Tarmonbarry

Athenry athletes were in action in Longford and in Cork at the weekend and with considerable success. Gary Doherty continued his nomadic ways while taking part in the ever popular Cork To Cobh 15 Mile road race, organised by the Cork BHAA. Gary had to be on the road early from Galway to make the race start and ran conservatively to the halfway point, which he passed in 52:10. From that point on caution was thrown out the window and he proceeded to leave a scorched trail over the remaining seven and a half miles of the route, finishing in 1:41:41, a negative split on the day of two minutes and thirty-nine seconds. Congratulations to Gary on a fine performance.

In Longford on Sunday the Tarmonbarry half-marathon took place with Alan Burke, Brian O'Connor and Johnny O'Connor in the small field of only forty runners. At the front of affairs John Byrne was quickly clear of all challengers and he went on to record another victory; the umpteenth of a highly successful season for the talented Mayo AC runner. Athenry AC's Brian O'Connor tried to go with the fast initial pace but eased back after a short while in an effort to consolidate his position in the field. Brian ran in third place on his own for the majority of the race only to be pipped close to the finish by another Mayo runner Joe Dawson. Detailed results are not yet to hand but Brian posted a time of around 1:18:00 for the distance. Alan Burke ran yet another strong race a little further down the field. Alan ran in company with Tom Hunt of Mayo AC for the first nine miles, but then, according to Alan at least, "..Tom just took off into the distance". Johnny O'Connor made his usual 'conservative' start to the race going through the first two miles like the proverbial rocket. Thankfully Johnny continued to race well after the solid fuel cells had detached and he finished the race in a highly respectable 1:34:00. Johnny is clocking up quite a few miles at the moment in preparation for the Luton Marathon in December and this was a strong showing given his current training schedule. Well done to the Tarmonbarry threesome!

(I hopeMick won't mind me adding a bit at the bottom of this article, but Athenry was also represented in Newcastle at the weekend. Michael McMahon sported the maroon at the Great North Run 1/2 Marathon and finished in an excellent 1:42:44 despite a couple of very dodgy vertebrae in the lower back. Mike did his level best to ensure he was on the tv coverage by finishing as close as possible to Sally Gunnell, so Sally if you're reading this he wasn't stalking! Peter)