The Fields of Athenry made famous worldwide by the well-known emotional ballad is also the name of Ireland’s favorite Christmas 10K race, which attracts over 1,000 participants from all over the country to the quaint Galway town every year on St Stephen’s Day.

The Race, which is in its 14th year, is delighted to announce Run Ireland as Title Sponsor for 2016. ‘RunIreland.com is Ireland’s largest online resource for activity events all over the country and covers running, walking, triathlon, duathlon, cycling and OCR events and will be influential in helping the race to grow it’s numbers even further this year.

‘The race is organised by runners for runners’, explains Race Director Jim Leahy, ‘The race always attracts an impressive elite field with the course record standing at 29.57and held by Gary Thornton. However as it takes place on St Stephen’s day we pull out all the stops to make it a family occasion with a children’s race and lots of refreshments afterwards. Supporters are as much part of the day as the runners and the whole event is like a festive Christmas gathering’.

Commenting for Athenry AC, Tony Killarney Club Chairperson said, ‘We are very excited about our partnership with Run Ireland. They bring expert marketing knowledge to our event and will ensure the race is even bigger and better this year’.

‘RunIreland.com is entering it’s 10th year in business in 2016 and Athenry AC were one of our first customers so it is appropriate that we are giving something back to the club by sponsoring this great event’ comments Ray O’Connor, who is a well known Galway entrepreneur, probably better known for his multiple marathons having notched up 136 Marathons to date. O’Connor continues ‘I teamed up with a good friend and fellow Athenry AC club mate, Sebastien Locteau, to start RunIreland.com, just as a hobby, in 2006 and worked with another Athenry man Alan Burke who built the site for us. We very quickly realized that this was something much bigger than a hobby and within a few years www.runireland.com was the recipient of an Eircom Spider Award which is one of the most prestigious awards in the web industry. So our roots are firmly in Galway and even more so in Athenry’.

Run Ireland as a company went on to become the largest provider of on-line ticketing for running events in the country. This part of the company was acquired by US based Active Global in 2012 who now partner with RunIreland to provide world class technology to small events at affordable prices.

For more information on The Fields of Athenry please contact Jim Leahy on 087 9214859 or book online at www.Athenry10k.com

About The fields of Athenry 10K:

The 14th Fields of Athenry 10km will take place on St. Stephen’s Day, December 26th at 11am. Over the last number of years ‘The Fields’ has become one of the leading road races in the country, and this year we aim to raise the bar higher. The race is being held on its traditional route, finishing under the medieval arch in Athenry. It has sold out for the last few years and 2014 saw a record number of 1152 finishers with men’s champion Mick Clohisey of Raheny Shamrock AC taking top honours for the third year in a row. So don’t miss out and sign up now.

About Run Ireland:

RunIreland was founded in 2006 by Galway based multiple Marathon Runner and Entrepreneur Ray O’Connor. Having founded the hugely popular Connemara Marathon O’Connor created an on-line booking platform and portal website to make it easier for clubs and organizations to create, market and organize their own events using free technology provided through his website www.RunIreland.com. The website soon became the number one on-line resource for running, walking, cycling, triathlon and duathlon events and in more recent years the highly popular OCR events and mud runs. www.RunIreland.com attracts over a million visits a year from people who want to participate in an activity event. The wealth of information, news and articles on the site won Run Ireland an Eircom Spider Award for ‘Best on-line community’.

Media Contact:

Angela Geraghty, [email protected] ++353 (0)91 709640