Break 4 The Border 2025
After finishing the Feile 10K, I decided that I wanted another challenge. Then someone suggested to me about the break 4 the border event. The race stood out, because it was a Born 2 Run event, which I have always wanted to do. It was also the inaugural event, so I would be taking part in history.
Unfortunately, training was disrupted for a week, because of illness. Training stayed mostly the same during this period. I would do a 60 minute run on Monday. On Tuesday I would do intervals. The final week of training was difficult as I was suffering from burnout, and had minor ankle and calf pain.
Unlike most of my races, there was a journey to the start line. To get to the start line I had to get a bus from Carlingford. The bus stopped at the wrong place. So, when I departed from the bus, I had to travel for about a kilometre to reach the start line. Along the way I would alternate between jogging and walking. When I arrived, I decided to do my routine warm up along the narrow path. However, due to the growing mass of runners surrounding the start line, I decided to shorten the warm-up to ensure that I can reach the front of the mass.
Then the race started. The first kilometre I had to navigate myself through the group of runners, while searching for a comfortable pace that I could manage for the most of the race. However, the first kilometre was narrow, which limited the space available for me to manouever around other runners. It was also hilly and there was a head wind present, which made controlling the pace difficult. On the positive side, the song Born To Run was in my head as motivation.
During the 2nd to the 4th kilometre, I managed to hold onto the pace of the first kilometre, which was around 4:17 per kilometre pace. Also, I was able to find a group to run with. This was important as the head wind was strong, so the group helped with maintaining pace and blocking the wind.
The fifth kilometre was completely next to the coast, so the period of running was longer. Unfortunately, most of the group started to fall behind. By the end of the kilometre there was only me and one other runner.
After the fifth kilometre, the wind was not as strong. Therefore, I decided to gradually recover my pace back. Luckily enough, the other runner was increasing his pace, so I had someone to run with.
However, during the 9th kilometre the lactic acid started to build up in my legs. This made it feel like I was running with weights attached to me. I decided to relax as pushing the pace would’ve done nothing but make me more tired. It was hard seeing other runners run past me, but I knew there was nothing I could do. When I was 400 metres away from the finishing line, I decided to do one last push to the line.
In conclusion, I was very happy with my run. I was pleased with my 16th place as it was the first time I was in the top twenty in a race in over 2 years. Overall, it was a very good race and I came away with two medals, one as a 10k finisher and the other as a Born 2 Run first timer.
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