Galway 5km Series - Week 5

I arrived in good time as I wanted to do a recce on the course. I bumped into Timmy and we jogged a lap. It was mixed terrain of grass, car park, road and gravel path. A very flat course but there were sections in the backend of the course where you had to watch your footing due to a few small obstacles including steps, tree roots, rocks, etc. Overall not too bad and certainly not as bad as I was expecting.

Another windy evening though but we were lucky in that the rain held off until after the finish. The race started and the first 500m was on grass (cross country style). By the time the car park was reached I had hit the front and I put in a burst as I wanted to gap the chasing pack. The first km was reached in 3:07 and it was head down as the course remained on a twisty road heading towards the university. I missed the 2km marker and it was this section that seemed most windy. More of a cross-wind but it seemed to slow me a fair bit but it was soon time to leave the road with a left hand u-turn onto grass to join a gravel path. I could see at this point that I had opened up a decent lead so it was now a race against the clock.

The halfway point was marked and I went through this is 7:54 so I was on track for another decent run. That said, I was slowing a little as the ground was a bit slippery, and I was being extra careful not to take a tumble. The 3rd km was passed in 9:31 so I had covered kms 2 and 3 in 6:24 (average 3:12).

The last section I was holding on. The legs didn't feel fresh and again the wind was coming from the side. The 4th km showed a split of 3:12 and I continued on with the Corrib on the right hand side. With about 500m to go I took a left hand turn to run along the end of one of the rugby pitches, then it was time to climb a steep sand bank (bloody tough) then a final section of grass to the finish line. I managed to dip under 16 minutes crossing the line 1st in 15:58 (a 3:15 last km).

Happy with that. A good course that didn't suit me but that didn't stop others running their quickest times of the series. Organisation was excellent with volunteers dotted all round the route and plenty of support at the finish.

I finished up with a slow 4km warm-down so all up 14km for the day. That's 5 wins out of 5 now so I'll have to see if I can finish the job in that last run of the series next week out at Loughrea. There's talk of a drink afterwards so I'll be looking for a lift!