Fantastic Performances in Mdina Spinola and fleur de lys Running Races

Hi Everyone, On the 2nd December I was awarded an MOC Bronze Award for the fourth consecutive time and the fifth consecutive MOC award in my career. I am very proud to have been awarded such a prestige award after all the hard work done throughout 2012 which without doubt is the most successful year of my career. I was awarded this Bronze award by the MOC thanks to victories in the European Championships in Israel and the Olympic Distance Triathlons in Cyprus and San Vito lo Capo in Sicily. Training has been going really well. After the National Championships my coach decreased my training to 2 sessions a day to recover properly after such an intensive season. It important to recover physically but it is also important to recover mentally in order to be back in shape and eager to train intensive again. I took a month recovery and in the first week of November I started training again with a target in my mind, The Malta Half Marathon.

All the training done till now is paying off as I managed a very good 3rd place in the Fleur de lys 10km Race with a good time of 34minutes 18seconds, just 30 seconds away from my personal best. It was a very well organized race which I really enjoyed to race. There were athletes who were doing the 5km race with us. I was keeping with the guys who were doing the 5km and was a little bit confused as I thought I started fast but was feeling comfortable so I kept on with this pace. After the first lap I was third and I tried to decrease my disadvantage from the 2nd placed runner but did not have that change of speed required so I kept running to the limit till the finish to register a good time and consolidate my third place.

Before this race I did two 5km races of the MAAA Running League as part of my half marathon training. In the first race I finished 5th in a personal best time of 16.24 and in the second one I finished 8th with a good time of 16.40. After the 10km I participated in the annual Mdina Spinola 17km Race. I was very looking forward to it and was aiming for a good result. I started fast with the top two runners, Vinenzo Scuro and Jonathan Balzan. I tried to stay with them but they were at another level. I slowed down the pace in order to recover and to find someone to pace with. Mark Herrera and Richard Chetcuti caught me and stayed with them. Richard increased the pace and went behind him. Mark Herrera could not keep up the pace and Richard and I kept on pushing together fighting for third.

At Sliema front I as feeling a bit the tiredness and Richard increased the pace again but this time I could not keep up with him. I kept focused and noticed that gap between us was little. Going to Spinola was all head wind and this did not helped, however I kept on pushing trying to get Richard. In the end Richard beat me by 17seconds and finished the race 4th overall and 3rd Maltese in a personal best time of 59minutes 7 seconds. An improvement by 3minutes 30seconds I am very happy that I achieved a podium spot in the 10km race because it was organised by the club I race for, BIRKIRKARA ST JOSEPH S.C and am very pleased with my performance in the mdina Spinola because I managed to achieved my target, that to run the course under the hour and finish top 3 among the Maltese runners to end such a successful year with a fantastic performance.

I would like to thanks my parent for their constant support, my brother/coach Dermot Galea for his great training schedule and advices and also Nutritionist Johanna Calleja for her plans, my fiancée’s parent s for supporting me as well but most of all I want to thank to the most important person of my life, my wife to be Elizabeth for always being there for me. I would not have achieved all the success this year without her. Thanks xxxxxx I would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2013. Yours in Sports Keith