BQ or Bust!

Dubgal72

Best of luck (and the result of hard training!) tomorrow Murph!

ThebitterLemon

Murph_D wrote: »

Looking forward to it, B. I'll have the Crusaders vest on. Should be easy enough to spot as I think I'm the only one. Should be there about 20 mins before the start if you want to join for a warmup mile or so.

You can't miss him Tang, he'll have his spare teeth in a jar, a fold up zimmerframe and his senior citizens bus pass in hand in case he gets lost

Best of luck, sub 75.

Enjoy the race.

TbL

Bungy Girl

Best of luck!

annapr

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

You can't miss him Tang, he'll have his spare teeth in a jar, a fold up zimmerframe and his senior citizens bus pass in hand in case he gets lost

Best of luck, sub 75.

Enjoy the race.

TbL

And a much younger and better looking OH.... Called Amber

ThebitterLemon

annapr wrote: »

And a much younger and better looking OH.... Called Amber

lucky auld Murph, make sure he makes it to the start line in one piece Amber

TbL

Mrs Mc

Best of luck tomorrow D !

RedRunner

Enjoy it tomorrow D. Best of luck

belcarra

Run strong young D!

Murph_D

Sat 16 Mar

Bundoran 10 mile, Co. Donegal

Arrived in Donegal late Fri night after a long drive involving a number of frustrating traffic holdups. Luckily race HQ was open till 10pm and we arrived just in time to collect our numbers - the 10 mile for me, 10k for the Mrs. The goody bag contained some unusual items as the event is sponsored by a pharmacy chain. Was delighted to get a bottle of shampoo as well as some perfume samplers and the like, along with a bag of smokey bacon crisps and a Twirl.

On Saturday, we arrived in good time and got in a short warmup before bumping into tang1 who'd offered to help get me around in the desired 75 mins. He was looking pretty good despite complaining about some ITB problems and a lack of recent training. But he thought he might be good for 78 mins today and would do the first 5 miles with me and see how he was getting on.

We lined up not too far back from the starting gantry but there was a big crowd out today and we had to wait our turn to squeeze over the line, so plenty of congestion to keep us from going out too fast. I'd set the watch to 4:40/km pace. Tang thinks in miles so it was helpful to hear him calling out the splits as we passed the mile markers. In the third mile we turned off the main road into the nicest section of the route along country roads to the village of Tullaghan. A bit of downhill here put us a little ahead of the pace as we continued to work our way through the field. I was feeling very good during this section and it seemed like no time at all before we hit the 5 miles, with about 40 secs in the bank. At this point tang was starting to struggle a little and dropped back. I didn't notice right away as a another guy took his place on my shoulder but as he'd said he might drop off at this point I ploughed on – feeling a little guilty, it has to be said, as tang had been doing more than his share of the work.

The second half of the route is largely on the Bundoran/Ballyshannon bypass, and we'd noted earlier that the wind would be head on at this point of the race. So I was ready for that discomfort but not for the double whammy when a stitch started nagging away at me for a mile or so, just as the race was starting to get tougher. Tried to shake it off by altering the breathing pattern but it was persistent and there was nothing for it but to slow down. Started getting passed as a result but I didn't panic, knowing the stitch would work its way off eventually, as it always does. Then I hear a voice, "Come on, keep pushing it!" and sure enough here's tang again having worked through his bad patch, catching up just as the stitch starts to abate. It's been a slow couple of kms but the target is still there and we work through the rest of the bypass, up a nasty enough drag straight into the wind without losing any more time. A tight hamstring starts to give tang some trouble at this point but fair play to him, he's a tough dude and digs in again. Soon we’re off the eternal bypass, and although there's another drag to contend with the wind is no longer much of a factor as we head back towards the coast. At some point here tang glances at his watch and announces this has just become his longest run of the year. We're hitting the numbers nicely over the final stretch, but with 2kms to go B waves me ahead, telling me to finish it out. He's obliterated his target at this stage but again I feel slightly guilty pushing on. There's a short but nasty hill to negotiate, then the downhill finish. I focus on a guy in a DCM top and decide he's my next victim, but he's not giving up and fights me all the way up the hill. At the top there's a corner and another little drag - the hill has taken it out of DCM guy and I pass him on the drag. The final 400 or so is steeply downhill and I just try to relax and use the slope and pass another few in the run in. The race clock comes into view another little spurt gets me in under 75 mins clock time. Stop the Garmin at 1:14:15 (official time comes in a few minutes later at 1:14:19).

