Adare 10K – Sunday, 24 February. There was an excellent turn out by Kilfinane AC club runners at the Adare 10k.

Conditions were perfect with over 700 runners taking part, a big increase on last year and few would have been disappointed with such a well organised and picturesque location for a race. The course is quite a challenging one but it was good to see so many PB’s being run by the Kilfinane AC crew and to see the runners who have been attending the beginners group runs, putting in such impressive performances.

James Gubbins paced the race for the lead group of club runners and finished the race in an impressive 37:51. There was little to separate Effin man, Sean Manning and Seamus Hourigan as usual, who continue to see their times fall, with Sean finishing 46th in a PB of 39:08 and Seamus 47th in 39:10. Donnacha Enright, Liam Sheehy and Paul Ryan are closing in on a sub 40 time with every race and all ran PB’s. Donnacha finished 59th in 40:21, Liam 79th in 41:41 and Paul 92nd 42:13.

Great to see Paul Aherne and Michael Halpin back in competitive action with Paul completing the course in 47:47 and Michael in 49:53. Well done also to another Effin man, John Meehan who ran his first 10K in a very fast time of 42:30, great result!

Our first lady home was Agne Bulyceva with an impressive PB of 49:54 followed closely by Edel Hennessey in 51:07. Our beginners group all had excellent runs with Niamh Doody completing the course in 56:01, Patricia Wade 56:13, Tina Hayes 1:00:48 and Helen O’Sullivan in 1:01:56. Good banter and fun was order of the day and performances were a welcome bonus.

Thanks to West Limerick AC for hosting such an excellent event, we’re sure to be back in equally good numbers again next year.

RACE 3 OF UL 5K SPRING SERIES

Thursday, 21 February and a great turnout by Kilfinane AC runners for week 3 of the UL series. New recruit Ken Heelan ran a very impressive time of 18:25 in his first competitive 5K, finishing in 9th place. Birthday girl Aideen Leahy also ran her first race of the series in a great time of 22:30, just behind Ken’s brother Mike who completed the course in 22:26.

Shelly Campbell continues to show steady improvement from week to week and ran a PB of 23:08. Numbers were up this week with 71 taking to the start. Sean Manning and Seamus Hourigan had a good outing with Sean finishing 12th in 18:42 and Seamus finishing close behind in 14th in a time of 19:01. Agne Bulyceva continues to run well and clocked 24:19.

TRAINING

Training continues this Saturday in Dromin at 9.30am. Details of midweek training will be circulated via Facebook and text. Tuesday evening track training sessions are from 7-8pm in UL.

Best of luck to all running in UL and Doneraile 5k. For information on club training, etc. contact Sean on 086-6001430 or send us a message on Facebook. New runners always welcome.

UPCOMING RACES

Third race in UL Rowing Club Spring Series this Thursday, 28 February at 7pm from UL Boathouse. 1st race of four in the Doneraile Park 5km series, this Sat., March 2 at 11am. Munster senior and novice 4 mile road championships Sunday, 10 March in Newtownshandrum.