With the 5k series ongoing for the month of May, the weekends racing has been quiet of late in Galway. This weekend saw the renewal of the Mayfly 10k in Oughterard with just shy of 100 entrants. Galway City Harriers were triumphant in both the mens & womens races with Matt Bidwell & Sinead Brody winning in times of 33.43 & 39.46 respectively.

Results located here.

The Athenry Assassins made their annual appearance at the Wicklow Way Relay on Saturday with a team comprising Jim & Frances Leahy, Valerie Glavin, Flora McKnight, Deirdre Quinn, Fiona Doughan, Annette Minou & Maeve Noone (straight off the plane to the start line!!). The race consists of an 8 leg relay race which traverses the county in a north-south direction, starting in south County Dublin & finishing in Shillaleagh, Carlow. It is run primarily through forests, over mountains & through bogs with only a minor section on roads. The race is also totally unmarked (except for the sporadic 'Little Yellow Man' signs) so the entrants are expected to know the route prior to race day. This can be a daunting thought for competitors as with only 30 teams taking part in a race that spans 127km & approximately 9 - 10 hours, it's very easy to find yourself all alone, in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere, not a soul in sight & lost. Every year people take unexpected detours resulting in extra mileage (as I hang my head in shame) & sometimes complete DNF's. Even seasoned WWR competitors fall foul of the race day jitters & such was the case this year, as a tightly fought race between Rathfarnam & the TT Races was decided by a wrong turn by the TT Racers on Leg 5, allowing Rathfarnam to take first place by a single minute. An incredibly tight race over such a long distance.

Club Treasurer, Pat Forde, was in Clare this weekend for the Burren Marathon. Another race with large sections that entail scaling mountains & karst limestone craggs, the weather this year didn't lend itself to an easy day for competitors with Pat finishing in a time of 4.00.04 & in 33rd position.

Liam Egan travelled to Austria this weeken for the St. Polten 70.3 half Ironman event. In his second race over this distance Liam took nearly 20mins off his time from last year on a much tougher course. Liams splits were; 1.9km Swim - 41:41. 90km Cycle - 3:10:25. Half Marathon - 1:51:45 with transition splits of 5:17 & 5:03.