Conamara 10k

After the exertions of the Half Marathon, I was glad to get a race like this to follow it up to get the body back into racing. To be honest it couldn't have been a better race, close to home, a bit challenging and just a great day out.

I arrived in Carna village at about 2:30pm and you could see the build up of people already there getting ready for the race. I landed in and registration was done nice and quick, was well organized and was out again in no time. The gift pack was nice, but the bizarre thing on offer was free wellies if they were needed.

As 4pm came you could see people building up on the road, mostly runners, some spectators, others just there out of idle curiosity as to why their village had been over run with singlet wearing numbered people.

4pm came and Catherina McKiernan started the race and even took part then as well. The pace was nice and steady and was conscious to keep it steady this week so that I wouldn't have a repeat of the Galway Bay HM of maybe going too fast. I kept it at a nice steady 5:30 p/km for the first few km as I got comfortable with my breathing. As i made the turn for 5km at about 25 minutes, i knew that my 10k PB was going to be beaten and even contemplated a sub-50 but thought "am not going down this road again" and started to give it everything for the remaining distance. I hit 8 at around 40:30 and though "OK, just keep the pace and run a decent time, sub-50 is not important".

Between 8 and 9 km you hit a hill on the way back to the finish and just attempted to push through as much as I could, knowing that between 9-10 km was a nice flat run to the finish. I pushed on as I could hear the finishing line whistle and the crowd and even managed a little sprint near the end going over the finish line in 50:42, a whole 4:43 off my best 10k time to date. Needless to say delighted.

Location: Conamara 10k, Carna
Distance: 10k (6.1 miles)
Pace: 8:19 p/mile
Time: 50:42