RACE REPORT

What a beautiful summers morning in stunning Doneraile National park where a relatively new club hosted it's very 1st 5 km road race which stayed completely within the grounds of the park.

The participants were treated to beautiful sunshine, a very friendly welcome from Doneraile AC, an energetic dynamic Zumba warm-up and beautiful scenery as they travelled through their race taking in the little wooden bridges, the waterfall that could be heard from every corner of the park cascading over the rocks, views of the mountains in the distance and the monkey tree, these were all supposed to help distract the runners from the undulating challenge of what has been labelled the "toughest 5 km in Munster" - did the distractions work? I have no idea as I watched each and every runner get welcomed home.

Start Line Video

This is a regularly used loop by the local clubs for training and racing so a bonus was put up for breaking the course record which I think was not broken today, probably to do with the heat and gentle breeze, nothing to do with the challenging hills thrown in to the mix :-)

There was great representation from surrounding clubs today with Galtee Road runners, Dromahane Roadrunners, Mallow AC, East and North Cork to name a few, then we have a few travel from Naas AC, Crusaders AC in Dublin, and Limerick AC so a good mix from all over the country.

After the siring heat which topped 27 degrees at 1 point and all runners finished safe and sound they were treated to tasty bite size pieces of Fulfill bars, fruit and much needed water as an appetizer before heading across to the community hall for some fine home made food, relaxing sunshine and the presentations.

The winners of the race today was Tony Fogerty from Templemore AC in a time of 17:13, the lady's winner and current course record holder was Martina Keily from St Finbarrs in a time of 18:43.

***********************************************

Not only was today's inaugural 5km road race for Doneraile AC but it was also a 1st race ever for a group of "C25K" people as Ger (from the host club) started coaching this group 10 weeks ago to cross the finish line today in some-what tough, challenging conditions, great sense of achievement by all, well done.

Well done Doneraile AC on a very successful 1st race , here's to many more.

Finish Line Video

RESULTS

Doneraile AC 5K Race

Runners Distribution by Class