St. Patrick’s Day 10k & Medley League Round 4 – 10k (17th Mar)
The Mullingar Half Marathon is normally held on St. Patrick’s Day, but as this year’s event unfortunately had to be postponed, Mullingar Harriers was able to use the date to hold a Virtual 10k Fundraiser for the new all-weather track, and it also incorporated round four of the Virtual Medley Road League. After the trials and tribulations of the mile in round three, many were glad to get back to the more familiar territory of 10k. Entries for the event were very strong and hundreds had entered online for the 10k and a lot more of the Club’s underage members had entered in the 3k or 4k run organised by the Club coaches and more suited to younger ages.
In a very pleasant change from the days and weeks before, the weather on St. Patrick’s Day was bright and quite warm despite a light breeze, ideal for a run, and from early morning the Royal Canal Blueway and the Old Rail Trail in Mullingar were nicely busy with runners completing their socially-distanced 10k races. To keep within 5k of their homes, many more runners from every corner of Westmeath and even further afield were out running, jogging or walking their 10k on the day. Many had entered just to support the fundraising efforts and did not run but we’re still very thankful to them for their financial support. Those that did complete the run uploaded their results to the My Run Results website.
As expected, Mullingar athletes were very prominent in the results, though we didn’t have it all our own way. The first man was James Hyland (Raheny Shamrocks), second was Shane Ryan (Raheny Shamrocks) and in third place was our own Maurice Looby. Finishing in the top ten men was Alan Crowley (fifth), Eddie Newman (sixth), Andrew Nevin (seventh) and James Keegan (eighth). In the women race, Síle O’Byrne (Slí Cualann AC) took first place ahead of Mullingar’s Sinead Whitelaw (second), Aine O’Reilly (third), with Amy Mahony (fifth), Jenny Algar (sixth), Aisling Corcoran (seventh), Anna Broderick (eighth), Michelle Bohan (ninth) and Michelle O’Halloran (tenth) filling the top ten places. Mullingar athletes featured strongly across the various senior and master categories, including at least 10 best times for the distance, and 6 men ran under 36 minutes for 10k, so it’s good to see so many making good use of their time and continuing to train well.
With three Raheny men in the top four, Raheny easily won the men team prize, and with three Mullingar women in the top five, they easily won the women team prize. There was also a mixed team category with three to score and each team had to include at least one woman. First team was Mullingar Harriers thanks to Maurice Looby, Alan Crowley and Sinead Whitelaw, second was our near neighbours North Westmeath AC and third was Birr AC. The fourth team was from Ealing Eagles in London, so it was great to see the event being supported not only by Clubs in Ireland but also in England. Hundreds entered the event and while not everyone that entered actually ran the distance or submitted their time, their support is greatly appreciated and will help towards financing the new all-weather track.
Nearly everyone that entered in the 10k, 3k or 4k included the event tee shirt with their entry, so we expect to see a great number of people in the coming weeks and months sporting their commemorative tee shirts here there and everywhere in the County demonstrating their support for this important fundraiser.
Concentrating on the Medley League, over seventy adult Club members ran the distance, and when the results were age graded as in previous rounds, the first three women were Mary Stuart, Aine O’Reilly and Sinead Whitelaw. With only a minute between third and sixth woman, if all the women were running together, there would have been a terrific finish. Eddie Newman was first man, followed by Maurice Looby and Evan McCormack. Round five is a 5k on Easter Monday, 5th April.
