Headford 8km

I arrived in good time for registration and warm-up. The weather was hot, close to 20 degrees which was a little too hot for racing but better than the torrential rain from last year. Gerry Ryan was running after a long break from racing and I knew he was in good from after posting a low 31 minute 10km the week before.

The race was underway at 7pm sharp. The first part of the race had us running through the main street up through town. A tough enough uphill drag of about 600m before taking a left turn onto the main road heading towards Galway. I settled into second position trying to keep Gerry in my sights. The run along the main road saw me going through kms 1, 2 and 3 and with splits of 3:02, 3:08 and 3:10 I was moving along nicely.

Shortly after 3km it was time to take another left through the smaller country lanes. I hit 4km with a split of 3:14 and that meant 12:34 at halfway which was way better than planned. Then the hills started. Not steep hills but long uphill stretches and I just couldn't get the legs going. This continued through kms 5 and 6 and the times of 3:26 and 3:20 showed I had slowed significantly. I could occasionally see Gerry up front which helped to spur me on a little. I managed to find an extra gear (other than reverse) in the last couple of clicks and with kms 7 and 8 passing in 3:18 and 3:13 I crossed the finish line in 25:51 for second place. Gerry won in 24:59 and I thought before the race that if I could get within a minute of him I'd be doing well.

That's 17 seconds quicker than last year and the course was much tougher than I remembered. The heat didn't help after training in cooler weather the last few weeks. Overall I'm fairly happy with that and I'll be looking to run sub 25:30 on the back of that for the Streets of Galway 8km in early August.

A few kms warm down so all up approx 15kms for the day. Then into town for umpteen beers with the lads. Home at 3am and feeling less than the full one hundred as I write this. The thought of running later today isn't filling me with much glee...