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BUPA Great Ireland Run 2006: GPS recorded time and distance. My target time was to be inside an hour for the first time. I wasn't sure how to pace it. Should I take it easy at the start and try to wind things up or go off hard and hang on... or even just try to run an even pace? I still hadn't really made my mind up as a I lined up last but two at the very back of the field of thousands. In the event the satisfaction of overtaking people (a rarity for me usually!) pulled me through the first km at close to 5k PB pace. That set the tone and I pushed the next few km looking to give myself a sizeable buffer for when the inevitable slowing down started. As it turned out, I didn't drift over 6 minutes per kilometre until the 7th where I was outside the pace by just a second. But the next two kilometres were really hard and I started to worry if I could keep inside the hour. However, a glance at the Garmin at 9km showed me that I had nearly a minute in hand still on the 59:59 target. I couldn't muster much of a sprint finish... I was spent but I finally crossed the line in 59:04 for a PB by over three minutes. 1km split times: 5:35, 5:46, 5:45, 5:41, 5:54, 5:53, 6:01, 6:19, 6:13, 5:52.