Race Information

Race: John Treacy Dungarvan 10

Distance: 10 Miles

Date: 02/02/2020

Official Time: 1:04:40

Strava: Activity link

This is my third year in a row entering the Dungarvan 10 mile and I find it quite an interesting race. The route isn’t difficult enough as a challenge, flat enough for an amazing PB or scenic enough to be beautiful. Its the first weekend of February most years, so your training is done through a miserable January (usually) and the race day itself has no guarantees to be nice. And yet thousands show up every year to do this, breaking the registration website over the last few years. I do understand it though. This race presents a great start to your running year and really makes you get back out on the road for January when you might feel like giving a run a skip. I hit Dungarvan in much better shape this year than the previous two years, with a lot more runs and far more kilometres in my legs. This is due to the training I am doing for the Manchester Marathon in April and I needed to get started straight away in January. While Dungarvan was not the main focus this year, it still presented a great opportunity to run a short fast race after getting a good base of training in for January.

Gold Goal	< 65 mins	Yes
Silver Goal	< 4:10 per km, approx. < 67 mins	Yes
Bronze Goal	New PB, Current PB: 1:08:14	Yes

Pre-Race

The race started at 1:30 pm which isn’t the nicest time for a race. You’d rather get it out of the way early in the morning. I had cereal for breakfast and then had a bagel with mashed banana before leaving for some fuel. Around 10 am we had a scare when the weather forecast changed and said there would be rain in Dungarvan from 1 pm. Our extra packing was in vain though as the afternoon was fine before the race. There was a bit of wind from the south west but no rain and not too cold. Getting down an hour before the start gave plenty of time to settle, drink some water and walk about. An easy warm up along the road was enough before the race. I was feeling good and headed up to the start with about 10 minutes to go. There was a pretty big crowd (2498 finishers) so I wanted to get myself up and into a good spot ahead of the main pack.

Race

Dungarvan always has an awkward start as the road narrows pretty quickly for the first 500m and with the large crowd you can get stuck in the first kilometre. I got away pretty well though, near enough to the 65 minute pacer and started to find my rhythm. After a brief downhill the third kilometre heads out the Youghal road and you go up a steady hill. At this point things had settled down and a decent group had formed around the 65 minute pacer. I was feeling good and at a few seconds up on the 65 minutes I felt I would be able to hold the pace.

Around the fifth kilometre the race turns off the main roads and spends the next 8 going along country road between farms and fields. The surface isn’t as good and we had a few kilometres into the wind but it wasn’t strong enough to have too much of an impact, especially within the pacing pack. There is a small pull up at kilometre 10 and that is where I began to feel it in my legs. I was pushing hard but still knew I should be capable of holding it until the finish. There was still 3km until we got back on the main road and I knew I just needed to keep it steady until that point. The pacing group pulled ahead of me by a few seconds but I was still on the 65 pace so I wasn’t too worried. One of the pacers did drop back to make sure I was still ok which was very much appreciated.

I got back out on the main road just after my watch beeped 13km and the good surface gave me a resurgence. I passed a few people and kept the main pacing group just ahead of me as I powered up the hill. I eased off for kilometre 15 as we pulled off the main road again. My pace was still ahead of 65 and I knew there was a fast downhill finish to come so there was no need to kill myself with 2 to go. My watch beeped for 15 and that was the signal to go. The course heads down a decent hill to the main road again before turning for the finish. Everyone around me took off on the hill and I followed. I ran 3:40 for kilometre 16 and then kept the pace up to the finish line. I could see the clock ticking towards 1:05:00 and made sure it was not going to make it before I was over the line. With the few seconds it took to pass the start line at the beginning I stopped my watch at 1:04:38 for a massive new PB.

Post-Race

I was feeling pretty tired after finishing but was buzzing with such a great time. I made my way along the finishing chute and picked up some water and my goody bag. The wind was beginning to pick up so I headed back to the car and changed into something warmer. Walking around always helps my legs, so I walked back to the finish line to see some others finish and give my dad his bag. My official time was 1:04:40 and 241st place which kept me in the top 10%. Up at the top end of the race there was a course record set by Mick Clohisey (48:16) and Aoife Cooke (54:23). Full results here.

It felt great to have my hard work in January rewarded with a big new PB. It really made a difference having this fall in the middle of my marathon training rather than focusing solely on it for the prior month. I definitely felt it towards the end of the race which I expected but I stuck it out and didn’t give in. Now its back to training next week and get my mind back on Manchester… after a drink watching the rugby of course.