(With thanks to Geoff Hamilton for this great report and congrats Geoff on the smartest move ever made by a Senior!!!)

Having recently moved up from the Seniors to Fit4Life, it is my pleasure to write my first Fit4Life Race Report for the Leixlip 5K Road Race – my apologies that it is so long – I am not a man of few words! I went to this race with the Fit4Life ‘Golden Couple’ Angela ‘Envelope’ Egan and Lyndon ’Showpony’ Thomas, hoping that their enthusiasm and success would rub off on me. When we signed up for this race, the only age categories they had above senior were over-40 and over-50, which didn’t suit any of us – I am about to move between these categories, Lyndon is at the upper end of his, and Angela needed a different category altogether – so we weren’t expecting any prizes for this one!

Also, none of us were feeling particularly on top form – I am still on the comeback from injury, Angela is still getting over her marathon heroics, and Lyndon is not at his best – so we had all set ourselves modest targets for the race well outside our PBs. To make matters worse, it had been pouring with rain all morning. As we sat in the car before the race with the rain drumming off the roof, we all agreed that none of us wanted to be there, and that the only reason we had turned up was to not let the others down. This was the Fit4Life enthusiasm I had been looking for!

After a bit of confusion about where the race started from, we all set off together from the main road beside the athletic track. Lyndon went off like a gazelle before realising that it wasn’t a 400m race, and then reined himself in again – he says he can’t pace himself without a watch! Angela and I set off at a more sedate pace. There was one hill in the first kilometre, but after that the course was fairly flat with just a few undulations and fairly straightforward.

The end of the race is one lap of the athletics track. As I entered the track, I heard the shouts of support from those pesky seniors (including the legendary Randolph Montague) who had all finished in under 20 minutes, run the course again for a cool down, had a cup of tea and cake and showered and changed.

I bounced along the tartan track – thinking that maybe one day we could have that in Dunboyne;-) and finished just ahead of my target time but well outside of my PB. Just behind me came Lyndon, looking as fresh as a daisy and bounding along in his best dressage form, also finishing in a time well within expectations, but outside his PB.

Not long after Lyndon, we saw Angela come on to the track for her lap about 20 yards behind another female runner. We shouted our lungs out at her the whole way round as she closed on the runner in front of her and looked strong. On the final bend, Angela caught up and overtook the other runner, sprinting for the line and finishing in under half an hour – well outside her PB but again better than expected. When you consider that Angela has not long finished a marathon, and is still very tired from it, this was a truly brilliant performance. She is so strong and inspirational.

After we had a cup of tea and cake (not that the seniors had left us much), we decided to go back out to watch the prize giving ceremony. Peter Brandon had won the men’s event for Dunboyne, so we wanted to support him.

As the ceremony progressed slowly the way these things do, Angela again complained about the lack of an over-60 category and the lack of possibility of further envelopes. At that exact moment, the MC announced that the winner of the female over-50 category was………………………

> Angela!

Suddenly Angela was transformed from miserable to delirious as she danced up to get her envelope (again!) looking more like under-18 than over-60! We had thought that maybe the runner that Angela had overtaken right at the end was in the same category, but it turns out that she was a mere over-40! Angela really does prove that age is just a number, and we are all really proud of her. Well done Angela!

Thanks to Claire for her photos!!