London, Foxford, Belfast

There were a couple of great runs by two Westport lads in the London Marathon on April 15. Paddy O’Toole ran a brilliant PB finishing 257th overall in 2:42:33 (1:21:01 half).This was a very even paced performance and well deserved because Paddy has had some disappointing marathon experiences in the last couple of years. He was third Irish finisher behind Matt Bidwell and Owen Byrne from GCH. Brendan Gill was 4th Irish finisher in 2:45:45 in 380th place overall, another excellent time and only 30 seconds off his PB.
Another notable performance was by UK based Irish master Patrick Dobbs (Wexford) who finished third in the M70 category in 3:49.46. Patrick is current Irish M70 record holder for the marathon 3:31:03, set in London in 2009. A statistic for our younger readers to pencil in as a future target!

In the Foxford ‘Run for Boylo’ 10k last Sunday, Gerry Galvin was 3rd in 38.03. Race winner was Mark Reilly in 37.22. Pauline Moran W55 ran yet another class race to be first woman home in 42.58 a new PB – ten seconds better than her National 10k a week earlier. Owen Mongan was also well up among the top finishers.

In the Belfast Titanic Quarter 10k, Una McGrath W50, ran 51.48.