January 2

The New Year got off to a very auspicious start in Galway with a 5K race in glorious winter sunshine through the streets of Galway. This was the third running of the 5K Resulution race and after 2 years of running around Renmore the organizers made the brave decision to hold the race in the city centre. The move paid off with about 300 runners. The course included a lot of twists and turns but in my case at least none of these caused any problems. There were a couple of times when pedestrians were a little slow getting out of the way but I don't think there were any accidents. Although the roads were not officially closed there seemed to be very good cooperation with the Guards that allowed us to cross the Father Griffin road without any need to slow down.

I finished in 20.05 and was quite happy with that. The time prompted some people to wonder could I have gone faster to break the 20 minute barrier and in fact I did according to the chip time which clocked me at 19.57. I was surprsied that 8 seconds lapsed before I crossed the starting mat but it is a pleasant surprise and a good way to start the New Year.

As you might expect there were a lot of local runners in the race with the GCH and Athenry clubs very well represented.

As far as I know the next local race is the very popular Tuam 8K race on January 20. Details on how to enter and the course can be found on the Tuam AC web site.