St. Patrick's Festival 5K.

I was really looking forward to this run. My running partner was a running novice and today she's lose her 5K cherry! The race was organised by Eamonn Coghlan, a running legend in these parts, who ran and won this very race in 1983 before going on to win the world championships the same year.

There was lots of excitement before the race in the Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, as we rubbed shoulders with complete unknowns like ourselves. Having arrived early I had plenty of time to pin my number to my shirt, something that can take most of the morning. With our goodie bags in hand and numbers pinned on we made our way outside where a local motorcycle club were positioning their machines at the start line. There was an impressive array of bikes on display and as there were a few knackered looking antiques parked among the lines of dream machines my bike would have slotted in beautifully.

Not long after we were off to a nice steady pace. The route took us up Dawson Street, along Stephen's Green, around Fitzwillam Square where we zip-zagged toward the canal. Then we turned right and ran along the canal for a kilometer or so and made our way up Earlsford Terrace, up Leeson Street, back around Fitzwilliam Square, along Stephen's Green and across the finish line in front of the Mansion House.

We kept a nice steady pace the whole way around and finished in 39.37. Here's a map and stats of our run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2601899. We wandered back into the Mansion House and were pleasantly surprised with tea, coffee and tons of those chocolate covered mikado biscuits that you can only get here... yum! I stood beside a table with a plentiful supply and happily listened to speech after speech after prize after speech, etc. I was supposed to be on a diet but I reckon after yesterday's 12 miler and today's 5K I deserve it!