Robbie Byrne 5km 2015

Photos sourced from Peter Mooney on Flickr and Stephen Ball on Facebook.

The annual Robbie Byrne 5km took place on Sunday last December 27th. The race is in memory of Robbie Byrne who had a lifetime involvement in local athletics and played a pivotal role in securing an Olympic size track for Navan in the early 2000s, a track I did many a lap of as a teenager!!

The race was reduced to the shorter distance of 5km this year and it followed the same course that hosted the National 10km championships back in 2009. We assembled at the start line at 12pm and I was delighted to see the ever smiling Lucy D’Arcy there.

One more lady and we would have had a Sportsworld team, we both wondered whether Helen White might suddenly appear in the red and white! Setting off, the pace at the top end of the field was fast and furious and I could see the two green and white singlets of raheny forging ahead . Starting off at a  more steady pace I spotted Lucy up ahead flying along as always.

The first half of the course is on a gradual incline before turning off onto a windy country road where there is a welcome relief from the uphill climb, The stiff headwind that greeted us forced many to find height to shelter behind, leaving the taller to drive on alone into the breeze, We reached the 4km mark very quickly and then took a sharp turn back onto the main road where the stadium quickly came into view.

There is a lovely run down to the finish that is completed with 100m of the track. I tried to pick up the pace in the final kilometre after suddenly realising that I was carrying the car key and Cillian would have finished the race long before me and it was a cold day! It really is the little things that get you through the last few hundred metres of a race! Crossing the finish line I was told that Cillian had won the overall race, meaning we had secured our first double win in quite a while!

Lucy crossed the finish line soon after me and we headed off on the obligatory warm down together.

The course was slightly longer than 5km because of a mix up with the start line position however for those not chasing times that didn’t matter at all. At this time of year it’s great to just get out and shake off the cobwebs after the Christmas break.

Navan A.C. hosted a great event and we set off happily afterwards to the warmth of the fire, content that the exercise was done for the day!

Aoife O’Leary: 1st lady 20.04
Lucy D’Arcy : 5th female and 2nd in age category 21.26

Full results: Core Timing