Seeing as I was heading West for the weekend I'd planned that I’d stop off in East Mayo for this local GAA Club 10km race. I didn’t know much about it though so after a quick look-up on Garmin Connect I came to the conclusion that there was a few small hills throughout the course and a pretty decent hill in the last km. Also, the distance appeared to be consistently just a few metres longer than 10km which meant a very accurately measured course was in store.
I arrived about an hour before the start and registered in no time. In fact the queue for the pre-registered folks was much longer! With about 10mins before race start I went for a few laps of the GAA pitch for a warm-up. The strong wind was very evident and I knew it was going to have a major impact on the race. I reviewed the course map and figured the wind would be directly into our faces from about 3.5km til 6.5km. Immediate thoughts were to be part of a group during this section…
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| Early in the race. |
A few minutes after 1pm and we were away. I had lined up 3 rows back and in fairness to the organisers they even had signs outlining where the appropriate place to line-up was for sub 40mins/sub60mins/walkers. This all meant there was no congestion and we were allowed to fly down the first 1.5km which was downwind. Things were feeling good and I was holding myself back yet still maintaining an average pace of 4:00/km. We took a 90 degree turn to the left and immediately got to experience a significant cross wind.
From km1.5 – km2.5 there was a little changing of position where some of the conservative starters started to pass me by and I settled back into my realistic pace of 4:10/km. I worked steadily along this section and just as we passed the first water station at km3 I knew it was time to latch onto some group. Unfortunately the field was now pretty sparse with most of the few people directly in front of me being those stronger runners who had passed me in the preceding 1,500m. I managed to grab the coat tails of a couple of people but it didn’t last long so effectively as we turned the corner and into the wind I was travelling solo!
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| Thumbs up for the cameras! |
I managed to link up with a couple of fellow runners but this never lasted long and there was nothing for it but to put the head down and work hard for the next 15mins. I’m sure it’s not down to simple coincidence that this worst part of the course was after we’d broken over the county border into Roscommon! Eventually the agony evaporated and we turned the final corner at 6.5km and once again Mayo beckoned! The contrast from simply turning the corner was immense and things seemed so effortless in the first few steps with the wind pushing me along again.
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| Finished at last. |
For the final few km there was a few people I targeted to pick off on the run-in but the main folcus was a guy in red who I thought was getting tired but sure enough he managed to see out the remainder a safe distance ahead. With 550m to go we started the major climb of the day. In fairness it wasn’t that tough but at that location it was something to slow us down. A 16m rise in 300m (according to Garmin Connect) meant a few more precious seconds lost to the course. Once over the top there was a smaller drop to the finish line where some time was recovered and I managed to cross the line in 42:22, a 54 second PB (on K-Club 10K last year).
After a brief recovery break I finished off by doing another 8km at 5:00/km pace which seemed to occur without planning and pretty easily for such an impressive recovery pace. Happy with the time given the wind and that final hill and the fact that I haven’t really been doing much 10k-specific training. Hopefully though I’ll be back on a favourable course later in the year with a few weeks focus to try and dip below the 40min marker.
Sunday, 31st March – Rest Day
Week 13 Summary:
RTW: 5 from 7 days
DTW: 57.8 km
DTY: 1,108.6 km
Well done on the PB John.
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