Munster U23’s

First competition of the year done and dusted! Yesterday, I began my athletics season with the Munster Indoor U23’s – running the 60m and the 200m. As you were all aware, I was using this competition as badly needed experience which I duly got thankfully. To actually get out and run on an indoor track was a great feeling and it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, even though I was dying with the flu.

The first race of the day saw me compete in the 60m. I really didn’t know what to expect from it all, as it was very new to me. Generally, very short distances like this dont suit me. It’s very hard for me to pick up the speed in such a short distance, hence why I’m a 400m runner. To be a 60m runner, you really do have to have a specific body type and be able to move your legs extremely quick in order to pick up the speed. I knew this race wasn’t for me, but as I explained in my last post, I wanted to experience it. That I did, running a time of 7.56 and finishing in 4th position. As far as 60m times go, it was very average but I did say I wanted to run a 7.50 and I did that so I can’t really complain too much. Whether or not I do another 60m race any time soon is questionable! I did enjoy it though but it would be hard for me to be competitive.

As you can see from the video, I’ve justified all my points above. It almost looks like I took a little bit of a stumble on my fourth or fifth step out of the blocks, so I by no means had a clean race. Maybe the nerves got to me, who knows!

As for the 200m race, I had mixed emotions over it. My current PB is 23.34 outdoors so I was kind of hoping to get averagely close to this. I knew that usually times for indoors are expected to be slower.  Although, I had completely lowered my expectations due to not feeling well over the past week. Even taking this into account, I had never ran higher than 23 seconds for a 200m race. So I was still hoping to stay in or around that mark regardless. In the end, I finished with a time of 24.32. I will admit I was slightly disappointed with this time, but as I said previous, my expectations were lowered going into it. I also still need to realise that it was my first indoor race so I do need the adjustment period as it’s completely different to outdoors. The strange upside to this was that I still managed to come first in the race. I’m not taking anything from this however, as I am completely aware that there were certain people who could have run the race and crushed my time but did not compete. It’s still good to have a gold medal though, they can’t take that away from me regardless of who ran and did not run!

The gold medal from the 200m race.

Once it got to the last 80 metres of the 200, the flu really started to kick in and I was struggling for breath. Not a good sign I know! A sign that I really shouldn’t have raced. If anything, I was quite naive and kept telling myself I would be fine. In reality, I really wasn’t fine. The track was freezing as well which did not help! You can see from the video below that I’m struggling at the end.

Overall, It was a really enjoyable day and I can take a few positives from the races. The first being that I’ve assured myself I’m not a 60m sprinter and the second positive that i’ve gained some valuable experience. It can only get better from here. Hopefully, I’ll knock off this flu and get back training in the next few days. I will be competing again in the next few weeks and I’ll be sure to keep you all updated.