This past weekend I ran the 10k at Run Killarney. First of all, I want to say that this is a fantastic event. It’s probably the most well-organised of any of the Irish races I’ve done, the course is a gorgeous loop that takes you through the national park, and the weather always seems to cooperate. They also have the nicest medals!
My only complaint is that I think it’s weird there are no bananas at the finish line, but at least as of this year there are vegetarian and gluten free options for the post-run snack of a breakfast sandwich.
My time was 51:17, which is pretty much in line with my recent running. 51:17 works out to about 5.08 per kilometre, and I ran the Streets of Killarney 5 Mile a month ago in 41.28 (5.15 pace, in fairly heavy rain), and my last couple parkruns have all been in the range of a 4:58-5:10 pace.
It’s not my 10km personal best – that would go to a flukey 48:49 at Run Killarney a few years ago – but it was a solid effort. Before the race, I told Steve that I’d love to get between 50 and 52 minutes, although I thought 55 minutes might be more realistic. So not only was I much faster than my “realistic” 55 minutes, but I was right in the middle of the range I was hoping for.
I didn’t train too hard for Run Killarney, and one of the main reasons why is pretty silly. I have thick hair, and a lot if it, and it’s extremely slow to dry (and I hate using blow dryer). So the harder I run, and the more often, the more frequently I have to wash my hair. I just wasn’t in the mood for that the last few weeks. If my hair-washing laziness is more of a priority to me than my running speed, then it’s no surprise that I wasn’t breaking any personal records over the weekend.
And look, that’s part of life. I’m not an elite athlete; I’m not being paid to run (or to wash my hair). I’m just trying to stay fit and healthy, and not feel like crap when I go out for a jog. My big goal when I ran my last marathon was to maintain my running routine afterward – it’s so easy to “take a few weeks off” which somehow spirals into months and months. I managed to keep up a more-or-less twice-a-week habit of a Wednesday evening jog with my running group and a Saturday morning parkrun that felt like enough.
That said, even if I’m fairly content with my current running fitness, there are some elements I still struggle with. One thing is the natural peaking and dipping of my athletic performance. The women in my running group were talking about this the other week – how one week you might be flying effortlessly, while the next you’re huffing and puffing while going slower or for a shorter distance.
Sometimes it’s obvious why – tiredness or dehydration or spending hours walking around the Berlin Zoo the day before you run a marathon like I did – but sometimes the reason isn’t so clear. And while anyone can have an off day, women can be particularly affected due to our hormonal changes over the course of the month. And the annoying thing is, the points where your energy is likely to be the lowest are also the times when your emotions are likely to be the most sensitive, a double whammy of poorer performance + letting it get to you.
Now, I’ll be frank, I don’t track my menstrual cycle (and I haven’t gotten a period in years thanks to my IUD) so I couldn’t actually tell you when it’s the cause of my faster or slower runs. But sometimes you just know when, no matter how hard you push yourself, you’re not going to be getting any of those cute little medals when you upload your activity to Strava. Sometimes you know that you’re not running as fast as you can, but paradoxically you know that you can’t run any faster, at least not on that particular occasion.
I’ve digressed here, because I did feel pretty good during my Run Killarney 10k, and although I didn’t feel as though I was running as fast as I could, it also felt clear to me that the reasons were the overall lack of training and the hot, sunny day, rather than anything internal and undefinable.
But it’s a good reminder that these good and bad days will come and go, and you can’t always predict or explain why. And regardless of the result (which again, I was mostly happy with), it was a great day out on a gorgeous sunny day. And the pints afterward went down well, too!
thebestpossibletime 