217 runners took part in this year's 29th Claregalway 10km, numbers being slightly up on last year. Ten athletes donned the maroon and white club colours, taking on the traditional one lap loop. Weather conditions were described as blustery but remained dry! For the third consecutive year, local man...
2506 athletes completed this year's Streets of Galway 8km. The iconic club photo usually taken on the steps of Jury's Hotel was organised by James Lundon. There was a smaller representation from the club this year as the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon was on the following morning. Race conditions were...
National Half Marathon / 07 Aug 2016 / 08:30 a.m. Although most of us relish the challenge of a tough race, the 4:30 a.m alarm call was greeted with little enthusiasm. By the time the porridge was consumed and we had hit the M6 the early start was quickly forgotten as the focus turned to the task in...
A few of us headed in the direction of Mullingar this Sunday for the annual Mullingar AC 10 mile road race. We knew from my better half Esther, who had participated the previous year, that it actually takes place outside the town of Mullingar in a little place called Dalystown, so Google Maps was...
"What am I doing this for?" Despite the number of times that question had popped into my head over the last few weeks, the only time on the day of the Ultimate Trails 55km that it crossed my mind was standing on the start line in the rain. I've been fearful of running long distances in wet weather...
Many years ago when the children were young, we decided to go on a family holiday. So one morning with the exception of the kitchen sink we loaded everything and everyone into the car and didn't stop going until we landed somewhere in the middle of France. On arriving there we were amazed at the...
A week after the Athenry county half marathon it was time for a test over a shorter distance. A good contingent from Athenry AC made the trip to the Headford 8K for this lung buster. The first person I spotted was Marguerite Wilkinson on her warm up, looking fresh after her sub 2 hour half in...
I first broke 3 hours in the 2012 Cork marathon, running 2:53. Every marathon I ran in 2013, 2014 and 2015 was under 3 hours. In order, these were a 2:54, a 2:52, a 2:45 (pb from Connemara 2014), a 2:47, a 2:58, a 2:48 and another 2:54. I say this for perspective, because last Monday June 6th in...
As the tar melted around the roads of Athenry we made the trip to Sixmilebridge in Clare for the annual BMOH 10km in glorious sunshine. Chris made an unusual comment for an Irishman as we hit the M18 near Gort that "thankfully it looks like there may be some cloud cover ahead". This weather...
The London Marathon was the reason I first ran a marathon. I remember watching in 2008 and finally thinking "yes, I'm going to do this." I promptly entered the ballot for 2009, didn't get in, and went to Edinburgh instead. I vowed then if I was going to do London, I'd get in on the good for age...
It all started in January when plans were being laid for the year. There was lots of chat going on of going to Manchester and I thought well it’s not a scenic marathon so if I am to do it I will have to train hard and race it. It fitted in with plans at home as nobody had any race plans for the...
Now in the 40th year, the ASICS Greater Manchester Marathon took place on Sunday. 15,149 athletes ran the 26.2 miles (42km) through the streets of North West England. The weather was reported to be very pleasant. It was dry and the sun broke through the clouds throughout the race. A large contingent...
Loughrea Athletics Club hosted their annual 5km race on Easter Monday. Numbers were down slightly on last years race. 237 athletes gathered at the start line to run a 2 lap course of Loughrea town. Weather conditions were described as perfect with clear blue skies! Proceeds from the race (€1,300)...
The course was 10 laps of a circuit just short of 5km, so there was about a 400m run in at the start of the race. My target had been to try and get 3:30 and I was on course for that until after 35km when a combination of the rolling course, mud(!) and cold started to take its toll. The last 10km...
Ballinderreen 10km was originally set for the 29th November 2015 but due to flooding the race was re scheduled for Sunday 24th January 2016. Ballinderreen village is approximately 22 km south of Galway City and is a part of the townland of Ballinderreen. Baile an Doirín, means town of the little...
A word of warning from the start. You simply can’t write a short report about this race, so if you’re not in the form for a saga, turn away now. The Art O’ Neill has a great history to it but this will be long enough without going into that now, so you can read up on it here . This is a race I’ve...
In its 12th year almost 390 athletes took part in the Tuam 8km today. The weather was cold and temperatures were hovering around 7 degrees with intermittent showers. GCH dominated the podium taking 5 of the 6 places. The top two men finished in the same order as last year, with Gary Thornton GCH...
The rescheduled Clarinbridge 10k took place today with nine Athenry AC members towing the start line. There was a hint of sunshine in the sky and racing conditions were pretty good as some of our runners (Majella Cummins) were even able to do the pre-race warm up in the club singlet. Not many PBs to...
Following on from the enjoyment of last years #akwrunstreak I signed up once again in earnest to run 30 minutes or 5k per day for the month of December. Organised by Sean at Amphibian King it was just the target I needed to try get back on track with some training at the end of this year. Prior to...
Men's Results 1st Mick Clohisey (Raheny Shamrock AC), 2nd Brendan Hargreaves (Dundrum South Dublin AC), 3rd Matthew Bidwell (GCH). Women's Results 1st Marie Hyland (Crusaders AC), 2nd Jane Ann Healy (Athenry AC), 3rd Laura Shaughnessy (Loughrea AC). Provisional result attached. Race report and prize...
Provisional result from today's (Sunday, 20 December 2015) 4M in Abbeyknockmoy is attached. More to follow.
Sixmilebridge Ultra took place on the 15th November with 23 athletes taking part in this 30 mile challenge. Mike Curley won the race in 3.34.25 with Athenry ACs Dee Grady finishing 2nd overall while also winning the women's race in 3.42.02. Second man home and 3rd overall was Vinny O'Leary crossing...
There are mornings you wake up and look out the window and say to yourself “Today is not a day for running” and crawl back in to bed. When the tail end of storm Abigail is still battering the landscape there was more than ample reason to crawl back in to bed on Sunday morning (Nov 15th), but this...
** RESULT ATTACHED ** The 6th annual Fit4Life race took place yesterday in Athenry, it as a huge success! The race was co ordinated again this year by Race Director Frances Leahy who did an excellent job. And behind every great woman is a great team, as members of Athenry AC turned out in force to...
Dublin City Marathon's inaugural race was in 1980 with 1,420 finishing. This year in its 36th year just under 13,000 runners took part, an increase of about 2.7% on the figure for last year. Traditionally the race takes place on the October bank holiday Monday but plans for 2016 announced recently...