from Galway City Harriers Outside the Dublin Adidas racing series and the Ulster grand prix races, it’s hard to find many 10-mile road-races in Ireland, this distance tending to get lost among the multitude of shorter 5K, 8K and 10K races and the longer half-marathon distance. Over the past couple of years however, the Galway Bay 10, a fund-raiser for Cancer Care West and the Inis Aoíbhinn residence and cancer support centre, has filled this void for all runners in the west of Ireland and is now established as a popular race over a very unique and challenging circuit.
On a day when ducks would surely have drowned (if you had any ducks), a large number of GCH athletes went to the starting line at 2pm on Saturday last for the 2008 installment of this race. All had different goals in mind, some to clock a first official time for this distance, others to do some fine-tuning for the Dublin city marathon, a matter of 3 weeks away now.
Despite battling strong head-winds on the way out and having to deal with driving rain on the homeward journey, it turned out to be a very successful day for GCH club members throughout the field. Mike O’Connor continued his recent rich vein of form by slashing minutes off the course record and romping home as race-winner in a hugely impressive time of 53m50s. Conor Maloney also broke the hour mark comfortably for 3rd place overall. Other notable top 10 finishers and category winners included Ian Egan (4) and Gearóid Quinn (8). To complete the set, the irrepressible Don Deacy claimed another race prize in his category, finishing well inside the 80 minute mark.
Not to be outdone on the distaff side of the club, Regina Casey comfortably won the ladies’ race, followed home in second place by Orla Ní Mhuircheartaigh. Other notable finishers in the field included Gina Concannon, Brenda Gannon, Louise Arrrigan and Siobhán Cunningham, who all finished inside the 90 minute mark, significant performances for a first outing at the 10-mile distance. There were a number of other male and female GCH athletes running on the day, both from the Fit4Life group and the other training groups – let’s hope you all achieved your own personal targets on this tough day at the office.
Photographed are, left to right: race-winner Mike O’Connor, v55 winner Don Deacy, v40 winner Ian Egan
See https://www.galwaybay10.com for more details including a full set of official results and photographs which will be posted over the coming days.