Delighted with that. I grab a bottle of water and glance back at the line in time to see tang cross in sub-75 too. Shortly afterwards the OH arrives too, well pleased with her own sub 54 10k so happy faces all around. Nice to meet Mrs. tang and the kids too. Fair play to Barry - very strong performance given the recent difficulties - hope you recover well. You certainly made it a lot easier and I would not have recovered so quickly on the bypass without your invaluable help. Thanks!

Splits (km)
4:52
4:34
4:41
4:45
4:31
4:24
4:26
4:30
4:38
4:55
4:55
4:31
4:39
4:38
4:25
4:29
(0:24)

Posn: 209th/867
Age cat: 18th/68

Previous PB: 77:07 (Frank Duffy 2014)
Target: sub-75
Result: 74:19
Verdict: Very happy, and very grateful for the help!

WTD: 33 (53 kms)
MTD: 85 (137 kms)
YTD: 364 (585 kms)

Bungy Girl

Nicely done! Congrats on the PB

Ferris B

Nice going there today Murph. Well done.

ThebitterLemon

Going well for an auld lad, well done.

Setting yourself up nicely for Cork.

Were there really 17 other auld lads ahead of you in the vintage category

TbL

Murph_D

ThebitterLemon wrote: »

Going well for an auld lad, well done.

Setting yourself up nicely for Cork.

Were there really 17 other auld lads ahead of you in the vintage category

TbL

Well it goes on gun time so technically I was faster than a few of them. Top geezer ran 62 mins. Plenty of room for improvement yet

adrian522

Well done, sounds like you dug deep there when needed in the second half of the race. Great running.

FBOT01

ben fatto. grande corsa . sapevi che stavi Sandbagging

Mrs Mc

FBOT01 wrote: »

ben fatto. grande corsa . sapevi che stavi Sandbagging

stesso vale per me .... But not the sandbagging bit obviously !!!!

SamforMayo

Well done, great performance!

dintbo

Great running Murph fair play!

Murph_D

FBOT01 wrote: »

ben fatto. grande corsa . sapevi che stavi Sandbagging

Mrs Mc wrote: »

stesso vale per me .... But not the sandbagging bit obviously !!!!

Will ye feck off and and enjoy your romantic weekend.

But thanks!

Sandbagging? It's just the meno plan kicking in... All his fault.

Runchick

Brilliant performance murph, no signs of slowing down just yet

Dubgal72

Fantastic result, well done! Nice PB, very respectable! Race you to sub 70?!

Murph_D

Dubgal72 wrote: »

Fantastic result, well done! Nice PB, very respectable! Race you to sub 70?!

Don't think I'd have a chance in that race, DG. But then again the Frank Duffy IS my favourite event.

Dubgal72

Murph_D wrote: »

Don't think I'd have a chance in that race, DG. But then again the Frank Duffy IS my favourite event.

It's actually a fair race...I'll do one 10 mile next month and then that'll be it this year so.....

Murph_D

Well based on your 5k and 5 mile times a 70 should be within your grasp. What's the race next month?

Murph_D

Sun 15 Mar

50 mins recovery: 5.2 mi (8.3 km)

This felt grand. No issues after yesterday. All good for now.

WTD: 38 (61 kms)
MTD: 90 (145 kms)
YTD: 369 (593 kms)

RedRunner

Thought I posted this already but maybe didn't submit. Great result on Sat Murph.Well done.

tang1

Great running with you Saturday D, you showed no sign of that stitch affecting you & looked strong the whole way through the race. Best of luck with the rest of the training for Cork, no doubt we'll bump into each other at a race over the summer.

Dubgal72

Murph_D wrote: »

Well based on your 5k and 5 mile times a 70 should be within your grasp. What's the race next month?

It would be a 'best case scenario'...my one and only chance this year (Leinster 10mile road ch'ships) so if I miss that boat...it's all yours to win*






*FD 10 mile you say...hadn't thought do that one

Murph_D

You can do it! Sub 70 is at least a year away for me. I'll try for a 35 min 5 mi first

Murph_D

tang1 wrote: »

Great running with you Saturday D, you showed no sign of that stitch affecting you & looked strong the whole way through the race. Best of luck with the rest of the training for Cork, no doubt we'll bump into each other at a race over the summer.

Luckily you missed my stitchy mile. It disappeared just in time to let me keep up with you for the tough part of the route.