In the past week, runners of all standards faced a bewildering choice of close to 50 races from slick commercial operations to free Parkruns.
On a holiday weekend, there were possible trips away to highly publicised races in Limerick, Glengarriff, Galway, as well as a women’s mini marathon in Mayo. Biggest of the lot was the 32nd Belfast Marathon.
In years past, the adventure began with the 9am train to Belfast. You ran the marathon at 12 noon and were back on the 5pm train to Dublin later that afternoon. The banter and the camaraderie was priceless.
Those days ended when the start time was moved to 9am, but on the plus side, the marathon relay has become one of the biggest in Europe, made possible because of a number of perfectly positioned sports centres along the marathon route. It makes it a great day out for runners of all standards – and is something unique on this island.
Winning the race was Kenyan veteran Joel Kisang in 2:19.28 while setting a new women’s course record of 2:36.50 was Nataliya Lehonkova of the Ukraine. Best locals were Tom Frazer, fourth in 2:26.24 and Julie Balmer in 3:00.29. The relay, with over 2,200 teams, was dominated by Northern Irish clubs. Pencil it in for next year!
Ireland isn’t short of marathons these days and, a day earlier, Clonliffe’s racing machine Gary O’Hanlon won the Limerick Marathon in 2:29.46, with Clonmel’s Angela McCann – another prolific racer – first woman. O’Hanlon’s Clonliffe team mate Sergiu Ciobanu won the half marathon, with ex-international rower Sinead Jennings first woman. A good pay day for all four.
Drogheda was the venue for the Boyne 10km which was the big draw in Leinster, with almost 1,600 finishers. Robbie Matthews from Dunshaughlin made it three wins from three races when he beat Colin Costello of Star of the Sea comfortably in 32 mins 9 secs. First woman was MSB’s Kate O’Neill.
Unfortunate to clash with the Boyne 10km was the Tallaght 5km, which got just over a hundred starters. Of course, you could always run both races – as did Bernard Roe,who was second in Tallaght and fourth in Drogheda and helped Raheny Shamrock to double team victory
In the Australian outback, world jogger Tony Mangan clocked up his 30,000 mile on the road from Alice Springs to Tennent’s s Creek. Mangan is about 600 miles from Darwin and from there, will fly to East Timor to begin running across Asia. He hopes to make the China border around 
the end of October – exactly a year before his anticipated arrival back in Ireland for the 2014 Dublin Marathon. Only 20,000 miles to go!
Get five of your friends to join you at the Terenure 5 mile on Sunday May 19 (11am) and all six of you could avail of a special €18 entry fee. Schools can enter groups of ten for a €120 fee. Thanks to the sponsorship of Zurich Insurance, all surplus money from the race will go to the Jack and Jill Foundation. Enter now at www.terenure5-mile.com.
Starting at 4am and crossing the line as dawn breaks on Saturday May 11 is the fifth annual Darkness into Light, the annual 5km for Pieta House. Among the 20 venues all over the country are the Phoenix Park (Papas Cross) and Newbridge House in Dublin as well as Naas racecourse, Navan RFC and Arklow town. Full list at www.dil.pieta.ie; or Marie 01-6282111.
At the British Universities Championships in Bedford, DSD’s Claire Tarplee won the 800m. Next up for Tarplee is the European Clubs Championships in Spain, where Maria McCambridge will also turn out for DSD.At the St Abban’s Open Sports, Raheny junior Mieke Kiernan broke the 40m barrier for women’s hammer with a personal best 40.63m.
Joe Warne had a good win over Star of the Sea’s Eoin Callaghan in the Le Cheile 5km in Leixlip. master. Best of the women was Dunboyne veteran Karen O’Hanlon. Next up in the area is Sunday’s annual Lucan 5km (12.0) from the Newcastle road (opposite Superquinn).
Shot putter Fiona Tuite of Fingallians) and 1500m runner Nadia Power from Templeogue) made the qualifying marks for the European Youth Olympics at last Wednesday’s Dublin Graded League. Race of the day was the men’s 3000m, with Andrew Connick from Waterford breaking away early but caught by Emmett Jennings (DSD) with 700m to go. In the sprint for the line, Connick got there first in 8:33.6 with Jennings second in 8:34.5. Next Graded Meet ins on Wednesday May 15 in Santry and includes a 10,000m.
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