I scrounged a lift with Jason for the 75 minute trip to Westport. The town itself looked fantastic, and after registering and running a couple of clicks warm-up it was time to line up at the start.
The weather was overcast and quite windy, and again quite humid. The course was an out and back type affair, with a small lap around part of the town close to the halfway stage. A lollipop shape I suppose. From the section I ran in the warm-up it looked to be pancake flat.
The race started and I sat back. The first 500m was around a village green, then we turned left along a road that took us through a car park and onto a flat forest trail. The first km passed in 3:01 and at this stage I was in second place behind Roger Barret who I had a good race with in Carramore last month over 10km.
Shortly after the path widened and switched to a road that ran through Westport Park. A beautiful location but I didn't really have time to admire the view as I was hanging on. Through 2km with a split of 3:06 and still in second place. Shortly after we left the park and ran through part of town along by the water, then switching back towards the park we had just left. I was starting to struggle and went through 3km with another quick km of 3:05. That made it 9:12 at 3km but I was now very much feeling the pinch of all pinches.
Sure enough, I slowed and Roger gradually gapped me. I had nothing in the legs, probably due to the 10km race on Tuesday. I was confident I could hold second place and I still ran as hard as I could, but it just wasn't happening. Continuing on through the park in reverse, I missed the 4km marker and upon exiting last section through the trees I could see the finish line and that gave me a little lift and I kicked for home to cross the finish line in second place in 15:49 (a 6:37 last 2km!).
Not a bad time and only 4 seconds shy of my road PB but still a million miles away from my 5,000m time on the track. This was a very good course and although the wind made it tough in patches, I really should have done a bit better. Too much racing and tired legs will do that!
Roger won in 15:30 so 19 seconds behind. I'm sure we'll have a few more good races through the remainder of the series. Jason finished 3rd in 16:19 and we both picked up a few Euros for our efforts. All in all a top day out.
I finished up running another lap of the course as a warm-down. All up 12km for the day and 69.6km for the week. Next week I'll focus on getting some kms in the legs, then it will be time to freshen up for the 8km in Headford.
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