Athenry AC picked up 7th place at the Hollymount Road Race this afternoon.
James Lundon showed a turn of pace he is not known for when beating myself, Brian O' Connor and Gary Doherty to the top of the hall to collect the prize.
James Lundon Collects Team Prize
Despite a poor start, Brian O' Connor made his way though the field and finished in 10th place with 35:20. He was almost a victim of 'Mick Rice Syndrome' at the awards ceremony. A long pause after awarding 7th place senior male to John Mannion of John Moore's University Liverpool seemed to indicate he was one place short of picking up a prize. However this race is nothing if not generous with their prizes, and they went on to distribute prizes for the top 10 senior Males.
A Stewards Enquiry after seeing initial results had the Athenry AC team allocated 7th place in what is a top quality road race.
46 runners came in under 40:00 mins, in a field of just over 90 runners.
This correspondent showed that there is still a bit of marathon fitness left in my legs. Despite a serious lack of training since the marathon, I managed to hold off Pat Dwyer, John Devlin, Owen Murphy and Gary Doherty who let me set the pace for the first lap of 3, before pushing away and reeling in Andy Talbot.
I left the charge too late as Loughrea's Gerry Broderick pipped me to the line with 2 seconds to spare.
Still, 38:08 is only 5 seconds off a PB. Maybe the Port Tunnell is the place for that!
Gary Doherty was disappointed with 39:34, but that's almost a minute faster than last year. Gary still trails in the Clubperson of the year race slightly, so if anybody knows on any more races not in our Calendar.. don't tell him, tell me!
James Lundon put in a good effort to finish with 41:00. He should be happy with that after some recent injury worries, but will no doubt be disappointed to be pipped by GCH's Thomas Porter. The assault on a sub 40 10km continues. We'll have to go to Dundrum, James. I hear Bekele and Mottram are going there next year...
The Overall Winner was Glaslough Harrier's Patrick Cassidy in 32:17, with Martin Conroy of Sligo and Tom Hogan of Slaney Olympic 2nd and 3rd.
Martin Corcoran of Loughrea held off Paddy Murray of Mayo AC to win the Masters race with 34:47.
Regina Casey was too strong for Breege Blehin in the Women's race.
A notable entrant here was Bernie Kelly. Bernie tells us that, barring injury, she will complete 49 races this year. So yes, she is looking for one more race somewhere, ANYWHERE, to make the magical 50. If the Dublin Port Tunell don't reschedule the 10km race, I reckon she will sacrafice her holdiay just to take part and make the 50.
Best of luck Bernie!
Results available here
http://www.athenryac.com/hollymount_10km_road_race_results
Alan