by Eileen Rowland
This race is organised every year by Raheny Shamrocks Athletic Club and
held within the grounds of St Anne’s Park. I have run this race for years – it was obviously cancelled during Covid and I managed to miss it in 2022 because I had Covid over Easter! It is kind of unusual to have a championship race on an Easter Monday as a lot of people are away for the long weekend and therefore the number of runners is less than you would see participating in a 10 Mile at other times of the year.
This year Easter Monday dawned wet and basically miserable ! It was drizzling and even cold as we hung around waiting for the race to start. It was 10 past 10 before the gun went as there were long queues to collect race numbers and even some late entries were registering on the day. A runner friend of mine came to watch the race and asked afterwards was it not boring running around a park? Eh no ! It is 2 laps of a route that includes the main avenue which we
ran up and down at least 3 times and at least twice through the rose gardens. I can be particularly unobservant when running but even I know when I am not running in an industrial estate, and it was lovely to enjoy the length and breadth of St Anne’s Park as a change from the familiar Phoenix Park.
About 600 ran the Leinster 10 Mile this year. From the club we managed to field an F50 team; Lucy Darcy, Catherine Gilmore and myself. As I parked my car I realised that the big vehicle parked next to me was a private bus with the Tullamore Harriers logo on it – so I immediately reckoned we were up against it. And we were…..Blackrock won Gold in the F50 team category and Sportsworld came in 2nd, beating Tullamore by 3 points. We were delighted but didn’t hear the news until after the race when we were all gone home. None of us thought it worthwhile to go to the medal presentation so it was a text from Lucy that brought the good news. Leinster Silver Team Medals. Lucy won Bronze in the F50 individual category and I won Bronze in the F60 individual category. Our other club runner in the women’s race was Crona Clohisey, and though she ran the fastest time of the 4 of us women, she is too young for our F50 team! Crona, we later learned, secured a gold as part of the over 35 County Dublin Team. We met Martin Doyle and I thought him to be the only male runner from the Club and then during the race I was overtaken by Gavin Finlay who I reckon must have missed the race start as he powered past us.
Gavin Finlay 1.05.26
Martin Doyle 1.08,28
Crona Clohisey 1.13.13 (Gold o35 County Teams)
Lucy Darcy 1.16.39 (silver o50 club team)
Eileen Rowland 1.22.54(silver o50 club team & bronze o60 individual)
Catherine Gilmore 1.30.26(silver o50 club team)
