Medals and PBs galore for North Sligo athletes
On a lovely autumn day a record number of participants and great crowd support added a great atmosphere to the 37th annual Dublin City Marathon.
Over 19,500 athletes entered the marathon with over 17,000 of them making it across the finish line on Sunday last.
Eight North Sligo athletes were among the huge throng of athletes from the county that took part in what is now the fourth biggest marathon in Europe.
Feidhlim McGowan was the first North Sligo athlete to finish, running in his first marathon - the 24- year- old showed great pace judgment and strength over the final miles to record a great time of 2 hours 34min 17secs and finishing as 13th Irish person.
Eamon McAndrew set a great new PB of 2h 37m 28s chopping 30 mins off his previous best which he set during a triathlon a few years back, the teak tough McAndrew showed great grit and determination to fight fatigue and tiredness over the final 2 miles to finish 23rd Irish person.
Tommy Kelly had a super run, the tenacious 45 year old North Sligo man showed a clean pair of heels to over 1700 other athletes in his category to finish 1st in 2h 38m 31s and claim the national gold medal over 45, this is Kelly’s second national medal in less than 3 months winning silver in the national half marathon in August. Conor McCann ran the race of his life on Sunday the lightly built North Sligo man chopped 8 mins 20 secs off his PB to record a time of 2h 46 m 23s and finish 67th Irish finisher a massive performance from McCann.
Darragh Currid over came many personal challenges to record a time of 2h 49m 38s a great new 5m 18s PB a just reward for his huge dedication to his sport.
Donal Egan who just joined the club last year has benefited greatly from good training partners and has continued to improve setting a new PB OF 2h 50m 55s a 6min improvement.
Karen Gillen the North Sligo club secretary ran a new personal best overcoming an injury setback 10 days before the race to record a time of 3h 25m 52sec a 4 secs improvement. Paul Kerrigan showed huge improvement the North Sligo man chopping a massive 26mins off his previous best, a one min per mile improvement to record a time of 3h 38m 45s a great achievement.
Fergal Lavin running in the Frankfurt marathon chopped 6mins off his PB in humid conditions
The North Sligo over 35 team of Eamon McAndrew Tommy Kelly and Conor McCann finished 3rd out of 433 teams with a combined time of 8h 2m 32 secs ten minutes faster than last years winning time to claim the bronze medals.