Galway 5k series 2013

Gambas

Good fun in Craughwell on Tuesday. Perfect weather, easy enough course and good times by the looks of it. I've knocked almost a minute off since Athenry from over 20 mins to under 20 mins, but position-wise I'm more or less in the same position as I was then. I'm seeing the same heads around me at the finish line each race too which leads me to believe that the dominant factor driving the improvement is something we all have in common - the races themselves, and not the other training we are doing the rest of the week.

spurscormac

Hope you all enjoyed the new route at the Racecourse last night - you can thank me for keeping the rain clouds away.
Seriously though, from on organisers perspective, I would be interested to hear people's views on how the race went and thoughts on the course.

Gambas

spurscormac wrote: »

Hope you all enjoyed the new route at the Racecourse last night - you can thank me for keeping the rain clouds away.
Seriously though, from on organisers perspective, I would be interested to hear people's views on how the race went and thoughts on the course.

Nice job with the weather!

The location is great IMO - parking, access, loads of room at the start/finish etc... not to mention luxuries like toilets and wash-hand basins on site. I liked the course too. It is unusual to be able to see the whole course you'll run from the start line. It looked like a faster course than it was it seems from looking at the times this morning. The last km was deceptively slow. My only negative was the narrowness of the path between the end of the stand at about 800m and the corner at the far side of the dip at about 1.5km.

Also, am I right in saying the clock started at 2 seconds and all the chip and race times are out by that amount? The chip time I got in the text this morning was 3 secs slower than what I'd clocked. Normally there is a second at the most. I remembered seeing the clock with two seconds on it and then saw this on the Maree site this morning
http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/969446_10200646134789412_673875054_n.jpg. Not a big deal. Unless you ran something like 19:59

galwayspur

I enjoyed the run last night. After the past few years running at Dangan I was curious to see what the route would be like around the race-track and I thought it was a good mix. The last couple of kms are challenging, once you go up from the dip and along the front of the stands it's a test of the legs after such a quick first 3 kms.

The soft spongey surface we ran across to enter and exit the centre section of the course felt really strange underfoot - like running across a mattress.

Fair play for sorting the weather out, after the monsoon showers during the day I'd never have thought the evening would be so nice.

I was a little bit disappointed not to go quicker than I did, but I'll just have to push hard around my home course next week.

Well done GCH & everyone that ran.

spurscormac

Thanks for the feedback folks, we understand the narrowness issue at some points, but just have to work around what's available to us. Glad to hear the little luxuries (toilets) were appreciated.
That last couple of kms are tough enough alright, especially the one back up and around the stands where you can see people finishing while you still have the hill to climb to the betting ring.
The surface on the crossing points is different indeed (guess it needs to be soft for the horses), I believe its a mixture of clay & rubber that gives it the bouncy feel.

I was looking through the times & they do look a little slower, some by 30 seconds, some by just 6 in comparison to Craughwell, but it will depend on the individual & on the night.
I'll check out the clock discrepancy and see if there was a problem there.

EDIT:- I checked up on the clock discrepancy - the race clock at the start is not linked to the timing system until a few minutes into the race, so the fact it was set to 00:02 before the start is not an issue. The timing personnel synch it up to the gun time once everyone has gone through the start & all other chip timing admin tasks have been sorted.
Hope that clears it up.