Despite the incessant torrential downpours of late, the Sun gods have been smiling down on us for our weekends racing over the past few weeks. If only we could do something about the wind!
A lovely sunny afternoon greeted the 174 runners who turned up in Gorgeous Gort for their 8k outing today. Previously held as a 4 miler, South Galway AC increased the distance this year which gave Galway based athletes a chance to run a mini ‘8k Series’ over the first six weeks of the year, with Tuam AC & Maree AC also holding 8k’s since the turn of the year.
As always the days racing is viewed differently depending on whom you speak to afterwards & the new 8k route was described as ‘a lovely course with perfect running weather’ by one whilst another felt it was a ‘tough course in windy conditions’. A quick look at the stats would rate it as slightly slower than Tuam but slightly faster than Maree.
Ray Somers has been climbing up the finishing tables consistently over the last year & is now hovering closely behind the usual suspects of Matt Bidwell, Owen Byrne et al, finishing fourth today in a time of 29.46. After a period of going unchallenged at the top of the Athenry AC charts, the return to form of his nemesis, Mick Rice, seems to have given him a kick to push on further again.
Mairead Sullivan continued her streak of improving times with a 45 second PB, finishing as 7th female home in 35.24. Clearly the ‘run, at least, every day’ strategy suits Mairead. James Lundon just about made the start line after deciding to check out the entire course during his pre-race warm up (in preparation for his 10th assault at Ballycotton next month) but still ran a credible 36.18, 11 seconds faster than Maree last week, whilst Fiona Doughan made her first appearance for the year with a 41.55.
Matt Bidwell claimed first position in a time of 26.04 & Ann Lennon of Mayo AC was first female with a 30.48.