Drogheda ace Larkin takes Lusk by storm
THE recent spell of snowy weather had some of Drogheda & District’s finest runners seeking out treadmills wherever they could be found in an effort to keep up their fitness ahead of next Sunday’s Irish Masters Indoor Track Championships in Athlone.
But one man who preferred to stay on the roads and race himself fit was Shane Larkin, whose training philosophy is ‘Train light, race hard’, as he took himself off to compete in Sunday’s Lusk 4-Mile Road Race.
This was the first running of what will hopefully be an annual event and due to the weather the course had to be changed on the morning of the race.
Despite the bad weather more than 450 runners took to the start line, and with little or no wind fast times were on the cards.
The new course of a pair of twomile laps seemed to be to Larkin’s liking as right from the gun he was up there mixing it with some quality runners.
Reach the half-way mark in a swift 11 minutes, Larkin turned on the pace and was now up in eighth place as the leading pack started to split.
Once he turned the final bend and could see the finish line, Larkin piled on the pressure and managed to hold on to that eighth place right to the line in a fast 22:03 which ensured that he was first in his Men’s Over-45 category.
D&D’s next finisher - 15th in a solid 23:53 - was Colin Leonard who’s made a good return to rac- ing following a lay-off due to injury.
Paddy Murphy was determined not to let cabin fever get to him and he showed many of his younger opponents a clean pair of heels as he raced round the course in a decent 25:15.
Murphy, who’s been very consistent in training of late, is one of those runners who’s always difficult to beat as he just won’t give a yard to anyone without them working hard for it.
Also running in the red vest of D&D were Mike Staunton (30:55) and Barney Flannery who got round in 32:49.
The club’s sole female runner was Louise Aylward who coped well with the conditions and ran 32:43 with no visible distress.