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Race strategy Fingal 10k 2015 and my performance in the race series

Posted by Pascal Landshoeft

Jul 19, 2015 10:09:00 AM

Race strategy Fingal 10K 2015 and my performance in the Dublin race series

 

19.07.2015 was the date for me and 4.000 other runners (12.000 If I believe the chip times on the website, the Irish independent awaited 4.000 runners which seems closer to the truth for me) to go out in swords and run the Fingal 10k 2015. The winner took the crown with 29:44 in the male section run by Mick Closisey and a 34:11 run by Maria McCambridge as the first woman to get over the line. This year I was not as close as last year to the winning bunch with a time of 44:52. I ran what I aimed for and you can check my bib number 409 at the Fingal 10K results.

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Even though friend of mine are not huge fans of the Fingal 10K i personally love it especially because of the first half of the race. It is a challenging course where the fun bits come in just at the right time at the beginning and the end. Compared to the courses in Phoenix Park I personally find it less challenging and faster due to nature of the course. Fingal_10k_map

As always there was a lot of support from the local running clubs and the volunteers who help the SSE Dublin Race Series team, which is always a bliss to see that there is still some good left in the world.

Race Strategy for Fingal 10k

After running it three times now, here some tips for you in case you consider to run the Fingal 10K for the first time. The start is less spacious than the other races in the series in Phoenix Park so be prepared to elbow your way through a bit. The start is on main street swords and it is not the widest street in the world. After the first 500m or so you will be out on the swords bypass. 

If you aim for let's say a below 50 minutes 10K run you want to build up some extra time here. Probably you worked your training around a 4:50 pace on the kilometer. For the first three to 4 kilometers in this race try to beat that pace by maybe 10 to 20 seconds as it is the easiest part of the course. If you can not beat your 10K pace comfortably for three kilometers, maybe consider a slight readjustment of your goals to net get disappointed on race day. Be careful not to over pace though as you can see a lot of runners before you on the bypass which might lead you into thinking you can do way better than planned, for me that was always a recipe for disaster.

Kilometer 4 - 8 take you through the Swords backroads to bring you back to Swords Castle where you started. This is the more challenging part of the race with turns and up and downs. This is were you most likely will struggle to keep your race pace and for the taken example might drop to 5:00 occasionally. So here the time you gained on the first third of the race will come in handy.  

Fingal 10k

Once you made it out of the back roads will come to the part of the race around north street( see map) that is where you can see the pack which is slightly ahead of you that went already through the bit of zig zagging of the course to go to kilometer 9. Here you can pick up the pace again and muscle up watery lane which comes at a slight slope and from there it is all downhill to the finishing line the burn up all the fuel that is left in the tank as the crowd and the course will now carry you over the finishing line (i would not advise this approach in Phoenix Park, anyone who did the course there knows what I am talking about). The area around Newtown cottages is the area where I have seen the most incidents of people getting sick, stepping to the side for a bio break or starting to walk to get off their jumper. Try to avoid to be one of them and encourage those you pass to push through.

My 2015 Fingal race and the years before

I've set out to be under 45 minutes as I set out to be under 40 minutes for the 5 mile and achieved it. I knew due to lack of training that I would not beat last years time of 39:49, but I have come a long way from my 50.38 in 2013. I have run races in Dublin, Vienna and Frankfurt so far and more to come, but the Fingal 10k will always be special for me as it was my first race I have ever run on my life. 

Further reading

 

 

Topics: How to run a faster marathon