GCH produced another cracking race in Galway last Saturday night when seemingly every person west of the Shannon in possession of a pair of running shoes took to the roads for the Future ‘Streets of Galway’. As one GCH stalwart put it to me on the evening, it was a perfect night for running if not for working on the race. A gentle summer rain cooled the runners as they prepared for their annual test around the City of the Tribes. As usual the atmosphere was brilliant as old friendships were renewed and new acquaintances were made. Peter Delmer summed it up perfectly when he described it as running’s Galway Races. This is not of course to detract in any way from the quality in depth of the athletic talent on display but rather to describe the friendly, enjoyable and very social tone of the evening. The running community in Galway owe a heartfelt vote of thanks to the members of Galway City Harriers for hosting this event each year. Races like this don’t organise themselves and as athletes and organisers ourselves we’re very familiar with all of the hard work that has to be done to make this race a reality.

Even though injury and holidays had depleted our numbers a little, there still seemed to be a great crowd of Athenry AC members there on the evening and I’ll try to give as many of their results as I can below. It was a heart-warming sight to see so many Athenry AC maroon and white singlets on display as you warmed up around the Cladagh.

First home for the club this year was Brian O’Connor (27:31). Brian is just completing his return to fitness following a persistent calf injury which had plagued his running since last March and he ran superbly well to make the top thirty finishers in such a prestigious race. Brian has set his sights on making his marathon debut this autumn and if he can carry this scintillating form into his marathon training great things are possible next October.

Mick Rice (29:37) and Peter Delmer (29:43) proved that there was life in the auld dogs yet by breaking thirty minutes one more time and were joined in the ‘sub-thirty’ club by Owen Curran who ran an absolute storming race to complete the course in 29:59. That was a close one Owen!

Michael Rooney was next home in the maroon and white in 85th position (30:27). Rumour has it that Michael faded slightly over the last half-mile and that with a little more luck could easily have ducked under the half-hour as well. Next in line was Superman (aka John O’Connor) fresh from his half-marathon heroics in Westport the same day. He had no right to run as well as that but he did so anyway. Darragh McShane was the next Athenry runner home just a fraction outside the top one-hundred finishers in 103rd spot. There’s an obvious target for next year Darragh.

Alan Burke had made a mad dash back to Galway having earlier represented the County in the National Track and Field League in Tullamore where he ran a personal best time of 17:21 for the 5,000m track race. Alan ran sensibly on the evening and still posted a healthy 32:59 – that’s some warm down. Congratulations Alan. Connemara maestro Ray O’Connor was next past the finish line in the Athenry strip two seconds after Alan in 33:01. Ray’s earlier half marathon run in Westport obviously hadn’t taken all the life from his legs. Given all of his marathons this year perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised at his resilience. Alan was heard afterwards to enquire as to the current location of ‘the love’, well I can assure our esteemed chairman the ‘love is all around’.

Next to complete the course from the club was Frank Burke in 34:01. Frank’s racing fitness has come on greatly in recent times and this performance was testament to some dedicated training over what has constituted our summer this year. Club stalwart Jeff Noone was hot on Frank’s heels only fifteen seconds later in 34:16 which was an improvement of well over a minute from the previous year. Congrats Jeff.

New recruit Conor Dolan completed the race in 290th position in a time of 34:51. I’m not sure how that fits into Conor’s previous races but it placed him well to the fore of the huge Galway field last Saturday. Another dedicated club member Mark Flannery was next to complete the course for Athenry AC posting 34:32 on the night – a highly creditable performance particularly given that Mark seems suited to races over longer distances. Peter Lowney finished a further minute later in 35:32 looking fresh and well and was followed home by Larry Kelly who claimed 413th spot in a time of 36:45.

Soft Day....!

The Club’s only Dublin based member, Liam Mycroft, had travelled for the event and showed a healthy improvement in form by breaking forty minutes with ease. His completion time of 39:13 was a little ahead of his pre-race predictions and bodes well for his planned marathon races in Dublin and Philadelphia before the end of the year. It was great to have you in Galway Liam and good luck in getting your Boston qualifying time later this year.

Unfortunately this report only covers the first batch of Athenry AC runners home, as the provisional results only cover the first 600 finishers and, as of yet, we don’t have completion times for the rest of our crew. As soon as they come to hand we’ll include all of those details here. If anyone has any photos that we could use on the site here please pass them on at [email protected].

As mentioned earlier not all our members were fit or available to run on the night and others helped out with race organisation and stewarding on the evening. There was something a little unsettling about seeing Gary Doherty in a bib at a GCH organised event. Don’t get any fancy ideas now Gary, we couldn’t afford to lose you. Other pillars of the club like Paul McNamara and James Lundon and Seb Locteau were unavoidably detained elsewhere but were there in spirit I’m sure.

More soon…

Place Name Time

30th Brian O’Connor 27:31

64th Mick Rice 29:37

66th Peter Delmer 29:43

76th Owen Curran 29:59

85th Michael Rooney 30:27

90th John O’Connor 30:37

103rd Darragh McShane 31:17

171st Alan Burke 32:59

172nd Ray O’Connor 33:01

230th Frank Burke 34:01

246th Jeff Noone 34:16

263rd Mark Flannery 34:32

290th Conor Dolan 34:51

334th Peter Lowney 35:32

413th Larry Kelly 36:45

589th Liam Mycroft 39:13