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After a cold winter and plenty of miserable afternoons in muddy fields in the middle of nowhere, yesterday for many was the first road race of the summer season. The ST PATRICK’S 5K FESTIVAL ROAD RACE is held on the streets of Dublin.

It’s nice to run at speed around the city streets. The course goes around Dawson Street, Baggot Street area and along the canal. It felt like the start of summer with a great Spring day for racing. The substantial €1000 (1st) prize money brings many of the top athletes out. The course is mostly flat so if it’s your day then a PB is on the cards. There was a large crowd of spectators and people dotted all around the course.

I was chatting to Lucy at the start questioning why I was running after missing a bunch of training. After a slow start I saw that there a group with the top 2 girls in front of me when I turned onto Baggot Street. I closed the gap and ran along side for about 3-4 minutes. After busting a gut I started to fall back at about the 2.5K mark and sadly that was the end of the racing. I was in bits but determined not to give up I kept running but couldn’t relax into the race. I started to get passed out which never happens to me in a 5K and see a large gap open up come 3.5K with the group in front of me.

After 5K of running I was about a minute off where I would have liked to finish. I went over in 16:53. The time is by no means a complete disaster but way off what I’d be aiming for over the summer. Next over the line pushing each other to the line was Lucy and Crona. Lucy continued her outstanding form of late to finish second in the Over 40’s Ladies. The girls also picked up a bronze team medal.

The only problem I had with the course was the markers. They are key to knowing how you are doing in these shorter races. The only marker I saw on the course was at the 4K mark. Apart from that a great race that comes highly recommended.

The Ladies Team

A full list of results is shown below.

33 30 30 321 MURRAN GARETH SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL 00:16:53 00:16:53
71 12 2 1122 D’ARCY LUCY SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL F40 00:18:01 00:18:01
73 13 61 1120 BRADY CRONA SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL 00:18:01 00:18:01
82 16 69 1121 BRADY AOIFE SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL 00:18:18 00:18:16
96 19 77 1452 WILSON JEAN SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL 00:18:30 00:18:26
122 21 96 1095 ARMSTRONG SANDRA SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL 00:19:04 00:19:01
241 206 16 26 WILLOUGHBY STEPHEN SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL M45 00:21:09 00:20:59
282 240 10 1551 MCMORROW KILLIAN SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL M50 00:21:55 00:21:42
346 61 7 1010 MURPHY TARA SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL F40 00:22:30 00:22:20
694 506 19 1074 GANNON ROBERT SPORTSWORLD A.C. IRL M55 00:26:42 00:26:31