Ballinasloe

#213 Ballinasloe 4:31:16

Very busy road

This low key MCI run event was hosted by the Sheridan family just on the outskirts of Ballinasloe on the Galway Roscommon border. The host venue was the Ballinasloe rugby club and we had full use of the facilities including free parking.

I arrived early after an aborted attempt to come down the night before. A 5am start had me in the car park just after 7. Registered via the lovely Catherine Guthrie I waited warm in the car. It was a cold but bright morning. There was also a 10K and a half marathon on the same route later in the morning.

There were 36 finishers in the marathon but with Jimmy and Larry also making an appearance there seemed more. At 8am we were off on the early start.

A fairly pedestrian start had us following Aidan Hogan who still suffering from injury would hobble round today.

Couldn't catch David today

The first 1 km was along a fairly busy main road passing lots of cows and dung (it smelled like Laois). Turning left we climbed a small hill onto a bog road and followed it round for a couple of K. There were a few angry dogs on this patch that thankfully got bored on the next laps and for the most part left us alone.

Climbing slightly unto an exposed out and back section (500m each way) on a bog road we turned around and ran straight back towards the M6 for 1.66 miles before climbing over the motorway. Immediately turning left we followed a windy slightly undulating road back towards Ballinasloe. Before entering the town we took the pedestrian bridge back over the motor way and immediately hit the busy road again crossing over and back in the last mile back to the rugby club.

The wind was light but and it was cold but most got away with Tshirts. I started with gloves and a buff but dis-guarded the gloves after 1 lap. The first lap (10.5K) was in 57 minutes and I got in and out of the club house before the 9am start (mostly half marathoners). The second lap was quite strong as well bringing me through half marathon in 2:03 just slightly behind my Dublin time.

The 3rd lap was slow and I walked a bit and to be honest got a little bored with the long straight roads. A 1:15 lap time brought me trough in 3:18 and David Brady running a strong race (be it from the 9am start) led me out on the last lap.  I kept David in sight all the way and as I approached the finish I was within 20m of him. This brought me through marathon distance in 4:31 over 8 minutes faster than Dublin and I felt a lot stronger.

I didn't hang around as I had to get home but it was overall a very enjoyable day.

Stats for today