The annual Clifden Lifeboat 10k took place on Sunday in Clifden. The strong winds and rain predicted for the day did not materialise, leaving only Galway playing in the All Ireland Hurling finals as the only deterrent for would be participants. The route took the runners up the Sky Road and back to finish outside the Alcock and Brown Hotel, and is often described by some as the most challenging run they have ever done. <Editors note: See photo attached for one of the most brutal hills you can come across - but at least you do have to go down it too>

From the time the gun went off, young Richard Farnan of Galway City Harriers was leading, giving last year’s winner, Chris Mc Grath tough competition. In the end Richard crossed the finish line with a good lead in 36:32, followed by Chris McGrath (38:54) and Ross Novotny (41:07) from Arizona (USA) coming in 3rd.

The first woman across the line was Marianne Murphy in 46:46, followed by local woman Olivia Staunton (48:16) and Nicola Sheehan who came in 3rd in 49:17.

This year saw strong competition between the teams, especially between last year’s 2 top teams. In the end, last year’s winners, the Ballyconneely team, made up of brothers Sean and Seamus Nee, Tomas King and Colin Connolly won, making it 3 times in a row. They were closely followed in 2nd place by Lowerys Bar’s team (Donal O’Brien, Bernie O’Malley, Chris Mc Grath and Chris Nee) and 3rd team came shortly after, made up of Steven Boyle, Neil Ward and Cathal Smyth.

First run/walker was Anne Flaherty and 1st walker was Loretta Joyce. All funds raised from the race go to the Clifden Lifeboat and organisers would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped, participated, sponsored, gave a prize or came out to support the participants, and helped make it a success.

Photographs from the race can be found at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjC5KiKB