Every March, the attention of the American sporting public turns to a college basketball tournament, where future NBA stars are introduced to the public.
Next March however, the Galway and Irish running scene will have its own version of March madness, as three top races follow each other on successive Sundays.
On Sunday March 7th, the highlight of the Cross county season, the National Senior Inter Clubs takes place, venue yet to be fixed. This corespondent has taken part twice in the past, and while the standard is high, there is something special about the day itself. This is a great race to target over the Winter, and hopefully, Athenry AC will have mens and womens teams out on the day.
7 Days later, the inaugural staging of the Craughwell 10 mile race, around the roads of our near neighbours Craughwell AC. This race will also double as the County Galway 10 mile championship, the first staging of this race for a number of years. Craughwell AC play a big part in our Fields of Athenry 10km race - just wait to see the amount of green and white singlets on the day - so we'll be giving the race our full support.
Luckily for many, Craughwell brought their race forward 7 days to avoid clashing with the premier 10 mile race in the country, the Ballycotton 10. Luckliy for me, when I got back into running, I got great advice and was told to register for this race as soon as the forms became available, and have a good collection of mugs from Ballycotton to show for it. This year, I'll be looking to find an extra 2 minutes and try to crack the top 100 and gain the exclusive t-shirt to add to the mugs.
So all that's needed now is Winter miles, and we're about to kick off our Winter training. Our track session on Tuesday evenings starts back up next Tuesday night at 7-30 in Dangan. More sessions are listed on our training times page. Jane Ann Healy has volunteered to put together a training plan that will get us in top shape for these races, and that will be send via email in due course.