Irish Three Quarter Marathon 2018 (7th Oct)

Mullingar marathon athletes clear another hurdle

Strategically placed in the fixtures calendar to attract entrants for the Dublin City Marathon in a few weeks time looking to put in a long run with company rather than face it alone, the Irish Three Quarter Marathon in Longwood, Co. Meath on Sunday morning 7th October attracted an entry of over 1,300. The Longwood course was nice and flat but cool windy conditions on the day were challenging, but good preparation for what the runners may face in the marathon in a few weeks time. Among the big entry were ten from Mullingar Harriers looking to test themselves and monitor their marathon training, led home by Patrick Muldoon in 2:19:33, which will give him great confidence of getting close to or breaking the three hour mark in Dublin. Not far behind was Joan Flynn with a very encouraging 2:20:14 to finish third senior woman. Mervyn Kennedy (2:42:25) was next, then came Ollie Gaffney (2:43:46), Stephen Bell (2:45:06), Joan Hickson (3:02:26) in her first official competitive outing for Mullingar, Sean Liston (3:03:30), Declan Costello (3:07:35) pacing Criona Reid to 3:07:38 and Rachel Davis (3:28:02) making up the Mullingar contingent. Of note is that the Mullingar group all managed to run relatively even splits, which is a major bonus when taking on the challenge of the full marathon distance. Congratulations to them all.