Almost 200 people turned up in Tuam last evening for the second
in the Galway 5KM series. The weather also smiled on us, again,
even though things were very much touch-and-go for a while before
and after the race.
The race itself went off without incident with the local Gardai
doing a fine job in leading out the pack out and standing at the
Milltown roundabout to guard the runners at probably the most
dangerous part of the circuit. No incidents were reported by any
runners in the town itself, coming up to the square and back down
to the park carpark finish line.
Many good times were recorded by the participants. Brendan
Monaghan has admitted what most of us already knew in our hearts
that the course...whisper...is about 80 metres short. Please
divide your finishing time by .984 to get your true 5KM road
time :).
He felt that it was better to leave last year's course the way it
was than to further tinker with it. So if you ran last year, you
can straightforwardly compare last year's time with this year's
(in my case 19:08 down to 18:58).
I am going to have some fun compiling the results as some issues
were encountered by the recorders. So if you know your own time,
please let me have it so that I can checkpoint you in the data I
have to hand. I will try to post a provisional result before
tomorrow lunch-time and work it onwards to an official result
before the weekend.
Please let us have your comments on the race?
Tuam Race
Great job on running this race so well!
Credit to Tuam AC
Conditions were tough around 2/3km with the wind blowing down the
bypass and a few tester of hills throughout the race!
Thought this race was harder than Athenry/Newcastle race.
Well done to all who raced and finished!
Ditto....
Well done Tuam !
There was a lot of traffic
There was a lot of traffic congestion at the end of the run last night which hindered the runners as they made their way to the line. I saw one car actually reversing into the oncoming runners. Could these cars not have been prevented from coming up so close to the finish. Otherwise a good run and well organised!
Very enjoyable race. Funny
Very enjoyable race. Funny that some found it tougher than Athenry. I thought the opposite. Thanks to all the organisers!
Traffic
It got a bit hectic at the finish with the cars coming to collect the foreign students. But this was difficult to allow for in such a public area - the gardaí should probably have waited around a bit longer. Found the race much easier than last week - climbs were short and sharp rather than long steady in Newcastle.