Tuam Community Games 8km

A windy one. A couple of kms warm-up on arrival and then lined up for the one lap loop of left turns. I had Gary Higgins for company and was looking forward to pushing myself to see if there were any further improvements in my running.

We took off and the start was into the wind. The pace was good and I  reached the first km marker in 3:09. Then the first of the left hand turns and with each turn, the wind became less of a hindrance. By 2km I was starting to pull away from Gary and I was feeling pretty good. The course was nice and flat, and I had the lead car to follow. I was maintaining the pace through to 4km, but I was starting to lose a bit of focus in the run up to the 5th km marker. My split seemed very slow and I used that as an excuse to slow down and then backed off for the run home.

We had a brief half mile stretch along the main N17 road through Tuam where we were on the path and I took that really easy. Then another left turn for the last straight-ish mile to the finish. The last km was nice and friendly, albeit into the wind, and I picked it up a little crossing the line in 26:11 for the win.

Here are the splits:

3:09 / 3:13 / 3:12 / 3:10 / 3:25 (16:09) / 3:04 / 3:39 / 3:19

Total 26:11

 In speaking to a few guys after the race it seemed apparent that the 5th km marker was probably around 15 seconds long (look at the splits for kms 5 and 6 and I backed off after 5!). So I was probably nearer 15:54 at 5km but even so I wasn't quite feeling right today to really nail it.

A 3km warm-down with Gary where we both get soaking wet due to heavy rain, Then inside for hot drinks and the presentation. All in all I enjoyed the event, but I feel disappointed for the organisers who put on such a good race for it to be so poorly attended. I guess there is always the risk of that happening these days with all the new races that keep popping up and so many alternatives to pick from. Anyway, credit where it's due - they did a great job.

That's 13.0kms for the day and a measly 69.1kms for the week. Back into the old threshold runs next week.