Claregalway 10km

I missed this race last year so was looking forward to having a solid hit-out in my home town. The course is a tough one, a double loop with a long climb of 600m at the start of each lap. There's also a nasty hill at the 3km/8km mark. Conditions were quite windy and we were lucky that the rain just about held off.

I walked up to register (about 800m from where I live), got changed into my gear and headed out for a couple of kms warm-up. Soon it was time to line up at the start.

Just like sprinters I had worked on my start (minus the blocks). My watch was ready, I was listening to the starter, and was soon pounding the pavements. As we exited the industrial estate I was in the lead only to be greeted with the first big climb. My plan was to run strong, but not flat out and about halfway up the hill I was joined by another runner who I wasn't familiar with. As we reached the crest of the hill I immediately felt a lot more comfortable and opened up a gap on the chasing field.

As has been the norm lately, I wasn't looking at the watch and was running on feel. I know this course like the back of my hand so it was quite ironic that I had a lead car to follow round. I have to say I'm not a big fan of the double lap courses as I'm always thinking that I have to do this again, or that I wish I was on the second lap. I'd say I'm not alone in those thoughts.

The race that I was hoping for didn't really happen - once again I was in time trial mode. After 2km there is a long downhill, then the aforementioned climb at 3km. Then it's fairly flat for the balance of the lap. As I went through the halfway mark I had opened up a decent gap and to be honest I switched off a bit (plus the legs were feeling quite tired). The second time up the climb was bloody tough, but again I got the legs moving nicely once at the summit. I knew I had slowed a bit but wasn't too phased and soon I was running down the finishing chute to cross the line first in a time of 32:58.

The time was actually a bit faster than it felt (I would have guessed it to be a 33:20 run). So that was pleasing. I also won by a decent margin which was surprising as this was the County 10km Championships. I'll certainly take the win and I think I'm now the current county champion at 5,000m (track), 10km and 10 miles. I'd say the course is on a par with the Lane Cove 10km course in Sydney. There are tough sections but if you are sensible, there are some very fast stretches to make up some time.

I finished up with a couple of kms warm-down so all up 14kms for the day. Moving on...