Boston Scientific 5km

While over in Ireland for vacation we (me and the rest of the DRC) found a race in the town of Oranmore.  Thank you Emer for the advice on websites to check!

We rolled into town a bit later than I had hoped due to a full day of visiting the Bunratty castle and the Cliffs of Moher.

A warning sign at the cliffs and a sign for the Samaritans...location, location, location.

The roads in Ireland are small and rarely, if ever, signed.  After getting assistance from a local (we were on the race course but didn't know it) off to the start.  I headed off for a 2m warm-up while the rest of the crew got our numbers and prepared to race.

The start was a bit late, so much for the "promptly at 6:45" start time :-), but that gave me a chance to do some strides and really worry about racing.

232 of us took off at what felt like a sprint.  I held back trying to run comfortably and found myself in around 20th place 400m into the race.  I slowly moved up and hit the 1km mark in 3:18.  The first K had a slight downhill and a bit of a tailwind so I was pleased with that.

I set my sights on a couple of Gallway Runners and worked on reeling them in.  The second K had the only real climb of the race and I covered it in 3:30, at the same time moving through the fast starters to move up to 10th place. 

I caught the two Gallway guys who also looked like they might be 40+ runners (although it is really hard to tell) and together we passed a couple of guys and I got myself into 7th.  The slight down hill had me passing 3km in 3:22 (total 10:10).  We hit the bay and I knew where I was from driving on the course.

A bit of a tailwind kept us rolling from 3km to 4km with me staying with 6th place and pulling away from two guys who lost a few seconds in that 1,000m stretch.  I was pleased with the 3:26 split and began calculating what I'd need to run under 17:10.  I knew there was a gentle (not so gentle in the last K) uphill toward the finish as the last 800m was the reverse of the first 800m.

The 6th place guy slowly pulled away as he attempted to catch 5th place.  I was full out and losing ground, but did manage to hold off the two other guys (one did turn out to be 40+).  The last K was covered in 3:28 for a total time of 17:04.

I was pleased with the effort although I'd hoped to go with 6th place who ended up breaking 17. At least he wasn't a master!

1 15:10 Gerry Ryan 19-39


2 16:10 Matt Bidwell 19-39

3 16:17 Michael Shannon 19-39

4 16:46 Timmy Glavey 19-39

5 16:54 Peter O'Sullivan 19-39

6 17:04 Dave Dunham 40-49

7 17:10 Johnny Lane 19-39

8 17:11 Dermot Lowe 40-49

9 17:25 Tommy Niland 19-39

10 17:35 Kevin Doyle 19-39