The Challenge The world’s third highest capital, Addis Ababa, plays host to Africa’s biggest road race on November 22nd, 2009. Join ORBIS Ireland for The Great Ethiopian Run on the roof of Africa and help eliminate blinding trachoma. Beginning in downtown Addis Ababa, you’ll be joined by more than...

From Turlough Conway at the IMRA The IMRA Connaught Mountain running Championships are taking place on the May Bank Holiday weekend. There are two races Croagh Patrick on Saturday May 2nd which is also an Irish Championship race and Ben Gorm on Sunday, 3rd May. Registration for the Croagh Patrick...

Two brave Athenry runners took on the world famous Boston Marathon on Monday - the oldest marathon race in the world and one of the most prestigious. Frank Burke and Tony Killarney were two two couragous men in question. Despite a strong headwind both men posted good times on the hilly Boston route...

A good friend of Athenry AC's, Tom Hunt, has just passed along the schedule of events for the upcoming 2009 Mayo AC Road Race League. The individual races will be posted to our events' calendar in due course. See attached PDF for more information.

Not something I followed too close early last week but noteworthy to see that both Martin Fagan ( 28:47) and Mary Cullen ( 32:35) ran outstanding times in their respective races. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/lark-in-the-park-as-11000-run-for-fun-1699705.html http://www.greatrun.org/events...

Mel Casserly who is involved with this fine race tells us, "We had a great turnout for the race this year with over 300 runners and walkers participating, on a rainy day when we were not expecting significant numbers to show up. Times were slightly down on last year, with the winner local man Phil...

The Healthy Heart 10k Charity Fun Walk and Road Race. The Healthy Heart 10k Charity Fun Walk and Road Race will take place on Saturday April 18th 2009 starting at 12 noon at Kilmaley School and there will be an option of taking a 3.5km walk and fun run and all proceeds will go towards the Ray of...

A new monthly athletics e-zine has just been launched to provide runners all over Ireland with information about the sport they love – and it is be absolutely free of charge. The new e-zine was launched today (WEDNESDAY) by two Mayo men – Mark Scanlon and Liam Horan – in mid-April. Mark and Liam are...

Here's the Irish Masters' Athletes Association latest newsletter. In addition, you can find a form for applying for a record, with details of the information you need to send in order to ratify the record.

Photo Above: On The Peak of Knockboy, Co.Cork. Each year the big hearted employees of Boston Scientific select a worthy cause which they champion throughout the course of that year. This year saw Cystic Fibrosis being the charity of Choice. Cystic Fibrosis is Ireland's most common life-threatening...

Local sports photographer John O'Connor has produced another beautiful collection of athletics related photography. On this occasion John has turned his attention to this year's edition of the Anglo Celtic Plate 100k (http://www.celtic100k.com/) which took place a couple of weeks ago in Salthill...

A most interesting query has reached us from Gary Clancy located in Santa Barbara in California, whose has in his possession an athletics medal won by his grandfather over 100 years ago. He is looking for any information about the club, its origins or otherwise. From Gary (gclancy @ impulse . net)...

I’ve only recently that I encountered the whole concept of a ‘Life List’. From what I can tell they come in two basic shapes. Some people sit down and, having thought about the matter in great detail, or perhaps not at all, draw up a list of experiences or objectives that they aim to work through...

Congratulations to Raheny Shamrock on the recent publication of their club history, all 50 years of it. http://www.rahenyshamrock.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=958&Itemid=36

You can now look up the Irish Masters national records (or officially "road best performances") for the different age categories at the new website. See the URL's below for men and women, respectively. (The records for indoor and outdoor track and field will be put up shortly). It's a fascinating...

Picture Above: Sarah Peterson from New Jersey takes Inishbofin by storm last year... New York With a Difference! The ING New York City Marathon has long been recognised as one of the world's greatest experiences! For the past 9 years Croí have brought people from all over Ireland to complete in this...

A new monthly athletics e-zine will provide runners all over Ireland with information about the sport they love – and it will be absolutely free of charge. The new e-zine is being launched by two Mayo men – Mark Scanlon and Liam Horan – in mid-April. Mark and Liam are both keen runners, with Mark...

The provisional results from 2009 Balltcotton have just been released and can be found here: http://www.ballycottonrunning.com/Ballycotton2009.htm Finish line photographs are available from here: http://www.finishlinephotographs.com A wonderful day out; as good as I ever remember it. Conditions for...

I sat down and tried to think of twenty 'positives' that arise from being off the road. I've always thought that Ian Dury's 'Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3' was a great song with a good message and so it should be possible to put a positive spin on almost any situation if you just try hard enough...

After a little bit of research on the web, I've come up with a grand total of 43, including (West) Waterford's David McCarthy, who ran an awe-inspiring 3.57.75 at a recent indoor meet in the US! A flotrack video of David's race is located here and is well worth a viewing, or three: http://www...

***** Series sold out early on Thursday morning, 5 March 2009 ***** Six Galway Athletics Clubs have announced their plans to organise a series of low-key, no-frills roads races around the county this spring. The clubs have organised a similar series of races for the last three years and the...

One of the greatest distance runners of all time,Ron Hill is to visit John Buckley Sports. A former world record holder and winner of the Boston and European marathon championship. Ron Hill now aged 70 is equally famous for having run every single day since 1964. There will be a special 'MEET RON'...

Country: Thailand Departure: October 09 Price: €4,000 €300 deposit: to be paid upon return of application form to COPE Galway €1,500:to be raised and returned to COPE Galway by 1st May 09 €1,000: to be raised and returned to COPE Galway by 1st July 09 €1,200: the balace to be raised and returned to...

Have you ever dreamed of completing a triathlon but been daunted by lack of fitness, lack of knowledge or even by poor swimming skills? Galway Triathlon Club, in conjunction with the Galway City Sports Partnership, is running a ‘Try2Tri’ information day and challenge, at the NUIG Kingfisher Club...

...the more they stay the same. As many of us are training for a spring marathon and are by now well used to encountering the wit and wisdom of Galway's youth while we're out on the road, I thought the letter above might raise a smile.