I drove out to Athlone which is about an hour from Galway. I got there in good time and ran a 2.5km warm-up where I felt awful - I think I was still struggling to digest my lunch....
The race was scheduled for 4:05pm and luckily I didn't do a longer warm-up as we were called to the start at about 3:40pm. They were going to run both the premier league and 1st division races together - that was a good thing as I wanted a good race.
The race was soon underway and one bloke went straight off the front leaving a group of 7 or 8 chasing which I was one - just sitting at the back. The laps were ticking down and we went through 1km in 3:06 so quick but not electric. As the race progressed the group slowly started to whittle down. The next km was also covered in 3:06 and the guy out front was slowly being reeled in...
By 3km (km split 3:07) I'd say the group was down to 4 and the leader had been spat out of the back. I was still feeling good and it was about this time that another runner made a break. I sat in with 3 other runners and could feel the pace slowing a little. Sure enough, a 3:09 km proved that - time for a final push to the line.
The leader had opened up a nice lead so I was racing for second. I went to the front of our group with 2 laps to go and focused on running hard. On the last bend for home I tripped over the curb and stepped out of lane for a few metres but recovered well to finish in 2nd in a time of 15:27 (last km 2:59). Happy as with that run as I will still a little sore from Thursday's race. Again it left me thinking that I could run a good bit quicker.
After a 2.5km warm-down it was back to Galway. Although I didn't win the race I secured maximum points for GCH as I was running 1st division and the winner was in the premier league. So, only 2 seconds slower than my PB in a race I don't feel I really nailed. There will be more to come I'm sure.
A total of 71.6km for the week.
No comments:
Post a Comment