DAVE’S KNEE

Super Stablemate Dave “Boy” Greene had a rare ol’ time in Manchester, blasting out a 1:17:43 half-marathon—a full 45” quicker than his PB from 2019. 

Conditions were perfect for the Fermoy fella: “cool, calm, and bright.” But it wasn’t all plain sailing for Greene on the way to coming home in 55^th position overall. 

The Stable News’ favourite freelancer, Ally “the Psychic Scot” Smith, was on the scene to hear from Greene:

Ally: Davie-boy! How’s it going? You just missed Liam. Sorry, there’s not much buffet left. But here; have a dried-up ham sandwich and tell me all about it. 

Dave: I’ll pass, thanks. It was a great race. However, things were far from straightforward. Firstly, we underestimated the time to get to Old Trafford on the tram. When we arrived, there were huge queues for the bag drop. We just skipped the queue and legged it to the start line. 

Ally: No way! 

Dave: Yes way! Also, we had to jump a few barriers before eventually getting up to our start wave. I gave my knee a good clatter in the process, so I’m getting my excuses in early. We jumped straight into the wave and my feet no sooner hit the ground than the gun went off. It was brilliant … No time for pre-race nerves or any of that BS. 😊 

Ally: Holy moly! Well done on keeping it together, pal. How did the race go? 

Dave: Myself and Liam had a good race plan, based on our experience in Charleville a couple of weeks ago: start a little slower and work into the race. We got to 10 miles feeling fairly OK and then put the boot down. We both had a strong finish, but Liam had a bit too much for me in the last mile. It wasn’t for the want of trying, though. All in all, I’m very happy with the result and am using it as a springboard to better things, hopefully!

Congrats to Liam on another M50 win. He’s putting his fellow veterans (and young lads like me) to shame. 😊

Ally: What a morning you had! Excellent, Dave. Liam is going great at the moment, but every dog has their day and yours is soon to come. THE PSYCHIC SCOT HAS SPOKEN!

Dave: What the heck are you on about? 

Ally: Oh, just something I said to Liam earlier. Never mind; you’ll find out soon enough! Poof!

With that, the Psychic Scot vanished in a puff of smoke.

Back on the Emerald Isle, Coach Stazza was putting the finishing touches to his ghastly Halloween costume: “Oh, yes! Freddie Krueger has nothing on me. The nightmare in Tralee is about to begin! MWAH HAHAHA! But what sounded like a nightmarish start for Dave ended up being a blessing! A cracking race with a sore knee and a phantasmagorical PB. Much more to come from the Boy. That’s for sure!”