Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Kerry...Jack and Jill 10km Race Report - Sat 18th

It looks as if there was a huge turnout for this race in Kenmare, Co.Kerry with in excess of 1,000 runners, joggers and walkers taking part.

Results........HERE

Race Report from Donal O'Donoughue...

"This is one seriously tough course.The race was organised in conjunction with Kenmare Triathlon Club.
Entry was steep at EUR30.00 for runners, but all proceeds went to Charity. Registration on the day this year was at JR McCarthy's Hardware shop, next to Quills. All entrants received a green Jack+Jill tee-shirt, which many entrants wore. There were more than 1,120 participants, including both runners and walkers. Several people walked with dogs, and there were a few prams setting out too. They ran out of bibs and late entrants received a handwritten sticker. This fell off somewhere on route!
The start was just after 15:00. There was no separate start for the walking category leading to a rather congested first kilometre. Road junctions on the route were closed by the Gardai, and we were soon onto narrow country roads, with a bit of grass growing down the middle. There was only one traffic incursion by a slow car - possibly lost tourists!
This course should be compared with Friday's Marine Climb 6 in Dungarvan. Both start near sea level. In Dungarvan, after a relatively flat start, you rise to 600ft over 3.5 miles. In Kenmare, you rise to 665ft over 1.5 miles! Maybe this should be on the IMRA calendar?!?! This is so steep that most people, including myself, slowed to a fast walking pace at the steepest sections. Organizers had put up a humorous sign "500m Pale of Water". In my oxygen deprived state, I wondered for a few seconds what this meant? There were three water stations, with cups of water, bottles of water, bananas, orange slices, and even crisps and lollipops. Normally, like Ron Hill ;-) I would rarely stop for water on a short race, but here I fully availed of water, a banana, and two orange slices, even stopping for 20s to consume these.
Every kilometre was painted in red on the road surface.
The hill is somewhat deceptive, with many false horizons. When you think you're about to reach the top, you find it just levels off fractionally, and a new horizon appears. You get there and another Horizon appears!
I thought after climbing that hill, that I'd have a horrendous finishing time, but I was only one minute off my Dungarvan time, for a higher course, with only 0.02 miles more to cover.
You go downhill rather steeply after 2.0 miles, and one has to be careful to avoid going too fast. There is a rise again at 2.7 miles. From the midway point, it's all downhill. However one is still in recovery for a while.
Unlike the Marine Climb 6, this is a circuit, with identical start and finish lines.This may have been a short course ?It was advertised as 10k, but my Garmin recorded only 9.72km, and that was starting from several metres behind the back of the pack.
All finishers received a Gold Medal on a green shoulder strap. Nice :-)


Having lost my sticker, I had to give my number verbally at the line.There was a large selection of water, orange juice, apple juice, etc, plus Snickers, Mars bars, Taytos, Bananas, Orange slices on a table behind the finish line.
A well organized event, but from an Athletics point of view, it's perhaps too steep for continuous running for most athletes.
Tip: If you ever get a sticker as a bib, secure it with safety pins.

Donal O'Donoghue, Cork"

1 comment:

John Dunphy said...

Hi John,

I also attented this 10k last Saturday and Donal has said it all very,very tough course,i managed to complete the course without the need to stop but so many struggled with the hills it was very difficult i had over taken so many on the hills due to them stopping and walking and before to long i found myself in 8th position at the 5k mark but lost out by 3 to 4 places by the finish due to the amount of work i put into getting around this course.from 5k onwards it became a very quick paced run due to a lot of flat running to the finish line for the exception of 1 or 2 small pulls at 8k and 9k the lad who won the race was last year's winner i don't have the time but last year he done it in almost 37 mins??? put 2 and 2 together and it will give you some idea how tough this course really is.At the finish i received a 25 euro voucher for Feet First Killarney maybe the first 20 finishers recieved something i'm not sure as they was no catergory prizes.

By the way if your reading this please don't forget our road race on the 7th of May 2009 in Midleton starting time 8.00pm look forward to a big turn out on the night in what promises to be a great 5 mile road race.Race flyer on the Cork Running blog.

Regards

John Dunphy
Midleton Ac