It was fitting that Ben Dolan had the honour of starting the inaugural Joe Dolan 5k on Saturday 21st April, as nearly 250 runners, joggers and walkers from the young to the not so young set off from the start on the Lynn Road, only yards from Ben’s house. The course through the industrial estate, over the Joe Dolan Memorial Bridge and back onto the Lynn Road again to the finish proved a winner with everyone, though many expressed surprise at the length of the Joe Dolan Bridge! This race has real potential to grow and already we’re getting enquiries and encouragement about next year’s event. Thanks to great support from the local Gardaí, traffic was very well controlled and the participants could feel at ease running on the roads.

Being the first time running of the event, it was nice that the first winner should come from the Club, in the person of Shane Fitzsimons who showed why he is recognised as one of the best upcoming talents in the Country. Shane was delighted with his win in 16:00 and received the magnificent Joe Dolan Memorial Trophy, generously donated by Ben Dolan. Close on his heels was Kevin Baker (16:05), followed by Mark Carroll (16:29) to claim third prize. First woman was Mary Scully (17:50), with Sinead Roche (19:29) in second and Michelle O’Halloran (20:32) in third. Competitors came from far and wide to support the event and took home good memories of the event and a positive view of Mullingar as a good venue for a road race. The Club had a great turn out of members with many getting into the prizes in the various underage and master categories, where competition was very keen. The prizes were of a very high quality and standard and sincere thanks to Walsh Jewellers, Tri & Run, and The Sports Outlet for donating prizes, and to Rock 'n' Bowl and Gerry Duffy for donating spot prizes.

A 5km run will always get the participants hungry and thanks to the Trojan work of many parents and supporters of the Club, and generous donations from O’Brien’s Centra Store, we could provide a great spread of refreshments afterwards in Race HQ, a building kindly given to us for our use for the day by Paddy O’Brien. Many thanks to everyone who helped on the day in making the event a success and ensuring everything went smoothly, in particular those that manned the registration desks, distributed water at the finish, the stewards on the course and the army of volunteers that served the tea and refreshments after.