Storm Erik held up for record breaker Gary
LOUTH man Gary O’Hanlon smashed his own Irish record in style at the Donadea 50k race on Saturday last in another phenomenal victory.
The Kilkerley native broke through the finish line at 2:50:48, taking four minutes off the record at the Irish Championship, a record which he himself had set.
Speaking after the race, Gary said that competitors were relieved that ‘Storm Erik thankfully held his breath and underfoot conditions held up.’
‘Delighted to take four minutes off the Irish 50K record with 2.50.47, pacing at 5.29 per mile for 31.1 miles,’ said Gary.
The Louth man’s determination saw him pass through the 10k mark in 33min, and the half marathon point 1.10, and marathon in 2.22.
The national record holder said admitted it was a challenging event: ‘I went out hard, too hard. 1.23.50 for 25k and 2:14 for 40k. Then I was questioning whether I could even finish the last 10k.’
‘It was a very tough race mentally. With the marathon you get to 20 miles and there’s not far to go, but with a 50k you have almost another half marathon left.’
He added: ‘After four laps the underfoot conditions got a bit tougher too.’
The ultra distance event is around eight kilometres longer than the standard 42.2km marathon, but for experienced runners such as Gary O’Hanlon the challenge is in pushing himself to break new records.
Now running for the Dublin club Clonliffe Harrier’s, he had only recently ran 2:18:15 to finish 31st overall and also won the M40 category at the Valencia Marathon back in December.
Having also coached a number of runners taking part in the 50K race, he took to his Facebook page to speak of his pride in all who took part.
‘As a coach I’m super proud of my athletes and everyone competing and completing in style today.’
The Donadea 50K female winner, Laura O’Driscoll added her own praise for the Louth man’s new record: ‘Phenomenal running Gary! Was an honour to be lapped by you...twice!’