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.