Mullingar was well represented among the 11,000 competitors at the Great Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park on Sunday 15th April, which incorporated the AAI National 10km Road Championship. There were two 10km races. The first was for Elite Women and women entered in the AAI Championship. The second race was for Elite Men and the thousands of others gathered in the Park, including the men entered in the AAI Championship, which was the real highlight race in terms of mass participation.

Thanks to the coverage on RTE, we saw Mary Scully starting strongly in the first race and after a strong race she finished in 36:52, well up overall and an excellent 4th woman in the AAI Championship. Also in this race was Nuala Moran, delighted with her PB of 48:01, followed by Marna Groenewald, Jill Booker and Teresa Booker.

On to the second race, where we saw Paddy Kelly run the opening kilometre with the leading group that included Kenenisa Bekele. A little over half an hour later, first to finish from Mullingar was Tom McGrath in 33:58 to finish an excellent 49th place overall, followed by Mark Carroll 56th overall in 34:26, then Paddy Kelly (34:47), Kevin Baker (35:20), Aron Fahey (35:28, PB) and Maurice Looby (35:49) all getting inside the top-100 places. Next in from Mullingar was Matt Glennon (36:02), followed by Eddie Newman (36:07), Colm Walsh (36:19), Ollie Donnelly (36:38), JP O’Brien (36:42), John O’Reilly (36:57), Justin Murtagh (37:22), Mel Carthy (37:47), Kieran Nolan (37:50), Patrick Muldoon (37:50), Mark Murphy (41:14), Paul Moore (42:09), Ray Daly (42:25), John Daly (42:46), Siobhan Moore (44:49), Gerri Fagan (48:18), Lorraine Brady (48:47), Laura Egan (49:32, a big PB) and Ann McNulty enjoying the fantastic atmosphere in the Park.

Before the main races, there were 2.5km races for boys and girls from 9 to 11 years of age and 11 to 15 years of age. Jack Moran won the 9 to 11 years race, closely followed by Andrew Daly (3rd boy), John Whitelaw (5th boy), Susan Glennon (2nd girl), Joseph Cronin and Sarah Glennon.

Patrick Shaw finished 8th in the 11 to 15 years race, followed by Conor McHugh, Andrea Brady, Edel Glennon, Rachel Glennon, Katie Daly, Ellen Cronin and Meabh McNulty.

The TV coverage on RTE was excellent and if we watched closely we could spot many Mullingar vests in the throng flashing by on our TV screens. It was also great to see Andrea Brady being interviewed after the 2.5km junior race, expressing her delight at taking part in such a fantastic event. Well done to everyone from the Club that took part.