. Beyond the Cork City FC ground the route hangs a couple of rights into quiet suburban roads, through Ballyphehane and down to the Lough. I started enjoying myself a bit - my eyes had cleared, my running had settled a little and the crowd support aroung the Lough (and indeed beyond) was superb. Loads of applause, high fives from the little ones, sponges (I forgot I had glasses on so they got a wash at my first go with a sponge), garden hoses played onto the runners. Out onto the Wilton Road and left onto Model Farm Road for a final mile to where I found my teammate Rainbow Kirby. RK has (I learnt the previous evening) dropped her weight from 15st to 11st in her first year of running - astonishing. And after my moderate 53 mins she was to bring us home in a shade outside our stretch target of 3.40. (The A team were a touch outside their 3-hour target).

At this point, 19 miles into the race, there were many runners struggling big-time. And as the shuttle bus dropped us back into town (previous thoughts of jogging back in having been abandoned) there were still many just starting into the second half of the race, destined to suffer for several hours yet.

But for Boards AC it was a cool drink in Scott's and later, for me, a great Indian at the Eastern Tandoori with my good mate Deirdre.

The photos show me in the early stages of my run (in the background to the right), and Robinph in his Boards AC singlet who now has some explaining to do.