A great day for running meant that the Tuam 8k on Sunday Jan 15th had a record 630 entrants. They experienced a perfect racing day with cool, dry weather. Most people seemed pleased with the new one-loop course also, with the last 3k or so along the Athenry to Tuam road.

From the Tuam AC website: "The race was run by Rathfarnham’s Sean Hehir in a blisteringly fast 24:10. Second place went to Belfast’s Paddy Hamilton of Annadale Striders in 24:14, and third man home was Roger Barrett of Ballina (25:51). Following them was the man who easily won his category, GCH’s Matt Bidwell in 26:18."

Athenry AC had its usual huge entry list, provisionally counted as 50. Two groups of Athenry runners ran to the race from Claregalway and Newcastle/ Monivea to clock up mileages of 12-16 miles topped up by the 5 miles in the race. Several of them annoyed others who had driven by actually beating them in the race itself! Definitely something to inspire one to revisit scheduled mileage for the coming months.

Seamus Gilhooley was first home of the Athenry bunch, finishing in 27:41, and followed by Alan Burke, 31:47, and Adrian FitzMaurice, 32:51. Among the women Sinead Foran impressed with a pb of 34:10; what would she do with some training?!

Congratulations to our Tuam AC friends for putting on a great race and to anyone who ran. See the results at http://www.tuamac.com/PDFs/Tuam2012_8kmResults.pdf.