Don't Mess With The TJ! - Picture John O'Connor

This weekend saw another chapter added to the illustrious history of road racing in Loughrea. Loughrea AC hosted one of the best road races seen anywhere in the country this year and they were blessed with warm late summer sunshine for their efforts. There was a festival atmosphere around the newly built Lough Rea Hotel and Spa on the outskirts of town as over 350 runners and walkers prepared to run the traditional Loughrea distance of five miles. There was quality in depth in the men's race and Pauline Curley was a strong pre-race favourite on the women's side. When the racing had been done Brian Farrell from Sli Cualann had come out on top in the men's competition, with a time of 23:48, after a titanic struggle with the seemingly evergreen Gerry Ryan of Galway City Harriers. Rory Cheeser, Alan O'Shea and our own Paul McNamara made up the top five men's places. Any five-mile race that can count five finishers under 25:01 can say they've had a really good quality event.

On the women's side Pauline Curley came home reasonably well clear of her challengers in a time of 29:04. Veronica Colleran from the Ennis Track Club was next woman home in 29:35 and Elizabeth Cuskelly, a Tullamore Harriers club mate of Pauline Curley's, was third. Local woman Caroline Clancy of Loughrea AC ran a particularly strong race to finish in fourth place.

Athenry AC had a strong presence in Loughrea with thirty-three runners taking part. Given that our numbers were somewhat depleted by injury and marathon training programmes it was an impressive enough showing. Paul McNamara and Seamus Gilhooley had exceptionally strong races to finish right at the front of affairs.

The story of the day has to be that of Valerie Glavin who was amongst a small number of Athenry runners who ran seventeen miles from Athenry to Loughrea as part of her Dublin marathon training before taking part in the Loughrea race. Unfortunately Valerie and Maria Hehir took a wrong turn somewhere around Kiltulla and ended up running almost twenty miles before going to the start line in Loughrea. That's some warm-up - but the best was yet to come. Ably assisted and paced by Johnny O'Connor Valerie went on to post 36:24 in the actual race which is a personal best for the distance - that's some going. Congratulations Valerie! Her partner in ‘crime’ Maria Hehir also ran strongly around the Loughrea course and wasn‘t far behind in just over forty-three minutes.

Loughrea AC and their sponsors and supporters deserve great praise for their collective efforts over the weekend. Races like this don’t just fall out of the sky and it’s obvious that endless hours of preparation must have gone into making this race the success it surely was. Athenry AC members send their thanks and congratulations to TJ, Colm, Barry, Darragh, Martin and all the other unsung heroes at Loughrea AC.

We can’t wait for next year.

Selected Athenry Results

Place Time Name

5 0:25:01 MCNAMARA, Paul

13 0:26:47 GILHOOLEY, Seamus

45 0:31:27 MCSHANE, Darragh

57 0:32:23 FORDE, Patrick

95 0:35:08 MAGNIER, Philip

103 0:35:32 KILLEEN, Gerry

106 0:35:46 BURKE, Frank

114 0:36:07 BEATTY, Maire Treasa

120 0:36:23 RICE, Mick

121 0:36:24 O'CONNOR, John

122 0:36:24 GALVIN, Valerie

124 0:36:26 Keane, Paul

126 0:36:42 WALL, Miriam

156 0:38:10 NOONE, Maeve

168A0:39:11 LUNDON, James

177 0:39:38 MAGUIRE, Niall

186 0:40:10 FOLEY, Patricia

188 0:40:18 NOONE, Frank

210 0:41:52 DOHERTY, Rena

212 0:41:54 MCLAUGHLIN, Cathal

222 0:42:25 KEANE, Martin

245 0:43:42 WALSH, Ann Marie

248 0:43:48 HEHIR, Maria

259 0:44:23 WALSH, Eleanor

263 0:44:39 ELWOOD, Pete

271 0:45:19 FAHY, Lorraine

288 0:46:24 FAHY, Clodagh

291 0:46:39 DALEY, Cepta

292 0:46:40 DALEY, Tony

294 0:46:53 GLEESON, Cara

297 0:47:39 HUNTER, Anne

308 0:50:21 HUNTER, Pearse

332 0:56:20 COLLINS, Caroline

343 1:06:05 MURRAY, Veronica