Craughwell 10 mile road race - 1:11:45. Not bad at all considering the complete lack of training (this week I only managed an embarrasing 22 miles (but good for a final year STEM college student, right?) including the race of course! & about 30 km on the bike (if even that!)).

Went off with what I thought was a conservative pace. Then I checked the 1st mile split - 6:02  (holy shit!) although it was mostly downhill, regardless I knew I was going too fast but kept going anyway, I slowed slightly at mile 2 & then the inevitable bonk (& it was a proper bonk, not a bad patch which is what I was hoping for...) happened at mile 4 (26:30) (mile 3 - 19:32 (not a new 5km pb, remember 5km is 3.1 miles (but not far off 5km pb territory!))) where I had to let off the last of the decent runners like of Paul Fallon etc, the involuntary reduced pace seemed to last for about the next 3 miles...Jesus! normally you get a bad patch in a race & you get your second wind., but I wasn't so privileged this afternoon.

Through miles 5 & 6 33:45 & 41:02 respectively. I got to mile 8 (56:20) & then I started to feel a bit better. I was talking to a few guys from Clare river harriers along towards the end too, which was nice, but I hate doing that in races in general because I believe that in races you should be going full gas, 100% effort, all the time - talk/socialise at the start & end (especially the end!) absolutely, but you should be suffering so much (because after all, it is a race!) that you simply can't talk - but I gave in because they're sound lads & I had basically thrown in the towel at that point (although not completely). It's either that or I'm getting soft or wise (probably the latter).

If I was training 40 miles a week with additional cycling (a very possible situation within the next 9-15 months) imaging how good I could be. The hour mark for the 10 miler is no joke but I reckon I'm gonna do it in the next few years.

My 1:11 time today is on par to last year when I did a 10 mile road race in June on 30 miles/week training. So I'm already making improvements - that's promising. I'm also embracing suffering a lot more now - that's also conducive to faster (or what I'd call "improver") times later this year.

At the start of the race, for the 1st time ever I didn't go off like a lunatic & just relished the rare opportunity to be surrounded by the presence of other runners whom I've gotten to know over the years on the Galway road running scene. I looked to my left & right & just felt at home. Even that in itself was reason enough to show up today. As I have been doing all of my training solo these past 6 months or so I suppose it makes you appreciate these things that little bit more. I will probably join Harriers eventually but I'm putting it off, for now. I want to see how good I can get on my own before I need other people, but by the end of the year if I'm not in read & white singlet I'll be quite surprised really!

I really felt like I belonged in the race today amongst the top 1/5th of the field, everybody knows you to see & there's mutual respect for everyone, given by everyone else. I love that. Unspoken admiration. Perhaps a little bit backward/primitive but I enjoy that distance... make the whole thing that bit more elusive (it's like they say, never meet your heroes as you'll more than likely be disappointed for them not living up to your (rather skewed (generally)) expectations of what they ought to be like (according to you)) for me + I enjoy being the vampire/phantom & the fact that I'm not affiliated with any club any more which gives me even more anonimity which is wonderful. I'm going to enjoy running for myself this year.

2016 is going to be my selfish year. When I finish formally studying physics in college  (for the time being) I'm going to be devoting my time to studying mathematics full time (just for me!) along with training harder than I ever have before & am going to educate myself about classical literature etc to the best of my ability, & frankly, I can't fucking wait.

Weather was lovely today no wind or rain & cool 10 degrees. Beautiful conditions for running.

When I can find photos (of some of the top guys & then myself) of the race I'll post them. Bidwell won the race today so that's good keeping it in the county, of course this being the olympic year there was no sign of any serious thread from Raheny today (although I'll have to double check who that guy was who came second), anyway, today was a good day, smiles all round.

I am to shift the specifics of my training now to 5 km racing until june so it's time for some pain! 1km repeats every week from now on! but I'll still be building my aerobic base all the time with a 6-10 mile run on sundays to keep my honest. & plenty of cycling (paying huge dividens already - I wish someone had told me sooner!).

But yeah, overall I'm happy but there is so much more latent potential that I havn't tapped into yet, so my goals are to dig & to see how much I can extract from the reservoir over the coming years. I believe pretty much everybody is the same too, we've all got much more to give than we're already giving at any one activity but that's as a direct consequence of modern day living. life has become very complicated in recent years particularly with the turn of the century & we're all more stressed than ever. I must remember that running is a hobby & should (we all should) be able to forgive myself for putting in sub par performances when other (often much more important) areas of our lives are draining energy...