Raheny 5 Miler Sunday January 29, 2023

By Siobhán O'Donnell

I use the term ‘race’ very loosely when I talk about entering races as the only person I race against is myself.   I have a love/hate relationship with running – I don’t absolutely love it and I don’t absolutely hate it.  I love when it’s reasonably comfortable to run but that’s the thing about running isn’t it? It’s always hard when you’re racing and you’ll know there’ll be pain at some stage.  Well there always is for me.

The thing about race day is the loo situation why does your brain continually tease you with notions of another loo stop before you get to the start line.  I have been known to join a queue at the portaloos at a race, come out of the loo and re-join the queue instantly – did this in the Phoenix Park for various race series races and the marathon.

“Are you nervous?” asked the new husband before I left the house, “nah no expectations other than to make to the finish line.” This is always my reply but especially on Sunday as I hadn’t run since the previous Saturday week and I had given a blood donation.  But I did other exercise swimming and PT.

So I rock up at the start line with my pal Ruth and her husband Liam and I met some other Parkrun familiar faces.  What I love about Raheny and other race days is the abundance of colour that cheers you up – oranges, pinks, high vis colours and set against the backdrop of a lovely, fresh, brisque almost spring-like day it’s enough to make you shout out ‘sure isn’t it great to be alive!’.

The signal comes that the race has started, we’re so far back we all shuffle forward and then the familiarity of the spacing out as you go over the timing mat and everyone clicks start on their Garmin.

We’re all shimmying through the crowd as everyone jostles for room.   It’s a nice run through estates and more downhill than uphill.   After the first mile, Alan runs by me and give me a ‘you’re looking very comfortable there Siobhán’ which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside and yet I can’t help thinking to myself if I’m not looking comfortable after the first mile I’d be in serious do dah 😊

Like the older man from Raheny Shamrocks who was on my shoulder for a bit at the start and he hack, coughed and ahemmed his way along.  I’m thinking ‘you went out way too fast mate and you’re going to die for the next four miles, ya poor fella’.  We’ve all been that soldier!

Then going down Prospect Avenue I passed a lady who had a picture of her Mam on the back, she told me her Mam is in the hospice, I put my hand on her shoulder and said ‘she'd be so proud of you’ and I was choked with emotion.  I love this raw human side of racing where people are there for their own soul searching reason.   Right, pull yourself together missus and keep moving forward, you haven’t run in eight days so you need to save your energy for the finish.  

There was a ferocious wind on the day depending on the direction, but thankfully it only hit in two places and one was the dreaded run up the avenue in St. Anne’s, that boom when you turn the corner and you’re almost flattened backwards with the force of the wind.  But what keeps you going is the steady stream of runners coming down the other side and the thought you might see someone you know so you put your game face on.  Queue another shout out from Alan as he sped by in the opposite direction which gave me another lift.    Then as I rounded the turn about at the top of the avenue and had the wind on my back didn’t I only hear and see the lovely Barbara shouting out encouragement to me and running ahead to get a photo.  Jeez she was fast as I trundled along and managed a thumbs up and smile.  Those cheers from friendly faces mean so much, especially when someone comes especially to give a cheer out, it’s so thoughtful and very much appreciated.

A fair bit after the mile four mark, heading up the little hill after the avenue there are some stewards shouting there’s only a mile left, well there wasn’t because we had already run a chunk of the last mile and this was very important to me as I also had not run five miles for a while and I was now adopting the counting method of up to 100 and back in my head to keep me going.   This is a great distraction method I read in Paula Radcliffe's book years ago.   

The thing about the last ¾ mile of Raheny is you can hear the MC very clearly and you think you’re only 200m away but you’re at least 700m away.   I rounded the corner to see the finish line and smiled my way to the finish, fighting off the urge to puke.  Which is a regular thing I do at the finish line.  I was completely and utterly over the moon to complete the race in 49 minutes flat and then it was off to collect the legendary Raheny 5 miler goodie bag.  It didn’t fail to impress.

Three different drinks, jellies, chocolate, energy bars and a finishers plaque among other things all to help you replenish the calories burnt during the race.

Raheny Shamrocks put on a fantastic event, and there’s a junior element to it too, lovely to see the kids walking back with their finishers medals before we all got started.  Next year is the 40^th anniversary so it’s bound to be special yet again.

First race of the year in the bag, sure isn’t it great to be alive!