Irish National Road Relays - Raheny, Dublin

Well I am wrecked, but I said to myself I'm better off getting it down now while it's fresh in my mind.

The Irish National Road Relays is a 4 leg race, consisting of a 2 mile leg, a 1 mile leg, a 3 mile leg and a 2 mile leg. All run around the same 1 mile loop in Raheny, North Dublin. There are races for Vet Men and Women and Senior Women also consisting of 3 legs.

We left Ennis at half 8 and picked some of the guys up on the way, as we had entered 3 teams.

The teams to watch out for here are always the Dublin teams. Raheny, Clonliffe, DSD and Rathfarnham are usually the ones to beat.

Our aim was top 5, with a possibility of top 3. Last year we were 7th and the year before, our first year running, we were 12th.

We are a young club - the oldest runner today was 28 - but we really wanted a medal today. Alas it was not to be.

We got a good start from Liam Markham, a very promising 18 year old. He got us into 6th or 7th. Brian, his 22 year old brother and my housemate, got us into 6th. I ran the 3 mile leg. I set off on the first lap with Sean Hehir of Rathfarnham slightly ahead of me. I caught him and we worked together to make up ground on the rest of the field. After 2 of the 1700m laps I was up to 3rd and catching Alan O'Brien of Crusaders in second. I caught him and made as much ground up on the leading team (Raheny) as I could, I knew that there would be strong finishers from the other teams in the last leg. One person I was thinking of in particular was a certain Mr. Chamney of Crusaders.

I passed on to Brian McGinley our finisher in a hand time of 14.24. Brian ran so well and I thought we would hold onto third but Paul Fleming of Rathfarnham (Sean Hehir's club- see blog) caught him in the last lap to take third after Chammers caught him for second. Paul is a great runner and it was unfortunate that I could not get a bigger gap for Brian, but he will be back.

It's an awful position. Bronze would have made our day, as we are so much smaller than the majority of the Dublin clubs in terms of numbers. But we have youth, talent and a great coach in Pat Hogan and we will be back next year for medals.

Next week is the National 12 stage and I will run for Newham. Hopefully there will be a medal for the taking there.