First up is my first race since the marathon of June 7th – The 4-mile Turkey Trot race on 12th December around the Marina in Cork, in aid of Simon Community. This race is unusual in that it forbids the use of a watch. This will be something alien to many modern runners who rely on their GPS watches for time, distance, and heart rate.
As preparation, I did a 4-mile test run at about 95% effort, just to get a feel for what pacing myself would be like for the race (View on Garmin Connect). I ran the run with only the distance showing on the watch, but I did eventually settle into an even pace.
Coming off the back of a 5-month injury lay-off, and only 1 month into my marathon training plan, I was surprised to comfortably manage almost 7:30 pace. I expect to finish under 7:30 pace to set a sub-30 PB for4 miles. I think with 3 or 4 months more training, sub-25 is possible.
I just signed up for the Mallow 10-mile road race on Jan 9th. Interesting is the addition of pacers for 60, 70 and 80 minutes. I plan to tag along with the 80 minute group and hopefully just dip under 8-min-mile pace.
I got into the Ballycotton 10 race on March 6th. With more training, I’ll be hoping for a 70 minute run.