One of the many GB Shaw quotes is, "We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing". (Was he any relation to our current secretary, Iain?)

In Athenry AC there's a small few of us still 'playing.' Last weekend I decided to travel to that lovely East Cork village of Ballycotton for their annual 10 mile road race. This race was started back in 1978 when Jack Lynch was Taoiseach, ‘Rare Auld Times’ by Danny Doyle was number one in the charts, oh and 31 finished the race that day, all male by the way.

Nowadays, this race is booked out by the month of December, which proves it must be the 'Cheltenham' of road races. I decided to leave the travelling until Sunday morning, and as a result of an e-mail to their website re: transport from Cork City to Ballycotton, I got a phone call from Mr. Ballycotton himself, John Walshe, to say, ‘Martin, a car will be waiting for you at the bus station in Cork.’ Great service!

Well on Sunday morning after a long 4 hour plus (a marathon in itself?) bus journey I arrived to be met by Pat. With his knowledge of back roads and a pass to get through checkpoints he had me outside race HQ in rapid fire time. I thanked him and told him, ‘It was nice to travel John O'Donoghue style now and again.' I had some spare time and used it renewing some old friends’ acquaintance; we only meet now and again these days.

As Ballycotton is a seaside village down a cul-de-sac, it requires a massive amount of community effort from both young and old but no one seems to complain of inconvenience.

At 1:30PM on the dot, on an ideal day for running, the race got going, on nice flat roads until about the 8 mile mark. It gets a bit hilly from there to the finish (Ed. That is one way of putting it alright!)

At that point there was the grim reminder of that awful family tragedy some months back. RIP to them all.

I got to finish in 83 minutes and was to learn later it was good enough for third place in the M/65 category, barely missing out being second. M/65 whatever it means; must be one of them new motorways.

After the race we went along to collect the famous Ballycotton Finishers’ mug as well as Mars bars, bananas, water etc. Along here, I met most of the Athenry AC gang who were down: Lyall and Bid, Conor with his Cheshire cat grin after running 58 mins and later Ray & Aoife.

Then we went back to the changing marquee and it must be stated that the committee can’t be blamed for not providing showering facilities, as it wouldn't be possible in a small village and huge crowds, so we had to settle for cloth wipes for a cat’s lick!!

While having refreshments in the school I met another old friend, now 74 years old, who complained of having a very bad race due to injuries and lack of training. He told me he felt like giving up but limped the last few miles. I felt for him, thinking he was over two hours out on the course, only to be told, 'Seventy nine minutes, Martin, the worst yet.' He was beaten in his age group by a man who finished in 71 mins, despite a bad fall some weeks back resulting in broken ribs and a punctured lung. The woman, who won the ladies title in 1979 in 68 mins, ran on Sunday finishing in 66 mins. Do they all live in Tir Na Nóg down in Cork?

Not looking forward to the long bus journey home, I got the offer of a lift by Bernie Kelly, otherwise known as Mrs Galway City Harriers. As we were about to leave Bernie's B/B, she got a phone call from another GCH 'Speedy Gonzales' and before he asked Bernie was her passenger washed or unwashed, I interjected to say the latter but that I had a shower about a month ago. After the long journey back home to Galway, Bernie dropped me at the Maldron Hotel in Oranmore, where I parked my car early that morning. I must say Bernie is a very good driver but couldn't understand why she drove most of the way back with the windows down! Thanks Bernie, will return the compliment next year, God willing.

Now what was that old Mr. Shaw’s saying again?

Regards,

Martin Keane.