Jingle Bells 5k 2024 (7th Dec)
It was an early start for the Mullingar Harriers who were running the Jingle Bells 5k on Saturday morning 7th December in the Phoenix Park. The race organisers, Donore Harriers AC , carried out an early morning inspection to ensure it was safe to proceed after the full force of Storm Darragh was felt overnight. After getting the all clear at 6.30am, a huge crowd of nearly 1,700 runners made their way to the Park to compete in what is traditionally one of the fastest 5k races in the country. However, with the remainder of the storm still being felt with very strong winds, times were never going to be that fast but that didn’t take from the quality of the race. Competing for Mullingar Harriers in the men section of the race, Vinny Connolly was always in contention for honours and he led the way home in 4th place overall in 15:15 in a very tight finish, followed by Conor Sherwin (15:40), John Ryan (15:48), Stephen Nea (18:10) and James Cribbin (19:32) racing hard to the finish. The men team placed an excellent 4th Club. Orlaith Flanagan was the sole woman from Mullingar to compete and she was more very happy with her time of 20:05. Congratulations to Donore Harriers on a well organised race under difficult weather conditions [GD].