Galway 5km Series - Week 1

The first race was at Newcastle which is out past Athenry. The concept is six 5km races each Tuesday in various locations around Galway. Not too serious, just a good excuse to have a hit-out, try and beat your mates, and try and improve your times over the duration of the series. It has proven very popular with the series selling out within 2 hours of going on sale and with 700 runners signed up, I was looking forward to something different.

A minor miracle that I found the venue. I knew it was somewhere near Athenry but just sort of guessed what way to go and followed some traffic. After driving down some fairly narrow roads I was convinced I had gone the wrong way only to discover the registration area. Very lucky.

Running short of time I basically grabbed my number and chip, jogged down to the start and lined up. There were many familiar faces at the start and it promised to be a good race. I should have mentioned that conditions looked to be very windy as the car was getting buffeted on the drive out there. Same for everyone I guess.

The race started and a lead group quickly formed. I think there were at least half a dozen runners involved and after about 500m we took a right turn which I took very wide to avoid some loose gravel. The first km marker arrived and the time of 3:02 showed that the pace was on. The group was still well formed and after one memorable surge (not by me!), gaps started to emerge. At about 2km (2nd km 3:17) I hit the front and just concentrated on running strongly.

That's how it remained for me. The third km was tough with some long uphill drags and the km split of 3:25 showed a big slow-down but I had still gapped the chasing pack. The course then flattened out and I managed to lift the pace in the run for home with the 4th km covered in 3:14 and then a nice downhill last km of 3:13. Total time of 16:10 and 1st place overall.

The wind didn't seem too bad out on the course. It was probably quite a sheltered route so that may explain why. A good race with several runners all dipping under 17 minutes. More good racing to come over the next few weeks as I'm sure everyone will lift their game. These races seem to be over in a flash when you have just run a half marathon. You are just getting going and you are crossing the finish line.

I finished up with a 4 mile warm-down. All up 12.4km for the day and lots of fun in the process. Thumbs up to the organisers. Results already up on Red Tag Timing so a very quick turnaround.