Coast to Coast, July 12th

Race Day in Dublin:

5:45 AM – wake up in 10 bed hostel room in Abraham House

6:00 AM – breakfast in hostel

7:30 AM – check out of hostel, ≈ 4 mile bike ride to Castleknock College, the race headquarters

8:15 AM – arrive at race headquarters, meet with race director and pick up my race number (#3 of about 3,600)

8:30 AM – walk to start/finish area (about ¾ mile away – much longer than I expected)

9:15 AM – warm up on Phoenix Park paths – all of which I had run before during my time in Dublin. The familiarity helped eased some of the anxiety I had been feeling throughout the “new” process of registration, transportation, housing, food, etc. that is necessary to race well (appreciation for coach's role continues to grow).

10:00 AM – race starts, as does a cold, uncomfortable mist

10:04:55 AM – I pass the 1 mile mark, the only split that was made available

10:15 AM – short downpour begins. It happened to come just after the 3 mile mark and as we were heading into the wind up the only real hill of the course – great timing…

10:24:32 AM – Finished 2^nd in my first post-collegiate race, 35 seconds behind an impressive Finney Mulvey, the race leader from the start. Overall I felt pretty good about my race. Even in Ireland, people get out too hard and don't run a smart race, so I was able to work my way up through the field throughout. My legs felt strong, just not very "fine-tuned" at this point.

12:00 PM – Made my way back to the bus station to catch the 12:00 bus to Galway

3:00 PM – Receive phone call from race director – I forgot to pick up my prize check after the race. Once again, proof that I am very “green” as far as the intricacies of the road racing process go.

4:45 PM – bus arrives back in Galway, over one hour late. We were caught in a major traffic jam near Moate, County West Meath.

5:15 PM – shower and eat dinner at home, get ready for work

5:45 PM – leave for work at the greyhound track

12:00 AM – finish work at greyhound track

12:45 AM – finally in bed after long, tiring day first on the East, then West coast of Ireland.

I’m starting to feel like a bit of a local. I wrote a note to myself, which I frequently do so I can remember what I want to say in my blog, about one of my runs while my parents were visiting Ireland. I was running on the N59, a “highway” in Ireland, when a lady pulled alongside my on the side of the road and asked me directions to a small town nearby. Oddly enough, I had run on the road she was looking for and was able to tell her exactly where to turn. A tourist myself, I was able to help another tourist find her way around the Galway area. I caught myself smiling frequently over the second half of my run that day.

Now I may have let this little note of mine slip through the cracks without every appearing on my blog, but I had two more similar experiences recently. The first occurred on the bus trip home from Dublin and the other was once again while I was running the country roads around Galway. I ended up sitting next to an older Norwegian man for the duration and we talked sporadically for the 4 hour trip. He was studying his map of the Galway area pretty intensely, so I asked him what he was planning to do. His ultimate goal was to end up in Lahinch, a small village near the Cliffs of Moher. I almost laughed when he said this because I had recently passed through Lahinch with my parents on our way to the south of Ireland. Not only this, but Lahinch had basically been my mental picture of Ireland for the past 10 years – ever since my sister Lindsey brought me back a golf towel from Lahinch Golf Club as a souvenir from her basketball trip to Ireland in high school. So, while I haven’t spent more than 10 minutes passing through this town, I was still able to provide this fellow tourist with ample information.