Kilmovee 10km

About an hours drive to Kilmovee. A glorious sunny day and very still - perhaps too warm but I wasn't complaining. A quick registration/warm-up and soon I was lining up with over 500 other participants. My old sparring partner Roger Barrett was running which was great as I'd have someone to try and hang on to. Lots of other familiar faces also - John Byrne, Timmie Glavey, Paddy O'Toole - to name a few. Great to see all of these guys after a long break for me running in Co Mayo.

After a short delay at the start we were underway. I hit the lead and my plan was to take it out quick and hang on. I was a little surprised that Roger didn't go with me, but I was moving nicely and the km markers seemed to be arriving quicker than anticipated. By the time I had reached 5km in 15:57, I was starting to feel the pinch and Roger had worked his way to the front and I was hanging on. The next couple of kms were really tough - perhaps it was slightly uphill and into the breeze but I was battling away but was determined not to let Roger gap me. Then just before 7km we took a sharp left turn and I suddenly felt much better and started to push the pace.

I started to open up a bit of a lead and I continued to run well up until 9km, but in the back of my mind I knew the last km was tough as there was a nasty climb to tackle. Sure enough with about 600m to go I was reduced to a shuffle. Lots of negative thoughts at this stage but I managed to keep the legs moving and upon reaching the top of the hill I could see the finish and I gave it everything to cross the finish line in 32:20 for the win.

Finally a PB after a couple of years in the wilderness! Okay only by 2 seconds but I'll take it. Lots of positives to take out of this - a good win over Roger who has been in cracking form lately (a sub 32 runner) and it seems like the new training regime is working! I spoke to a fair few people after who found the course and conditions tough but when you have a good race you don't seem to notice these things. Perhaps I have a bit more to come!

A few kms warm-down to give me around 14.0kms for the day. Here are the splits:

3:07 / 3:10 / 3:07 / 3:16 / 3:17 (15:57) / 3:26 / 3:15 / 3:10 / 3:12 / 3:20 (16:23). Total 32:20

In summary, a fantastic day. A real community event with first class organisation. Gerry Duffy was there and described it "as the most friendly race I’ve has been at, a fantastic event, testament to John Roddy’s leadership and the involvement of the whole Kilmovee Community team". Hard to disagree with that!

And finally, here are a few photos to finish with courtesy of Kimovee.info. This one just after the start:

This one somewhere in the middle:

And this one at the nasty speed bump near the end where I'm grinding away on my axles:

Needless to say a few beers was had in the evening...