Despite the gales & monsoon like rain that persisted for most of this morning, the clouds dried up for nearly 100 runners that turned out for the Ballinderreen 10km today.
Gary Thornton made a rare appearance on the local road running scene & was rewarded with a win, beating GCH clubmate Matt Bidwell into second with a time of 30.29, nearly a full two & a half minutes ahead of Matt. Julio Cesar Castro of Kilmurry was third with a 33.05.
All Maria Carey wanted for this Christmas was a win (Sorry, couldn't resist) & she got it with 40.09 & a 30 second gap back to Loughrea's Fionnuala Keane in second.
A handful of Athenry AC runners took part with Chris Deakin continuing his recent 'a race a week' strategy & finishing with a 40.18, with Ray Somers a minute behind. There was also a minute separating Bernie Mulryan (45.25) & Philip Magnier (46.36) and both runners took the win in their age categories for their efforts, whilst Mairead Sullivan finished in 48.14 on day 16 of her running streak.