A great group of club members made the trip to the Phoenix Park on Sunday morning for the Great Ireland Run. Unfortunately, due to a missed turn by the lead motorbike in the early stages, the race distance ended up being 1400 metres short. The event incorporates the National 10k Championships and it remains to be seen whether finishing places / team results will be honoured, with medals awarded, as all participants only completed the 8.6k.
For the record, three club members placed in the top-3 of their age categories and congratulations to:
Paddy Sharkey, M45 – 1st
Fiona Gettings, F40 – 2nd
Barry Sheil, M40 – 3rd
Great running also by Ciarán Madden, Adrian Wróbel, Donal Mulligan, Colin Beades, Ross Gannon, Michael O’Hara, Charlie Barone and Edel Nolan. With almost 2000 finishers at such a competitive event, there were brilliant performances by each with all finishing inside the top 700.
It was great to see the club so well represented. We look forward to doing further events together in good numbers again soon.
In the team standings; Barry, Paddy, Ciarán and Adrian combined to ensure a spot well inside the top-10 of the Senior Men’s category. The actual placing will be confirmed in due course dependent on clarification from Athletics Ireland regarding the race distance issue.
A disappointing outcome to the race as many were pacing things nicely in line for 10k personal bests. Organising an event isn’t always straightforward. Many clubs, such as ourselves, know of the input and effective co-ordination required to stage a successful road race. We should expect the same at a National Championship.
Regardless, well done to all club members today. After our post-run coffee, presentations were made to our medal winners from the recent Connacht Masters Indoors – Edel (60m and 200m), Fiona and Barry (both 3000m). Congrats to all. There were no issues with distances covered at that event!
