Congratulations and sincerest thanks again to Owen and Tony who both made my debut marathon incredibly enjoyable and a 'fast finish' possible! Hope I didn't slow you guys down too much and thanks for not stealing my watch on that hill! Mind you, I never did find my water bottle...

Two gentlemen!

Thanks.

Rosemary

Well done Philip amazing photos! not an easy job take a bow fantastic job well done. Mt.

Tony and Owen,
So so good to see Athenry runners on the course and you two looked happy out not a bother to ye. Well done you two great Club great members!!! So so proud of ye!! See ye soon. Mt.

Owen Curran volunteered to run the Connemarathon with me and I am really grateful to him for that. My plan was to run to the 22 mile marker at 3:15 pace and then see what would happen after that. This meant that we should arrive there at 2:43 and in fact we got there at 2:42 and didn't lose too much time on the tail end.
But the really astonishing thing that happened was the runner who went there with us. At about the 10K mark we were joined by Rosemary, who was running her first marathon (FIRST MARATHON - EVER!). She told us that she was hoping to do about 3 hours 30 minutes but wasn't really sure how long it would take as she had never run more than 34K. We told her that we were running a faster pace and that she would be better off hanging back a bit as she might burn out. She took our advice and dropped off - for about 5 minutes - and then arrived back. This happened about 5 times - we couldn't get rid of her :-) Rosemary stayed with us practically all the way and finished in 3:17 - third woman home overall. What an achievement!
Rosemary, I hope you read this because Owen and I take our hats off to you. We were amazed and delighted by your performance. And by the way we meant what we said when we made you an honorary member of Athenry AC. You are welcome to join us any time.
Tony