Training for this race had gone well enough, with runouts on the

Claregalway and Athenry 10KM circuits in the month before

yielding almost identical times, 44:47 and 44:46.

The day of the race itself was clear, cold and dry. Excellent

running conditions! Mick and myself made it up from Galway, as

did Colm Rowe from the Athenry AC (Senior) club from Corofin.

It was my second time to run this race, running a then PB of

42:57 in 2002. I felt in better shape this time around but then

I had said the same earlier this year when I lined up in

Claregalway and failed to break 43:00 with Ray O'Connor beating

me home.

James Crawford from HP and a number of other suspects from that

part of the world were running here too. Crawford and myself had

previously decided to run together here to see how far it would

get us.

The usual rules of engagement applied after that. The race

started at the bottom of the village and we had to traverse the

hill on the main street four times before finding the finishing

line. About 115 athletes lined up, as was the case in recent

years! This is a good-quality race with few, if any, fun

runners. Fun runners very quickly get tailed off in such a field

in any case, or worse, get lapped in a three lap race!

The race usually has KM markers but at least two of them were

wrong last year so I was dodgy about them at the start of this

race. My worst fears were realised after only two KM when 4:19

and then 3:35 clocked up.

Crawford and myself dug in and stayed together for most of the

rest of the race. By this stage - 2KM - the field was already

well strung out. There wasn't much passing action around our

running window. I don't remember passing anyone and we were

passed by perhaps two or three lads.

This was a race where I didn't look at my splits during the race

itself as it can be quite distracting, whether you're running

well or not. Trying to calculate whether the race is going well

or not could be the difference between falling over the tufts of

grass in the middle of the back lane or/and tripping over the

numerous shallow potholes dotted along those same boreens. In

2002, it had rained on the day of the race and much of the boreen

at the back of the course was partly waterlogged.

Crawford and myself pushed each other along, with one of us

strong when the other was relatively weak and vice versa at other

times. After 8KM, I felt him falling off the pace a little and I

pushed on a bit hoping that he would come with me. He did and at

9.5 KM broke away from me for the final time. I didn't have any

kick left in me to go with him. He was trying to catch some of

the runners who had passed us earlier..

I was happy enough to skate in the last 500 metres as fast as I

could, which I was relieved to do in sub-4:10. Finished the race

in better shape than I did the year before and was even happier

to see 41:53 flash up on my watch. What was particularly

gratifying was the even effort, when the two KM splits were

analysed (see below). With the exception of the first two KM,

which is usually faster than the rest, the other four two-KM

splits were all between 8:25 and 8:33!

Consistency of effort leads to consistency/improvement of times.

Gary Doherty got some nice shots of myself and Crawford on the

course with Mick's camera :).

A good day at the office. I'm now within two minutes of the

magical 40:00 but they are going to be the hardest two minutes to

kill as Mick Rice keeps telling me.

Mick scored a 36:24 while Colm Rowe came home in the mid-37:00s.

4:19.91

3:35.72 7:55.63

4:17.19

4:16.09 8:33.28

4:04.82

4:20.77 8:25.59

4:16.09

4:13.99 8:30.08

4:20.15

4:08.66 8:28.81

--------

41:53.39

James.