Limerick athletes impress in Manchester and London Marathons

A NUMBERS of significant marathons, featuring several Limerick athletes, took place last weekend.

Manchester

The 49th edition of the Manchester Marathon took place from Old Trafford last Sunday. A large contingent of Limerick athletes crossed the Irish sea and they produced great times. Amongst them were the Dooneen trio of Seamus McCarthy 3:07:32 (PB), Steve Aherne 3:08:42 and Shane O’Brien 3:41:22. Karol Downey of West Limerick was home in 3:32:13.

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Also Ivan Hayes 3:28:15 and Aoife Noonan 3:37:06. Well done to all!

London

One of the six ‘World Major Marathons’ a world record number of 56,000 athletes took to the start line in the English capital.

Amongst those were Dooneen ‘legend’ Eileen Reeves (4:38:00) and clubmates Claire Forward (4:10:13) and Elaine Lyons (4:50:05) with the finish just outside Buckingham Palace. James McMahon (Bilboa) 4:19.

Shandrum A.C. 4-Mile

Held in Newtownshandrum on Thursday evening Declan Guina, of West Limerick, was third in 20:59 with clubmate Karl Lenihan fifth in 21:31 and Padraig O’Donnell 6 th in 22:36.

Other west Limerick members to run well included Sean McAuliffe (7th) 22:51, Mark Lenihan (10th) 23:34, Colum McCarthy (12th) 24:25, Gerard Hannon (46th) 31:43, Paul Crotty (58th) 34:28 and Malachi McCarthy (68th) 35:47.

The race was won by James Doran and Carol Finn in 20:36 and 22:56 respectively.

Dromahane 'Barry O'Sullivan Memorial 5k | Rebel Diamond League

The second race in the Rebel Diamond League took place this evening in Dromahane near Mallow. It was a fabulous evening for a run with much-welcomed dry conditions after the recent wet weather!

West Limerick had three club members running and they included Theresa Hughes 23:04, Gerard Hannon 24:24, and Donal Leahy 32:38.

Stacks Mountain 10k

This race was held in a sunny Kilflynn on Saturday morning. Organised by the Kilflynn City Running and Walking Club, there was both a 10k and Half Marathon distance available.

John Fitzgerald was running for West Limerick AC and placed 2nd in the 10k race in a time of 39:08. Congratulations!

Spike Island 5k

Now in its 7th year this race was held on Easter Saturday in the famous 200 year old fortress off the coast of Cobh. This unique race where participants arrive by boat, involves one and a half laps of the inner courtyard, one lap of the outside of the fort, down the quarry road, out and back along the pier, back up the hill for a final lap of the outside, before heading back through the arch finishing in the inner courtyard.

Theresa Hughes, of West Limerick, completed the course in a time of 23:46, placing 11th female.

Parkrun
Dooneen’s Niall Bennis completed his 250th Parkrun at UL last Saturday and is now entitled to order his ‘Parkrun 250 T-shirt’. Kieran Edward completed his 100th Parkrun at UL the week previous.

1997
Mike McAuliffe, of Dromin, ran the London Marathon in a time of 3 hours and 2 minutes

Tip of the week

"Training for endurance running in warm weather necessitates that you scale the pace back in accordance with the conditions. It is your effort level that is the most important metric at play." - Mike Carmody

Fixtures

The biggest event of the Limerick running calendar takes place this weekend with the 14th of edition of the Great Limerick Run on Sunday.

The Michael ‘Curley’ Cunningham 4 Mile takes place on Friday 9th May in Galbally

The Kilmallock Annual 4 Mile Race takes place on Friday 16th May at 7:30pm from the Deebert Hotel.

The North Munster Schools T&F take place in Castleisland Co. Kerry on May 6th and 8th.

The Bilboa hosted Ger Mullane Memorial 5K/10K run/walk takes place on Friday 13th June in
Cappamore, entries are now open on Eventmaster.

Registration is now Open for The Ger Mullane Memorial Bilboa 10k and 5k on Friday 13th June.
Entries through Eventmaster.

The Inaugural Limerick Half Marathon takes place on Sunday, August 3rd, 9:00am at TUS, Old
Cratloe Road. Part of the Run Limerick Series. Entries available via Eventmaster.