"Well done", "Wow", "Congrats"........these are some of the replies which I received to my texts after achieving a PB in Barcelona. James Lundon's reply read: I EXPECT A REPORT FOR THE WEB SITE. GOOD WORK!!! Well, here goes, James. I didn't tell many that I was running the Barcelona marathon as I...

Muck and Misery? Sometime late last year, I made a promise, to nobody in particular, that I would travel to Belfast to make up a team for the Senior Inter-Clubs Cross-Country race. Paul McNamara was fired up for this race for a long time after a disappointing run at the Inter-Counties in the Curragh...

In the midst of a busy weekend, one notable achievement almost went unnoticed. Tucked away in the results from the Adare 10km was a prizewinner in the V45 sectiom, Maire Teresa Beatty. Obviously those hard yards at the track are paying off. In her own words... Not one to write reports. But it was a...

There were two Galway men to the fore at today's AAI National Inter Club Cross Country Championships in Belfast and a further two playing a valuable supporting role. Athenry AC's Paul McNamara and Galway City Harrier Gary Thornton both ran superb races to finish well inside the top ten places and...

I was enjoying a nice winter break last week (early-February 2008) in Malta with my long-suffering wife and children and had promised faithfully not to do any running during the holiday. Thanks to a secret pocket in my Adidas training bag, I had concealed my favourite runners along with a pair of...

Connemara Marathon Race Director, Athenry AC member and all 'round good-egg Ray O'Connor publishes a semi-regular blog on preparations for the big event in April. He's kindly given us permission to reproduce his latest blog entry. The blog itself can be found at http://www.connemarathon.com...

Deirdre Hassett is a Galway-based athlete who competes in a plethora of events including road races, triathlons, soccer and tag rugby tournaments to name a few. A member of the Galway Triathlon Club, Deirdre recently travelled to New Zealand in the company of Helen Lavin (whose ultramarathon trail...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3911965737085279441 (8 minutes 20 seconds) Probably the less said about this video, the better. It was my warm-down lap after the Connaught Cross-Country Championship a few weeks ago. The lap was about 1600 metres long, therefore I was going at about 8:10-8:20...

Eight people tested the newly-laid running track at Dangan on Sunday 18th in an informal 5k race cum time trial. The track looked and felt good, much bouncier than the previous threadbare version, and less hard on the legs, according to Peter Delmer. Indeed the track is so new that the lane lines...

Second marathon of the year. Did it the low-cost way: 6 good weeks of 25-30M with 6 long runs thrown in: 16, 16, 18, 20, 19 and 18 two weeks out. Ran cross-country the Sunday before and then two short runs the week of the race. Got three bouts of physio in too and was told I was in good shape. The...

Robert Staunton's Dublin 2007 Report Twelve months ago I ran DCM in a time of 3:03. Not bad considering I strained my left quad and groin three and a half weeks before the big event that limited my mileage from 0 to 25 to 48 on the three weeks leading into it. Those three weeks were spent splashing...

I hadn't planned well for Dublin, due to a number of reasons, to the extent that it was 7pm on Sunday evening before I was finally able to make the decision to travel. The usual build-up to a marathon would be to fret for several weeks over major issues like hydration, nutrition and carb loading...

Gosts in Mijn Hoofd Well it was a short while coming. On we go then to Amsterdam once more. I am making a point at this stage to not look back at previous reports on the same race as my experience differs so much from year to year that a sneaky look might alter my assessment of how the race went...

After Johnny's fantastic run in Berlin a couple of weeks back a few of us tried to encourage him to write a race report and here it is at last.He doesn't often record his racing experiences for posterity but I suppose lopping forty minutes off of your marathon personal best time requires that you...

Mick Rice agreed to pace Ray on his most recent marathon in Berlin (September 2007). The following is his report with comments by Ray in italics. How do you offer advice on running marathon races to a man who has run thirty four of them already? How can you try to guide or pace a man through a...

Hi all Just to you know how Dublin Half Marathon went for the us last Saturday there was six of us from Athenry club and I think i saw 2 others in the Club top. It started off this year with the Flora mini marathon followed by the Clare people 10k, Galway 5km May Series, Headford 8K, Streets of...

That headline should improve the google search ratings of the Athenry site for Alan... but luckly for me it's true. More on that later. I had penciled Longford into my marathon schedule as usual late last year but what was unusual about this years race was that I had decidecd to use it as a long run...

I had run only up to age 14 and gave it up for no good reason. I'm sure it made sense at the time! Then school, college, exams, beer, fags and women took over for the next twelve years. The only trouble was that, for me, it was always all-or-nothing, so it had to be out three nights a week for years...

Headed to Cork on Sunday afternoon, hoping that my run the next day would be better than my first marathon in Dublin 8 months before. I had a poor back and should have stayed at home but decided to run nonetheless: got half way, broke down and limped home somewhere over five hours. The same injury...

I thought I would try to balance out the excellent reports from Ray and James, with one that gives my perspective of something not going according to plan. You also have to remember here that I am one of the slowest runners out there, not helped by still being a few stone heavier than my optimum...

As I drove down to Cork from Galway on Sunday morning I was thinking to myself am I wasting my time driving over a 100 miles for a race I may not even finish. I have avoided the marathon in recent years as I had a couple of bad experiences in the past but I was determined I was going to finish this...

What was I thinking when I set out my plan of marathons at the start of the year? Five in 7 weeks has been on my diary since January and that diary has been staring at me from my desk since, every day, every hour, reminding me of the task ahead. How could I even imagine that I'd be able to carry...

Mini Marathon, 4th June 2007 - Fiona McCann The big day finally arrived, all that training was to be tested for the difficult task ahead - my first mini marathon. I had to keep reminding myself that at least I didn't have to run 26.2 miles like all those poor creatures in the Cork Marathon - that...

Report from Maria Hehir: Yesterday while the rest of Ireland had lovely sunshine, it rained in Dublin and the six ladies from Athenry {Fiona McCann, Etain Wilson, Maeve Noone, Aillen McNamara, Pauline Murray & Maria Hehir} were all very wet by the time we got to the starting line at 3pm but it didn...

I was looking forward to my favourite race of the year for quite a while. Edinburgh is such a fantastic city you can't but enjoy a trip there. The marathon expo was vastly improved this year, even though it is still quite small and I still can't understand how they can justify dragging us so far out...