…Another One Bites The Dust…

…And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I’m gonna get you, too
Another one bites the dust…

Last weekend was quite good when it comes to running. I got my new PB, improving by almost 10 minutes from the last one. Even that not everything went according to the plan I got that PB and still looking good for main goal of 3:05 for full marathon…

First thing first. Before getting to Charlville we decided to visit Bozena’s work colleague, who lives close to Tullow. We have spent nice afternoon with him and his family. We had great lunch with gorgeous dessert. Nice food not necessary means good for next day running. I need to remember that next time. Nice afternoon in the small country cottage in best of company. After that we drove to our main destination – Charlville.

Charlville is really nice village. Not so far away from Dublin. Most of us probably has tried their local cheese (sometimes not even knowing about that) and that is why on the way into the village you can see big metal cow with words ‘Charlville say Cheese’ on it. Funny welcome, even that village is small you can find plenty places to spent time – restaurants, fastfoods, shops, hotels. That was a big surprise for us. We have stayed in Charlville Hotel and Leisure Club. Quite nice hotel on the outskirts of village and good restaurant (great starters, good main dish). Anyway, same day evening I felt bad with all the food I ate and different diet. I knew that it will bite me in my back during run (was right about that – 2 technical breaks needed). Shame could get better time, but now I have experienced (first hand) what bad diet before race is (still need to say food was great, but you need to stick to what you know)… Back to race…

Course was very flat, just one small bump (bridge), which you had to get over 4 times. Really no struggle. Everybody wanted to get PB there. Day welcomed us with close to 0 degrees temperature (we had to scrape the ice from the car). That wasn’t great temperature to run but you just had to gear up and do what you suppose to do. Run. When I was picking the race number I have noticed old friend – Richie (we used to work together). I knew that he is a runner but never thought that I will see him on one of ‘my’ races. He was actually helping his friend Tom Enright – race director – in sorting out runners. Richie told me that there is great ultra runner – Keith Whyte running with us. He was in the middle of preparation to 100 miles World Championships. So nice company. Race itself was easy, besides my stomach problem. I was running quite good pace till about 32 km. After that mark my pace went down from about 4:32 (that with two breaks included) to 4:34 at the end. So again end off fuel, but it wasn’t so bad. And I know now that I can run faster… Time at the end 3:13:22, almost 10 minutes better than previous PB.

But there is disadvantage of me running faster. I have noticed that last weekend in Monaghan but was blaming the forest pats and broken tarmac for that pain in the left knee. Now, I know that was caused by me running faster than usual. Knee hurts now quite bad and I think I will need to check my shoes again. Maybe I will need to buy Hokas and fast.