How do you run 50km of trail - with 6331ft of elevation gain - on a skeleton/ base training/ "Ironman recovery program" plan? The answer is kind of like the joke about fitting elephants into a Mini Cooper - one leg - or at least one foot - at a time. Last Saturday, I ran the North Face 50km...

Okay, you're sick of hearing about this by now, but this is the final piece of the story (and I had to get it out before 2011 ends and the clock resets so I have to find something new to train for)... Written in capitals on the front of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is “DON’T PANIC”. I always...

Marathon weekend kicked off when I stepped foot in the RDS on Sunday afternoon for the Expo. After a bite to eat and a toilet stop, Edel, Elaine and I received our race packs and took a look at the running gear etc on offer. We bumped into Siobhan Keane who was also running her first marathon; and...

Another brilliant day up in Dublin: success, disappointment, pain, elation, and a lot of smiles... It was an absolute blast cycling round, unloading, setting up, taking photos and shouting encouragement. Shouting abuse was fun too but I only did it to Craughwell AC and GCH... Here are some photos as...

Former London marathon winner, Catherina McKiernan, was the first woman home in the inaugural Conamara 10k, coming in less than a minute behind overall winner, Damien Ridge of Galway City Harriers, who won in a time of 36:34. McKiernan, who was at the event to start the race, made a last-minute...

A fantastic performance from the club today in Athlone at the 3/4 marathon. Lots of the Dublin-in-training crew hit the streets with some very speedy times. Mick Rice ran a superb 2:02:54 to place eighth overall and third in the M40 category. Full results attached. Club performances to be added here...

Let’s just clear up some issues first. I don’t like cold water. I’m not a big fan of open water swimming in general. I’m nervous descending on my bike. I don’t like being cold. I love my bed. So how exactly did I get here? Over the years, I really couldn’t picture myself doing an Ironman. I...

(Deirdre Hassett reporting from base...) In the worst, rainiest, windiest summer for triathlon in the past few years, the first Galway Ironman 70.3 triathlon took place in Salthill. For a flavour of the day’s event, check out this great video by GalwayGirl: http://www.galway.com/video/ironman-703...

Note: No club listings in results so apologies for anyone I've missed - please post a comment if you have additional results and I'll update report. The second trip to Longford for a half marathon in just over a month! This time members made their way down to the long standing Longford marathon/...

This is a prelim to the main report (still in progress), but thought it was fun and I'd slap it up. Also have Frank Burke working on same! For the record: Swim: 1:24 Bike: 6:24 Run: 4:13 Finish: 12:17 1. What was the high point of IM Frankfurt 2011 for you? Cycling up the ‘Hell’ (Bad Vibel - km 80/...

{Ed's Note: This is hot off the press; no results available yet but Jane Ann has been reported to have taken a super second place overall in the women's race, and Chairman Maeve has also been reported to have knocked a huge chunk off her half marathon PB - congratulations to both. } Above picture is...

Saturday July 2nd was another day for a road trip to a new running destination… Achill. I had never been on the island before so didn’t know what to expect, however, I had been warned about the toughness of the half marathon race but thought if I completed both Connemara and the Burren I should be...

Mick Rice's highly entertaining (and mildly censored) report on Athenry AC's attempt at domination of the Wicklow Way Relay last Saturday 11th June. More hill work, anyone? When Valerie Glavin tells you that you’re wanted on a club team, you’d need to be either brave or foolhardy to decline. And so...

The inaugural Connemara chamber of commerce Sky Road 10K challenge took place Sunday the 5th of June. The sun was shining, the town was awash with people for the Bank holiday weekend and the atmosphere was electric. Almost 150 participants took and with a prize fund of over €1,500 on offer there was...

The 2011 Ras an Spideil 8km road race which took place on Sunday 29th May last was held under ideal weather conditions as 117 athletes took part in the inaugural Connemara event. A vast field consisting of experienced competitors to recreational walkers took to the staring line with the scenic...

Ed's Note: How did Lyall get Race Number 1? Looks great though! Cork marathon – what a great race. Mile splits: 7:02 6:58 7:00 6:51 7:05 6:50 7:09 6:48 7:17 7:06 – ten mile split: 70:06. Predicted finish time was 3:03:48 at this point! 7:01 7:06 7:14 (0:46) – half: 1:32:13 7:16 7:01 7:05 7:08 7:13 7...

As I left Dunsandle it was starting to rain, but when I got to Ballyvaughan it was a truly awful morning. A big change from the 26 degrees of 2010. The plan was 4 hours, but in this weather anything could happen, even the dreaded DNF! Keeping as positive as I could, I reached the start in good time...

On a wet Saturday morning where else would we be only standing at the start of the Burren Challenge? After a few jokes about how to get our cars out of the field they were currently parked in, Elaine Quinn, Janet Clancy, Owen Curran, Frank Burke, Liam and Frances Egan and I were off. The start was...

Mick Rice paced the three hour group in the recent Limerick Marathon and performed the job perfectly. We expected nothing less :-). What none of us realised until last night is that he and his merry band were caught on camera coming across the Living Bridge in UL at about 7 miles and printed in the...

I did not mind in the end; 3:57 – at least its under 4; girl behind me vomited over my hind leg- at least it was only one leg; crowd encroached onto the finish area making it difficult to move- adds to atmosphere, keeps me upright; only a bag of Tayto as food – it’s cheese and onion, my favourite...

I headed home on Friday last to Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan to visit my family. Normally on occasions like this I’d be packing my best sparkly top and my high heels - instead I was packing my running shorts, runners and my Athenry singlet! Oh boy have times changed... I must be getting old. I did a...

Lyall's race report from the Bay Run half marathon in Bantry on Sunday. {Deirdre's note: I was there also - I shuffled around in a training/ tempo capacity and I can vouch for the fact that Lyall had a marvellous race - the hills are cruel - worse than Connemara. To my surprise I met Lyall at the...

Elaine Quinn and I hit the road on Sunday for another half marathon journey. Elaine had collected our numbers on Friday so all we had to worry about was being at the start for our 11:30 off. Richie, a dude with some serious hair – and who I remembered from my UL days when I occasionally did his...

Almost 120 runners took to the road in the first ever Colemanstown 10k run. There was great representation from all local clubs, namely Athenry AC, Loughrea AC, Craughwell, GCH, Clare River Harriers & Tuam AC. Athenry’s Paul McNamara headed the field from early on and romped home in a fantastic time...

On arriving in Oughterard I bumped into Dee Quinn, Aoife Callan and Assumpta Feeney. We took the courtesy bus to Leenane, travelling along the half marathon route we were about to run. Everyone on the bus had the same goal, to meet, great and beat the “hell of the west”. After being met by some...