Tralee Parkrun Race Report Dec 19th

Today I ran another Tralee Parkrun. Conditions were variable – pouring rain and driving winds alternated with blue skies – typical Irish weather!

There was a good number of runners again today, with lots of people dressing in Christmas outfits. I wasn’t sure what to expect of myself, as I haven’t done any running at all over the past few weeks due to work and family commitments – I intend to remedy this over the Christmas break.

In typical form, I decided that, rather than take the sensible decision of having an easy run, I would go flat out for the first lap, and see how out of condition I actually was. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

To this end, I ran the first lap hard. I actually felt reasonably ok after the first lap, and had a crazy moment of thinking I had a PB in me. Reality started to rear its ugly head around half way through the second lap, and, by the start of the final lap, survival was foremost in my mind, with any thought of a PB well and truly forgotten.

Am I there yet?

A lot of the runners I had passed early on overtook me as I slowed to a jog towards the end, but I managed to stay ahead of my 8 year old son Lee, if only just.

Lee goes for his usual finish line sprint

 

I crossed the line, panting like a dog, in 28:12, which is actually slower than the time I normally pace! Definitely need to get my ass in gear over the next few weeks.

Next week I will be pacing the 28 minute group, so will need to be a bit more sensible. Well done to all today’s runners and volunteers, especially Michael O’Regan, who set a new Tralee course record of 16:48 – he lapped me on my second lap!