John, Anne, and Mags – week-end winners

Anne Heaney (Mayo AC) heading out into the wind to win at Carnacon

Runners in events on Saturday had to face into wind and rain, with Met Eireann reporting gusts of 45 knots – that’s tough on any scale. However, on a loop course there’s always the wind on your back at some point – swings and roundabouts we often forget in post race amnesia. Well done to John Byrne who completed a hat-trick of 8k wins recently with a 27:02 victory at Carnacon in the Seamus Corbett Memorial. It was also John’s 102nd race win – hope we got that right, having missed out on noting his 100th milestone career victory in Turlough last month. That’s some career. – and he’s still only ?9. Twenty successful years – part one of autobiography, John?  Three other Carnacon finishers were under 30 minutes – Noel Gibbons 2nd 29:19, Sean Murphy 3rd  29:45 and u18 Sean Seoighe 4th in 29:47
Anne Heaney (Mayo AC) showed the benefit of Thursday’s track training sessions with an excellent win in the women’s section in 34:15 and 21st overall. Imelda Hughes was second 35:11, and Margaret McDonagh (Tam AC)  3rd 36:06. Tim Ganley 37:49 and Bernie McHugh 39:49 were just two of those testing their race pace after a few weeks of track training. Results: seamus-corbet-memorial-8K
Over on the coast in Enniscrone white horses paraded around Carrowhubbock as 10/5k fields were challenged by similar tough conditions. Margaret Glavey was our third week-end race winner coming home first woman in the 5k in 23:04. She has had her preparation for Indoors Masters interrupted through injury and was anxious to get a good work out ahead of Athlone next Sunday. There were 9 finishers under 40 minutes in the Enniscrone 10k won in 36:49 by John Carty . Both races were in support of the Irish Kidney Association. Results at www.chip.ie
Further south on Galway Bay rock and roll weather buffeted the runners in Kinvara with the half marathon winner Ivan Thomas 68:06  coming home 9 minutes ahead of the field in 68:06. John Geraghty M40 came home in 1:43:33, just outside his Ballina pb last May and showing he is back in form. Val P Glynn M60 was not far behind in 1:46:33  Matt Bidwell ran 33:19 to come second in the 10k – two minutes behind winner Steve Mitchell 31:17. Results www.precisiontiming.net
There were more benign conditions on Sunday as the St John’s FC 5k took place near Sligo. Seamus Somers (Sligo AC) won in 17:08. He’s preparing for a spring marathon in Zurich next month, as are a number of his clubmates including Michael O’Connell who are  heading to Rotterdam. Tom Hunt also preparing for Athlone came home in 20:45 over a tough course. There was time to get back to watch Mark English win a brilliant silver in the 800 metres in Prague.