The Great Limerick Run of races over a variety of distances took place in ideal summer like conditions last Sunday. The Club was very well represented in all three races over Marathon, Half Marathon and 6 miles. Pride of place must go to David Mansfield for his brilliant performances in the HALF Marathon when finishing 2nd in 67 mins 19 secs and was duly crowned Munster Champion. David clocked some impressive times on his way to this great performance, going through 9K in 28 mins 31 secs, sharing the lead, through 17k in 60 mins 24 secs, brilliant running. Then we had Jimmy Boland also running very impressively when lowering his PB for this distance by over 3 mins when finishing 5th overall in 70 mins 20 secs, brilliant. Jimmy reached 9k in 29:55 and 17k in 57:14. Jimmy ran 73 mins 48 secs in this event last year, some improvement. Conor Fleming is another athlete who has shown great improvement in the past twelve months. Last year he was the Club Chairman and he ran 86 mins 3 secs, this year he is the Vice Chairman and what an improvement. he ran very well when finishing 41st overall in 83:11, an improvement of nearly three minutes. Over this Classic distances we also had good performances from Aine Roche 143rd in 91:11 and greatly improving on last years’ time of 95:50, Pat O Connor 155th in 92 mins, Tommy Dunphy 200th in 95:53, Niall O Shea 227th in 96:15, Sheila Perry 329th in 99:34, Nicola Maunsell 367th in 100:22, Alan O Shea 417th in 101:49, Anna Byrne 523rd in 104:39 and greatly improving on last year’s run of 108:14, brilliant, Ann Marie Boland in 108 mins, Claire Meehan 925th in 113:27, Nicole O Gorman 842nd in 113:51 and Sinead Kennedy 1102nd in 117:29.
In the Marathon Joey Feery also put in a brilliant performance when finishing 4th in 2 hours 41 mins and was 2nd Munster athlete home, to win the Munster Senior Marathon Silver medal, brilliant. Joey clocked some impressive times along the route like 34:18 and another 20 miles to go, he reached halfway in 78:10 and this brilliant performance saw him knock over 14 minutes off his PB for this Classic distance, fantastic. To put this run into perspective Joey ran 2:56:55 in 2017 over this course, some improvement. We also had some great performances from Shane Greene 88th in 3:15:53, Noel Gillman 123rd in 3:25:28, Neil Proven 200th in 3:35:49, Tom Quinn had a brilliant performance when finishing 324th in 3:51:02 and was 3rd over 65, a massive improvement on last years’ time of 4 hours 14 mins 30 secs, fantastic, Niall Brannigan 346th in 3:54:35, Victor Direen 387th in 3:59:10, Sean O Dea 397th in 3:59:30, Kenny Brett 434th in 4:03:04, Grainne O Malley 538th in 4:19:01, Brian Tyrrell 654th in 4:40:50 and Ian Patterson 660th in 4:42:24.
In the 6 mile event we also had some very good performances like Anthony Bowen who was 6th overall in 35 mins 21 secs, a PB and improving on last years’ time of 36:08, Brian Carroll 15th in 36:51, Eamonn English 850th in 52:28, Karen Dunne 2389th in 74:44 and Aine Ryan 3657th in 77:03.
The Marathon and Half Marathon events were also Munster Championship events and with these great performances, we should see some more of our members winning Championship medals either as individuals or as part of teams, so well done everyone
