Jane-Ann Healy gives us her personal account of the Longford Half Marathon below, which took place last weekend. Congratulations on a great run Jane Ann.
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Summary of Race from Philip Magnier
Many Athenry AC runners gave great accounts of themselves at Longford on Sunday. First home among our crew was Maurice Clarke with 1:22:38. And a mere seven seconds separated our next three, Mark Breen on 1:25:12, Owen Curran on 1:25:16, and Ann Carter on 1:25:19. Brilliant going.
Ann took third overall in the women's race, but this pragmatic lady won't be going out to celebrate: "That goes to pay the electricity bill", she said afterwards. Mind you, she did offer to buy us all coffees!
Other women did great times also. Elaine Walsh looked about as fresh as a bunny on Easter Sunday after registering just over 1:30, Jane-Ann broke 1:40 easily despite her night-before celebrations, with Maire Treasa Beatty also dipping under the same barrier slightly behind her. Maeve Noone breaks a pb just about every time she runs these days and Longford followed the familiar pattern as she ran in 1:49:30. New member Valerie Glavin was just a couple of minutes behind but was disappointed to have been hampered by a sore hamstring.
Four other Athenry women, who seem to compete somewhere just about every week and may we thank God for that, did slightly over the two-hour mark: Pauline Murray, Breege McGath, Grainne Breen, and Assumpta Feeney.
Among the remaining men, Gary Doherty seemed back to close to his best when beating the 1:30 mark after missing about six months in 2007 and early 2008. And the others, Frank Burke, Philip Magnier, and Niall McGuire were happy to do good training runs.
In the marathon, hard training Brian Bruton was going great guns until mile 20 when he suffered a re-occurrence of a knee injury. Despite walking and hobbling the remaining six miles, he still reached his club mates near the finish at around the 3:15 mark. There is a really good marathon time in this lad in the near future. And welcome back to the Connacht roads to Ray O'Connor, who ran his first marathon since the 10 marathon challenge in early May.
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"On Sunday the 24th of August the sun shone on Longford town. A large Athenry contingent arrived at St.Mels College for yet another personal challenge. The half marathon was more popular with club mates than the full 26 miles. This year saw a new course consisting of a small loop of Longford town followed by a larger loop of the countryside.
As we took to starter's orders and as we listened to the race director there was a lovely buzz amongst the competitors. I have never been surrounded by so many club mates. The whistle sounded and we were off. About a kilometre into the race the heavens opened, a real taste of our Irish summer! As the showers ceased the half marathon runners turned left and the marathon athletes continued straight, running into what seemed to be the unknown. Steam rose off the roads, the friendly banter ceased and all I could hear was heavy breathing and even heavier footsteps.
For me, reaching the six mile mark was daunting, it was then I realised that dancing until four in the morning at a wedding was less than ideal preparation, I could feel my calves tighten. This was pay-back for wearing high heels all night. As the few Athenry singlets in front of me and Frank Burke's red racers began to blur in the distance I had to fight my demons. The only thing that kept me going was knowing, it was not just me anymore but my team I was doing this for.
Coming into Longford town the penultimate mile seemed like the longest mile. Leaving the tree lined country roads we merged onto the main road; cars zoomed by making little of my final effort. Alas, I reached the twelve mile mark and familiar territory, from here on in it was both a physical and mental uphill struggle. Crossing the finish line way off my PB I vowed Waterford will be different!
I don’t think there is one person who does not merit being mentioned however I will take this opportunity to highlight Ann Carter’s and Mark Breen’s amazing improvements in the last year. Whatever they are growing in the nurseries I am popping out to buy some! Everyone comes to these races with different goals, there were people running with niggles, people running with or just over tummy bugs and others who were just plain stupid running on the end of a night of partying. It is all a learning curve and I must remember I am not getting any younger.
Looking forward to Waterford club mates, and remember, ‘To try is to risk failure not to try is to guarantee it’.