Brendan Teer turned up, ran, won. A very simplistic description of the outcome of Saturday’s Comber Potato 10K race and one which would do a great disservice to what was a fascinating contest. It was perhaps fitting that the first renewal of this race in over 30 years should provide a duel between the past and the present, with wily veteran Paul Rowan from Willowfield Harriers, 4 times former winner of Jimmy’s Ten, throwing down the gauntlet to East Down’s ever competitive athlete of the year. The fact that the race was only decided inside the last kilometre showed that even at 45 plus years Rowan is still a force to be reckoned with and that Teer’s strategy of waiting until the Willowfield man had fired his best shots before pouncing is one which he will employ to good effect again.
The winning time may not be particularly eyecatching but this was a tough demanding circuit and in the humid and energy sapping conditions 33.33 was a very respectable time indeed. Rowan took second spot in 34.39 with Ballymena Runners Ben Morrow 16 seconds further back in third. I was pleasantly surprised to discover afterwards, given the conditions, that the top 21 finishers, which included two more East Down men Dee Murray 38.28 a new pb and Declan Teague 39.40, had all broken the 40 minutes barrier.
Anyway not far behind Declan came Mark O’Connor 41.29, a morale boosting recovery run in 31st place after the rigours of a recent 24 hour walking marathon in Wales.
An interesting observation on Declan’s performance – his number was 111, mine was 110, yet it took me 57.58 to complete the race – now if we had swapped numbers??
Not to be outdone the trio of East Down Ladies who took part were all creditably and comfortably under 60 minutes, Clare Foster 52.59, Janine Murray 54.05 and Sharon Carew 58.12.
HOT UNDER THE COLLAR
It was a learning experience of considerable diversity for me given that it was my first 10K road race for over 6 years so it might as well have been my first. The targets were 1. To finish, and 2. To break 60 minutes
Initial signs were good as I passed through 2K in just over 11 minutes but was already in semi meltdown, having opted for T-shirt under club vest as mode of dress. As we turned uphill towards Scrabo the heat intensified and there was not even the hint of a breath of wind. The T-shirt had to go! And while still on the run I managed to heave the offending garments over my head, where they promptly stuck, courtesy of the copious amount of perspiration generated by the effort to get them there in the first place. So not only was I about to collapse from the heat but couldn’t even see what I was about to collapse onto – and I was still allegedly running! However a strategically positioned marshal proved my salvation and responded to my frantic cries for help by quickly hauling the garments over my head.
SAFETY WARNING- DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME
It seemed a simple task to put the vest back on again – I had done it dozens of times over the years though never in the heat of the moment or while on the run, but how difficult would that be? So, over my head, arms through the holes and pull it down? Wrong! Over my head? Yes, arms through holes? Yes Pull it down? No. The vest caught on the sweat and as I tugged it, rolled itself into something resembling a hangman’s rope. I then discovered that my left arm was through the neck hole so as I struggled to pull it down or lower my arms I was slowly strangling myself. Worse still I couldn’t pull it back over my head again either. Needless to say that by now all thoughts of a finishing time had disappeared, the priority now was survival, as in just living to see the finish line, but once again the camaraderie of the running fraternity came to my rescue. A friendly voice from behind said “Do you need a hand there my friend” and promptly provided the helping hand to remove the garotte from my throat. Actually what he said was “Do you need some help with putting your clothes on, old man?” but I wouldn’t want anyone to know just how incapable I was. My thanks to him nonetheless.
ALL DOWNHILL?
Two things I learned from the race. Firstly when marshals/spectators say encouragingly “It’s all downhill from here” it is a total lie. There is no such thing in road running as “all downhill” from anywhere, so there is no way to fool me by such comments. Anyway I practically invented the saying and have used it so often myself knowing it to be wrong!
GIVE MY HEAD PACE?
Secondly, having managed to get around, courtesy of my very good friend and Co Antrim Harriers stalwart Marian Hayes, while debating how the downhills seemed to be heading upwards, my 57.58 must put me back on the list of possible 60 minute pacers for next year’s Jimmy’s Ten.
Next weekend the “local” race is in Greyabbey on Friday night where both 5 and 10K distances are on offer and then on Tuesday 21st the Portaferry 10 Miles with 2 X 5 Miles Relay begins at 7.30pm, hopefully fog free this year.
The Shore 10K in Killough originally scheduled for 11th July has been postponed until Saturday 12 September.
Joe Quinn
6 July 2015