After the drama of last week’s National Senior Championships, it was time for the epilogues of the season.

It’s typical to take your fitness to some high quality races to see if you can convert it into a seasons or personal best time before you wrap it up for the season. Four Craughwell AC Athletes headed to IFAM Oordegem in Belgium to race in one of the top-quality meets in Europe. A highlight was probably Oisín lowering his own club 1500m record for the second time this year, but all came away with excellent performances.

Kyle Moorhead was up first in the 800m. The IFAM format is that people are graded in races according to seasons’s bests – this works well in that you end up racing people about your own level of ability, all chasing a new goal. Unfortunately in Kyle’s race there was rather a large field of 14 athletes. Kyle got out hard but soon encountered the challenge with such a large field – he had nowhere to move in and was stuck in lane 2. Kyle kept the head and waited for a slot to open up but it never did! Despite running the whole race in lane 2 (making it about 814m covered), Kyle finished with a strong 1:52.63. This is about 1.7s away from a PB. Kyle has one more race next weekend in the British Milers Club at St. Mary’s and I think a PB is there if the conditions are right.

William Fitzgerald was next up in the 5000m. With a PB of 14:08 from last year, William would dearly like to record a sub-14 at some point. For 4200m last night it looked for all the world like he would do it. With one of the slower season’s bests in the field, he surprised many including his coach by heading to the front with the leaders. Worries abated as he looked fantastic, slotted right in with intent hovering at the outside of lane 1, moving up to about 4th place by 3000m in 8:21 (faster than his 3km PB), and on 13:55 pace. He still looked great by 4km, but then the inevitable charge happened and by 4200m he started to drift off pace as he got dizzy. He hit the bell at about 13:00 dead and knew the sub-14 was gone as a sub-60 wasn’t in his locker. He just about held it together in the last lap to finish with 14:12. I think he likely would have claimed a PB if he ran for one (e.g 14:05 pace), but taking a swing at 13:55 was the right move and a great learning experience.

Oisin Davis was next in the 1500m. Coming in with a seasons best of 3:48.90 from Watford BMC, Oisin was seeded in heat 3 with some runners familiar to him. He had been pretty sick all week and not too optimistic about the race but started to feel better as the day went on so perked up. There are advantages to an 11:45pm starttime! The race went off pretty hard and he found himself to the back of the group with one of his targetmen Cian O’Boyle of Ennis Track clear in front. You tend to like to run with known quantities so he made a hard effort to pass around the pack and close on Cian. When it got to 800m to go you could tell that the effort of the surge had taken a toll but he hung on gamely and ran a 60s last lap to finish with a new personal best and Club Record of 3:47.95. After the race he said the body felt good but the breathing was off and he felt that though he was happy to PB, it was a missed opportunity to get close to a 3:45.

Jack Miskella was next up in the 1500m in heat 4. Jack also brought a season’s from Watford (3:51). He took it fairly conservatively at the start but was really impressive over the last two laps. Jack closed in a 60 to finish with a season’s best of 3:50.69, less than 1s from his personal best. I felt watching the race that Jack had it within himself to win his race had he managed to stay on the pace sooner. This was a brilliant run from Jack and I think his second-fastest performance ever. He is heading to St.Mary’s BMC in the UK next week and in this form I wouldn’t bet against him clocking a PB or Club Record.