Friday 2 September 2022
I hired a car and drove down from Dublin to Clonmel for the 21st World Masters Mountain Running Champs.
The bnb was built in 1732.
Most of the accommodation in the area was sold out, but I managed to book a spectacular bnb for two nights.
Registration on Friday was simple, and gave me a ticket to the pasta party and opening ceremony.
The town parade was actually quite a big thing. We marched down the main streets, all lined up by country.
Good video of parade
I met the other kiwi, Lee, who had lived in Ireland since he was 2 years old 😃
There were also 4 very friendly runners from Seattle staying at my bnb.
Saturday 3 September
It was a bit rainy on race day, but this mostly cleared by midmorning.
We started in corralled waves.. my 55..60 age group at 11.30am.
All the runners looked extremely fit and fast - not like the dad-bods that we normally get in nz races 😬
There were 71 runners registered just in the male 55..60 age group!
Lee (the other kiwi) took these photos of me at the starting line.
The race started with a fast flat 500 meters, before starting a fairly brutal 2km climb, going up over 250m vertical. I felt good and ready to race, and I counted roughly 20 people ahead of me as the race started getting hilly.
The initial track was well formed and wide, but as we ascended it got progressively rougher and more technical.
At about the 4km mark we descended way way down, losing much of our initial height. I sneaked in a 3.37 kilometer here, but a few men were nevertheless passing me.
The trail ducked and weaved across the hillside and we got nice views of the countryside, and then we started the second big climb up.
I was tiring by this stage, and just tried to maintain a good pace.
When my watch told me we were nearly finished, one final steep hill appeared to be the last hurdle (and quite a few spectators were clustered around it), so I put in a big sprint to overtake someone and reach the top first. Yay! But, wait, hold on, oh shoit! It wasn't the top 😬😬😬
This was very bad news for my cardiovascular system. Very bad news. I could now see the actual finish at the top of a different hill an impossibly distant 400 meters away. I had a choice at this point of either walking or fainting on the spot, so I necessarily chose the former. A couple of guys passed me as I regained the blood oxygenation levels required to continue running.
I finished happy but exhausted 😃
Strava link https://strava.app.link/9rjDWCOT2sb
I was 20th out of 63 that finished in my age group. Very happy with that 😃
I beat the first woman home (55+) by a minute, but the top guys were 5 minutes ahead of me. 10%. I would need some magic to improve that much...!
I could probably have gained myself 30 seconds and 2 result places if I hadn't optimistically misinterpreted the finish line location😳😳 , but overall I'm very happy with both my training buildup and my run on the day. Now I just need different parents (you know who you are...!) to provide better genetics.
More photos to come ...
More analysis to come....
After the race we got fed some tasty beef stew and cookies.
So a really fun event. I'm already considering the 2023 champs in Madeira... :)
Congrats! Good luck on the new parents bit!
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