Cory's Running: Race Review "2016 Gaelic Gallop"

Not sure whether to chalk it up to the luck of the Irish or my lucky homemade kilt but I finally made a return trip to PR City last Saturday at the 2016 Gaelic Gallop! After a 2015 shadowed by an early spring back injury (injured lumbar disc), I could not be happier to come back to the G.G. and beat my previous 8K PR achieved in 2014 and gain some much needed confidence to catapult me into a great 2016! Sorry, getting ahead a little of myself so let's backup and talk about the race....

The Gaelic Gallop is an 8K Road Race held annually in the town of Dyersville, Iowa... a small Iowa town well known for it's Irish Heritage, EPIC Saint Patty's Day Festivities and of course "The Field of Dreams" movie site. Being of Irish decent with very strong admiration for the country (my wife and I spent a couple weeks traveling the countryside in 2006), I have a special love for all things green including this race. Adding to my race day excitement was the fact I missed last year due to a nasty flu... well in full disclosure I still showed up and tried to run despite being sick but that ended in me yacking all over the venue (I am very stubborn).

So on race day I was feeling pretty good other than I didn't get but a couple hours sleep since it took me all night to finish sewing my kilt haha (yeah I attempted to sew it myself over many failed attempts).... lucky for me I require much less sleep than a normal human so I was chipper as normal. I was also a bit surprised at my fresh legs thinking I would be a little more tired coming off of my highest elevation and mileage week this year but I did cut back on the cross training so it must have balanced out nicely. My goal was to beat my 2014 PR which I thought was a 6:13 average pace until I looked at my Garmin data the day before the race and saw the course was off so my pace that year was a 6:06 so I readjusted.

Right before the gun sent us to work there was a delay at the starting line due to a timing mat issue and I had a few minutes to chat with the other runners around me. This reminded me why this is one of my favorite races of the year. So many of my running friends show up to this event to gauge their spring fitness and when I looked around the pack of runners I really felt at home and very relaxed... but then... BLAST!

I took off too fast (surprise surprise) which led to some unexpected race strategy changes. About a mile in I chose to back off a bit on an incline rather than hold pace with the other two runners I was with. In retrospect I regret that decision as I kept up with them the rest of the race just fine finishing about 10 seconds behind... not that I was trying to beat them but running in a pack is so much better than chasing from behind. After that I was a little hard on myself mentally, really overthinking my prior year's splits and trying to do unneeded math on the run and coming up with the inevitable conclusion that I blew it... it probably took me until mile 5 to relax again but once I reached the out"skirts" of town it all came together as my kilt saved the day! The crowd roared as my kilt flapped in the wind like Superman's cape! :)... the reaction and funny comments immediately knocked me out of my funk and I finished with my fastest mile and a smile on my face!

It wasn't until I got home when I realized I beat my 2014 PR, a race where I felt amazing from start to finish! It was a great reminder that every run/race/challenge is it's own journey and although it might not start, continue or even finish as expected, it just might lead you to that Pot O' Gold you are searching for!... until next time...

"Stay lucky my friends"... and Happy Running!

-Cory