This was always going to be a tough run. Spiddal is an Irish speaking town on the coastline, about 20 minutes drive from Galway city. A beautiful place, but again it was very windy and part of the course saw us climbing up into the hills. I'd treat it as a good hit-out with no real time expectation.
After a couple of kms warm-up, I made my way to the start line. The first km was along the main coastal road and I was in a group of 4. It was fairly flat at this point but just before the first km marker we took a left turn which signalled the start of the climbs. A split of 3:11 for the opening km, but it was now becoming much tougher. The next 3 kms was basically all uphill, and the group slowly whittled down and I was soon running solo at the front. The pace was slowing each km (2km 3:32, 3km 3:37 and 4km 3:47) and at the halfway point there was a left hand turn and welcome flattish terrain.
The course was now running through very exposed moors and it was the turn of the wind to play havoc. A strong crosswind straight off the Atlantic made it hard to up the pace and the next couple of kms were still tough running with both these kms covered in 3:25. The course then started to descend and thankfully the last couple of kms were very friendly. This is the only point of the race I felt really good (funny that) and splits of 3:07 and 3:02 for the last couple of clicks had me crossing the line in 27:06.
Let me go back a bit, I didn't actually cross the finish line. I'll explain - the roads were open to traffic and a tourist coach insisted on overtaking me with about 500m to go. As the road narrowed towards the finishing area I was getting closer and closer to the coach only to have to stop completely as it ground to a halt. I was pretty pissed off at this point and after waiting a few seconds, I then went to overtake the bus on the right hand side only to completely miss the finish line which the coach was parked on. I didn't even realise only for the people to start shouting at me to stop as I ran further up the road...what a shambles!
A good blow-out and another win (by just under a minute). All the times were slow today and I have to say this was one of the toughest races I can remember. The breathing felt good but the legs just didn't want to get moving after the 3km climb.
Well done to the organisers for adding another race to the calendar and hopefully lots of money was raised for Cancer Care.
A couple of kms warm-down so 12kms for the day. My right hip is now a little sore, hopefully nothing too serious. I'll try an easy run on Monday and all being well I'll be okay for race 5 in the Galway 5km series on Tuesday evening.
A total of 78.6km for the week.
2 comments:
that coach was a real pi$$er, but well run!
Are there stone walls to the side of the roads your racing on?
Dave, yep, a lot of the local runs have the stone walls lining the side of the road. We are even thinking of having one built around our front garden!
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