Last week I stupidly passed a remark to Valerie Glavin on how I would love to run the Craughwell Ten as close to 1:34 as I could. I should have known better.

By the start line I had a nice plan, or so I thought, I'd start at 9.4 minute miles and then all going well bring it into 9.3 and go from there hoping to finish around the 1 hour 36 mark bettering my PB of 1:40.

However, there was a last minute change…. a sudden presence at my side… Valerie… yip, the words bricking it come to mind as she asked me what my plan was. I didn’t get a chance to explain as she was too busy moving me a lot closer to the start line… A place I have never started from… The back of the pack near the ambulance is normally my comfort zone. She had just run from Athenry and was going to take the race handy, running home to Athenry afterwards. Sure what else would she be doing on a Sunday afternoon??

My water bottle was taken from me and I suddenly had visions of her running off in front of me saying “come and get it if you really want it”, in fairness Val, each time I gasped “water” you did give it to me, even if you made me run a bit faster first. Cheers!

The first mile had my nose stuck in my watch as I was trying to explain to her that I do not run 8.4 minute miles, she tried telling me that my watch was broken and even asked if I wanted to hand the watch over… I DON’T THINK SO came to mind.

Thankfully we pulled it back to just over 9 minute miles. Liam Egan passed me between mile one and two, you could see confusion written all over his face as he saw me in his path (we normally meet at the start of the race and maybe at the finish, ages after he has finished). I again tried to explain that this was not the way id seen my race pan out but my words were falling on deaf ears. I was being told I could keep it up and so I did as the lady said. I hit the 5k mark in 27.4, I didn’t realise it at the time but that’s a new pb for me. Yipppee.

I hit mile five in 46.5 minutes, another pb for me, this one I noticed though and was waiting for my legs to scream stop.

10k saw my watch read 58:04…. Yet another pb. Valerie noticed this one too but it didn’t mean I was allowed to slow up.

At mile eight Edel Connolly and Elaine Quinn passed me; both cheered me on as they flew passed on what seemed like fresh legs, I was jealous of their legs. Valerie asked me how I was feeling and of course I made the fatal mistake of telling her that I was tired but ok, no niggles. Her reply was simply good run faster so.

From mile eight I really felt it; I had slipped back closer to 9.5 minute miles and was hoping that I could at least keep this pace to the end. At mile nine I was told I was to go for it, I had been “going for it” from mile eight, no point explaining this to the scary lady though. Instead I put the head down and kept going, although it was my slowest mile I managed to find more at the finish to push past the line in a time of 1:35:40.

I was in complete shock; I had just knocked over 4minutes off my last ten mile race. Not to mention the other new pbs. Thanks a million Val for keeping me on my toes, there is no way I would have done that on my own. And, I didn’t even curse at you over the course of the race; does that mean I can keep my get out of jail card for another day?????

Note: You can see proof of Marie and Val's excellent adventure at the following link courtesy of Frank Murray of Craughwell:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28291149@N00/5543817436/in/set-72157626308399526/