Cloud Nine

The last few days I have looked at the results for the Connemara Ultra at least once a day to reassure myself that a) I wasn't imagining it and b) they haven't made a mistake and corrected it, taking the M40 win away from me, but so far I'm still awake and I'm still top of that list so maybe it's true after all. Wow. Well, that more than makes up for the cruel blow I received in Ballycotton. If someone had offered me either an age group win in Connemara or a Ballycotton t-shirt, of course I would have taken the win, it's not even a close decision.

Around mile 8. Daibhi is about to overtake our little group.
I'm about to remind the lads that it's ONLY 50 k to go.
Damien and Gerry are getting ready to punch me for being a smart arse.
Photo by Beata Ewa Czajka-Banatowska

I still can't quite believe it, though. This is Ireland's premier ultra and I had no right whatsoever expecting such a result. I guess all the stars aligned for that one. Much better master runners than me like Mick Rice or Shane James Whitty were or are injured (get better soon, lads!) or not in their usual shape (Vasiliy) and I managed to have just that tiny little bit more left at the end than Gerry or Alastair. Even so I was still in fourth position at the foot of the Hell with only 4 miles to go. It just happened to be that Sunday was my day.

At some point in the near-ish future it will be time to get back to Earth I suppose, but until then I'll just keep walking on clouds, thank you very much.

My recovery program since Sunday has followed my usual tried-and-trusted but scientifically unproven method of running 5 very easy miles every morning, which I swear leads to faster recovery than full rest. The legs have felt surprisingly good even on Monday, I never felt sore and even walking down the staircase in the office did not provide any noticeable discomfort, but the pace an all 4 days so far has remained significantly slower than 8-minute miles, so I'll keep that going until the pace picks up naturally. The way the HR is dropping is very encouraging and the legs are fine, but not screaming at me to go faster yet. I'd like to get back to "real" training as soon as I can, but recovery has to come first.

7 Apr

5 miles, 42:46, 8:33 pace, HR 130

8 Apr

5 miles, 41:09, 8:13 pace, HR 130

9 Apr

5 miles, 41:45, 8:20 pace, HR 128

10 Apr

5 miles, 41:28, 8:17 pace, HR 126