Race two of the Slaney Olympic AC was run on 28th May on a 3 mile course on the Dublin Road.  The weather was ideal for racing.  The course start was down the Clearstream road, coming up onto the slip road, turning right to the Old Dublin Road.  This part of the course was flat down the Old Dublin Road to Blacktoops Roundabout for the 800m uphill along the new Dublin Road, and continued on the flat / downhill to finish beside Kavanagh Motors on the new road.

The course proved to be a fast one with 13 runners out of 33 running under 19 minutes.  The trio of Brian Murphy, Kevin Murphy and Jim Stafford took out the race to Blackstoops Roudabout with Pat Hyland, Edward White, Mick Nolan, Steven McGannon, Neil O’Connor and Milo Roban just behind.

Kevin Murphy took to the front on the uphill followed closely by Jim Stafford, with Brian just off the pace. On the long run in, Kevin pulled away from Jim and Brian now running hard trying to make up ground on Jim. The next battle was Pat Hyland and Edward White, with Hyland holding off White.

Up to the finish line, Kevin Murphy crossed the line in 15:24, with Stafford at 15:53, Brian Murphy at 16:52, Edward White at 17:34, having passed Pat Hyland (17:51) in the last half mile.

Then a long line of runners crossed the line pushing hard for pesonal bests –

Steven McGannon – 18:08

Milo Roban – 18:12

Neil O’Connor – 18:23

Brendon Dillon – 18:37

Bill Kavanagh – 18:39

Fergus Murphy – 18:46

Chris Squance – 18:54

All broke that 19 minutes barrier.

Next in was new boy Wayne Breen – 19:11, who will only get better with every race that he runs.  But Joe Miller – 19:13, will keep tabs on him over the 4 miles on 11th June.

Mark Kells – 19:37, was running well on the back of a personal best of 1:35:08 in the Wexford Half Marathon.

Ger Murphy – 19:43 pulled away from Tommy Colfer – 20:22, showing him his strong finish over the last mile (6:10).

Next was Pat Foley – 20.22, another newcomer whose running will only improve over the longer runs.

John Murphy – 20:42, Lar Doyle – 22:05 and Mag Dunphy – 22:09 (first of the ladies) kept ahead of John O’Connor – 22:12 and Joan Doyle Kennedy – 22:20.  Joan finished strong and will go better the longer a race goes on.

Louise Nolan – 22:53 and Bernie Miller – 23:00 worked hard to beat Michelle Doyle – 24:10, Terry O’Keeffe – 24:26, Annis Kehoe – 24:31, Donnie Colfer – 24:41, and Wally McKenna – 27:24 and Tom Herlihy – 27:26 in a big sprint finish made it a great race to watch.

Next race 11th June, 7.30pm, Old Dublin Road, Enniscorthy – all are welcome.