Brilliant sunshine blessed the Kilconieron 5 Mile race on Sunday 24th February. It combined with a cooling wind to theoretically make a perfect day for running. However, judging by the pained expressions on runners' faces as they progressed up the hill near the end, maybe we need to revisit our calculations.

The race has Athenry's Patrick Forde as one of the main organizers and he duly got many local runners out in force: Craughwell AC supplied 26 and Athenry AC got 29 to the starting line. Craughwell had an amazing five runners among the first ten finishers, with Paul Keane leading just about the whole way. Mark Davies took second, a fine achievement considering that he hasn't run a race for ten months.

Congratulations to Martin O'Hara who broke his PB by 50 seconds plus with 33:50. (Please let me know if you broke a PB at this or any race: [email protected]). Liz Broderick seems to be making an early dash for Member of the Year by competing at every race around and registered 45:48 here, (photo directly below). Special thanks for Bernie Mulryan for being a one-woman cheering brigade.

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Thanks for the race Patrick, I particularly liked the smoked salmon.

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Sinead Foran, Brian O'Donnell, Pat McDonagh, Martin Hynes

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Mairead Sullivan, Maura Leader, Lorna Freeman, Jane Mangan.

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Gearoid Rohan, David Noone, Frank Burke, Michael Duane and Bernard Buckley.

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Tony Killarney, Martin O'Hara, Martin McEvilly, Andrew Talbot.

Only one runner entered the special "Heavily Pregnant Ladies" category. We are unable to supply a full length photo as a spell was cast on the photographer causing him to misjudge the camera alignment, see below. You can find a full set of 40 photos  as slide show at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmagnier/sets/72157632865502698/show/, or individual photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmagnier/sets/72157632865502698/

Results at http://www.redtagtiming.com/results/Kilconeiron5Mile_2013.pdf.

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