A great day at the Dublin City Marathon
Dublin city marathon bank holiday Monday, eleven and a half thousand people all shapes and sizes put their by now long hard training sessions into practice, a break in the weather a pleasant surprise for
all, sun shining with a slight breeze was a perfect start to the day,
with a 9.30am kick off, and the by now expected Kenyans were sure to push
the early pace, at the fist mile tucked in at the back of the second group our own
Kieran Kennedy going through the first mile in 5.30 mile pace this being
only his third marathon he may have been a little excited! A few minutes
behind was debutant Frank Chaney who had an excellent first Half to the marathon eventually finishing in a time of 3.48.51. The next valley athlete was Kay Byrne who with a large number of people from the Castlederg area travelled to run and support the breast cancer research fund all in the memory of Paula Gallen who pass away earlier this year, in a fitting tribute to his mother Niall Paula's son ran and completed the course in a excellent time of 3.41.56. Also running for the same cause our own Gloria Donaghey in an improving time of 3.48.45.
Kay had a strong and gritty
performance as we have come to expect from Kay finishing up with a
time of 3.10.26 Other athletes who took part in memory of Paula were
Louise Quinn 3.48.57 Paddy Lynch, Conor Bannigan, it would be a miss not
to mention one of only a few people in the country to have achieved
the running all 29 Dublin City Marathon's Mr Pat O Laughlin, now in his 70's finishing time of 5.10.13 this may spur or give some encouragement to allot of us to get out &get involved if not for the charities for the betterment of our own health. A number of other Donegal athletes were Padric Mc Kinney 2.21 Gary Crossan 2.32. Gary's wife Maria had a very impressive run finishing 7th lady and 1st Irish lady in a very creditable time of 2.36, Martin
Gormley 2.48. Overall a very succesful day goals achieved, targets met
congratulations to one and all.
Looking forward to next weekend back to the Donegal senior cross-country at the Finn valley centre beginning at 12noon.
Some pictures by Kieran Carlin.
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