St. Malachy's Steeplechase Run

This is my second year doing this race. The distance is an in-betweener with 4.6 miles or roughly 7.5k. Most of it is on gravel and one of the roads had very large pieces of gravel and made running difficult. The weather was on the hot and sticky side even though the race started this morning at 8am.

Last year I finished 19th overall and 4th in my age group. The age groups for this race are in 10 yr. increments instead of the normal 5 yr. increments. So I was lumped together with the 50-54 younger set. This year I was 14th overall and 2nd in this age group. Due to lack of entries in the 60+ segment they just called our group 50+.

Last year my time was 37:35 and this year I improved almost two minutes with 35:37.

Since I spend most of my time on the bike, my running regimen is usually minimal and when I do get the chance to run it usually a 2 or 3 mile run. Last week in preparation for this ride I did 2 days of running at the 4-4.5 mile level. My first and only running at this long of distance for the year. Since I spent my high school track days doing sprints I have never been much into longer distances. So this race last year and again this year really strains my effort and all I can think about the last mile "is this race about over".