Swinford 8km

Added pressure today as my old man and the nipper had made the trip to Swinford to watch me race. A couple of kms warm-up and soon we were lining up at the start. Not many runners in attendance as the race clashed with the football (Mayo Vs Cork) which was a shame. Roger Barrett was running who I'd had a couple of good battles with at Carramore and Westport and with one win each, it was shaping into a decent race. I certainly needed to break my recent run of finishing second (4 races on the trot now!)...

I hit the front with Roger and we raced stride for stride. The start of the race had us climbing up through the town, then it flattened out. I wasn't looking at my watch but was taking splits at the km markers. After a few kms we took a left turn which brought us onto a main road and this section was gradual uphill (at least one km). At this point I tried to up the pace and to my surprise I managed to work a bit of a lead on the hill and that's how it remained. The second half of the race was all fairly flat as the course took us back into town. The last km was a nice downhill section and I crossed the line in 25:41 for the win.

The splits suggest that some of the km markers were a bit dodgy but the overall distance felt right:

1km 3:14
2km 3:17
3km 3:19
4km 3:23
5km 3:10
6km 3:14
7km 3:16
8km 2:48 (if only!)

Total 25:41

A good run, and it was nice to finish a race feeling very strong after taking the start of the race a bit easier. Only 3 seconds slower than my PB over 8km and with the quick Streets of Galway course next week I'll be looking to run sub 25:30. Interesting that McM equates that time to a 32:22 10km. I'm confident I would have gone a bit quicker than that today had it been a 10km race.

I finished up with 2 miles warm-down so all up 13.2km for the day and exactly 70kms for the week.

Heading into town tonight for a few celebratory beers served in plastic glasses...