Rock and Road 10km and half marathon at Kinvara.

Yesterday I ran my first 10km road race along the beautiful back drop of Kinvara village. The Rock and Road event was hosting a 10km , a half as well as a 1km and 2km for children. It was all organised brilliantly and there were loads of goodies handed out before and after the races. I ran alongside my dad and friends Dave and Aileen (shoutout). The weather was stunning, nice and sunny but with a good cool breeze, absolutely ideal for running.

Earlier in the week I had decided to try to get it finished in under the hour, but from looking at the route  I knew there were a few hairy hills scattered around and I wasn't sure how I would do running alongside so many others. There were so many runners it took us 51 seconds to cross the start line.

I went easy at the start just to spread out from the crowd and get comfortable, keeping an eye on the 60 pacer  just up ahead and I thought I'd hang around for the first couple of kms and then branch off.

About 4 kms in I quickened my pace just a tad, and thought sure feck it I'll overtake the pacer now and see how I go. At this stage I was heating up fast and just when I thought I would have to slow down to cool down, we got a lovely shower of rain, there was a collective sigh of relief around me, I think everyone had underestimated how warm it actually was and the little sprinkle of rain was exactly what we needed.

Now I knew that at about 6km there was a steep incline and a pretty hairy hill, but once I rounded the corner and actually saw the hill, I had a brief moment of panic. All around me people were gasping in dismay "the hill of heartbreak", it definitely broke some spirits and before we even got to the start of the incline people were stopping to walk it, they had totally psyched themselves out.

I was way too determined to stop, I kept my head down and tried to get over it quickly, as I was passing people were dropping like flies, breathing like donkeys with one guy possibly having an asthma attack, I didn't care I just needed to get over the bloody hill all the while questioning my sanity and thanking god I wasn't doing the half. Reaching the top was such a relief.
I knew now that was the hardest part done and I could relax a bit and just enjoy the rest of the run alongside the Burren and the beautiful Kinvara harbour.
All that time I never bothered to look at my watch, I was well ahead of the 60 minute pacer and as long as he didn't creep up on me I would make my goal time.

I was chatting to a couple of people along the route and it seemed that a lot of them had come from doing c25k and were running their first 10km, we certainly didn't make it easier on ourselves choosing this route and race but we were almost there!
At the last 1km I checked my watch and realized I would be in well before 60 minutes, and once I saw the stretch home I powered on, all along the route there had been people out cheering and clapping and it really spurred me on, I sprinted up the finish and almost collapsed with a stitch but I had done it! They had kids handing out medals, and water and fruit and I sat on the pier catching my breath and waited for the others to come in. I had done it in 57:37 and was delighted! My dad wasn't too far behind me at 63 minutes.

We were all stoked to finish in good time and shared our overcoming the hill stories! We headed up to the community centre for coffee where they were offering sports massages. It had been a  great day, the event ran smoothly and there was such a fantastic community spirit behind it from the kids handing out t shirts and medals, to the auld lads at the half way point water station cheering us on. I am definitely well on my way to the half!