Andrew Talbot and his crew from Carnmore Hurling Club put on a great show yesterday for their second annual Turkey Trot 5KM in Carnmore, Sunday 4 December 2011.

The weather gods smiled on the race too, though it was a close shave, with rain before and immediately after proceedings.

The race was shortened up to the final 5KM of last year's race.  It meant that the start of the race was now off the treacherous Monivea road, though we had to run the gauntlet on the way down and back up to the start/finish from the race HQ at the Carnmore Community Centre.  This was softened by the helpful placement of Gardai bollards the whole way along the stretch, which was a very nice touch by the organisers

The race itself went off at a few minutes past one PM, without much ado, with a good turnout from local club athletes, as can be seen from the good times recorded in the attached results - 33 under 20 minutes and 53 under 21, with me just outside that time :-{.

One hundred and sixty plus finished the event, with the finish line placed outside the national school.

Men's winner was Tony Fogarty (all the way from Thurles Croke AC) who outsprinted local Matt Bidwell (GCH) in a tad over 16 minutes.  Our own Jane Ann Healy is in a rich vein of form at the moment winning the woman's race by nearly a minute from Claire Beatty (Les Croupiers).  The usual suspects won the masters' categories with our own Bernie Mulryan not having it all her own way from Bernie Kelly (GCH) in the W50 category - good to have the latter back in good form in the run-up to The Fields and to keep her much cherished Stalwart status intact.

It was also very heartening to see master Brian Geraghty (GCH) back on the road after a difficult summer, Rolls Royce'ing around the course in a pretty decent 22:41.

Turkeys galore afterwards after filling up on copious cups of tea, sweet cakes, biscuits etc.

Thanks to Andrew and Carnmore HC on the last local blowout before the final event of the year, The Fields on St. Stephen's Day.  Make sure to enter before it's too late!  Not even I will be able to help you if you don't get in on time ;-).

JAL.