The Streets of Galway

I arrived in good time. I bumped into Paul and about 30 minutes before the race start of 7pm we headed out for a warm-up. It soon started raining so we cut the warm-up short after only 2 kms. Back inside for shelter and to change into the racing flats, then back out again for a final 5 minutes warm-up before doing a few strides and lining up at the start.

Another messy start. Anyway, quickly into my running up near the front and after being overtaken by a crocodile, I settled into a small group heading towards town. There was some breeze to deal with, and it was trying to rain again, but nothing too bad. I went through the first km in 5th position but I wasn't looking at splits, I was just using my watch to record the times.

By this stage the first 3 runners had opened up a nice gap, then there was a guy chasing them back in 4th (Simon Ryan), and a group of 3 of us fighting it out for 5th. We climbed up to Eyre Square, then headed out towards the Cathedral. This section was quite tough as the breeze seemed to be coming straight at you with a sort of wind tunnel effect between the city buildings.

I remained in the group of 3 with the leaders slowly disappearing up the road. After the Cathedral there was another tough drag as we ran along University Road. Again into the wind and to make matters worse it started drizzling but thankfully we soon were to make a left turn down Newcastle Road.

I felt better running this section and at the bottom part of this long section where we were to take a right turn up Devon Court, the 4th place runner Simon missed the turn and had to be sent back. He must have lost close to 10 seconds and was now part of our small group...

As we made the turn down Rockbarton Road there was still 4 of us fighting it out. I though this section would be fast but it didn't seem to be the steep downhill that I remembered from last year. Simon had again moved into 4th and I went with him and it seemed like we had opened up a small gap on the remaining 2 chasers.

Moving onto the prom and it was time to push for home. There was a bit of cat and mouse after the 6th km as neither myself or Simon wanted to go too early. The wind was on the back and I was feeling as good as could have been hoped for. Upon seeing the 7km marker it was time to kick. Initially I think I moved into 4th place, but this was short lived. With 500m to go we were still stride for stride and I indicated to Simon that there was a final sharp right turn before the finish line. As we hit the 200m marker Simon kicked down and left me in his wake. That's how it remained and I had to settle for 5th postion in a time of 25:36.

I'm happy enough with the time though it did feel like I'd run a bit quicker. That's a 2 second PB and one position better than last year so happy days. Here are the splits:

1km 3:02
2km 3:19
3km 3:14
4km 3:12
5km 3:26
6km 3:10
7km 3:13
8km 3:00

Total 25:36

I pretty much executed my race plan except for the sloppy 5th km which may have cost me the sub 25:30. Nice to finish quick running the last 3kms in 9:23 finishing with a 3 minute click.

No time for a warm-down. Straight into the shower, a quick change, and back to the finish line to hand out water bottles!

I have to give the winner of the race a big mention. Gerry Ryan won in a time of 24:24. Incredible running beating a strong contingent of Raheny Shamrock runners who had made the trip over from Dublin. Gerry is 47 and with those sort of times at that age it gives us all hope. World class.

All up about 11kms for the day. Then I headed into town for some (read plenty) of post race refreshments...