Irvine 5-mile Road Race

20th July 2009

The Glasgow funfair meant quiet roads down to Irvine, so Ellie and I arrived nearly 2 hours early and in time for several jogs back and forth to Asda. The Irvine 5-miler has replaced the Saltcoats 4M Round the Houses and starts in the tidy scenic harbour area of Irvine. As usual these races start off at breath-taking pace. I tried to ease in gradually and found myself battling with a group or 3 or 4 as we contoured around the edge of Beach Park. The first 2 mile markers seemed to take an age to arrive as I made several attempts to drop the group around me. At the halfway point comes a tough little climb and turn at a lamp-post, at which point I fell off the back of the group I’d been trying to lose, so I ended up running the secondhalf on my own. My target was sub 28 minutes, which I thought should be on the cards, but ended up clocking 28:03 despite gutting myself in the final 100 metres. Ellie did OK, but was pipped by the 3rd lady right at the end by 3 seconds..

Results