*Rock n Roll National Half Marathon August 5th 2013 *
By Shona Keane

In the words of AC/DC, those about to rock, we salute you.

Well done to everyone who participated in the inaugural Rock n Roll half marathon around Dublin city centre on Bank Holiday Monday morning. The race doubled as the National Half Marathon, meaning the standard of runners was quite high, with a lot of clubs fielding teams of large numbers. The Rock n Roll race brand is well known in the US and brought with it a level of glitz and glam not often seen at Irish races. Athletics Ireland’s decision to follow the template of the Great Ireland Run/National 10k partnership would appear to have paid off, given there were record numbers in the national half. Mark Christie of Mullingar and Lizzie Lee of Leevale were the overall winners and national champions. Sportsworld had a good day at the races with some excellent performances and a few personal bests to report amongst our contingent.

The course was a challenging one, with a long drag up Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park faced by the runners within the first couple of miles. Chapelizod required our runners to embrace their inner Kate Bush as they went “running up that hill” before a twisting couple of kilometers around Dublin 2. The finishing straight along Earlsfort Terrace allowed our crew to give the crowd a sprint finish encore and make sure they got the perfect finish line photograph snapped by club chairman and VIP Paddy Lynch. I must mention that great team spirit was shown amongst the girls team out there and it was evident that the consistent training together over the last few months has paid off.

Well done to all our rock stars below. No confirmation yet received on whether we got any team bling but we’re proud of everyone who togged out for the club at that ungodly hour of a bank holiday Monday morning.

Half way there folks. Roll on October.

Ann Higgins

Carol Lynch

Catriona Higgins

Conor Butler

Conor Kenny

Damien Kelly

Ed McEntee

Eoin Fitzpatrick

Gavin Finlay

Helen White

James Brady

Joe Byrne

John Linnane

Karl Chatterton

Kevin Curran

Louise Kearney Flood

Mary Finn

Michael Cunningham

Naoise De Bhaldraithe

Orna Dilworth

Paul Duffy

Paul O’Connell

Phil Kilgannon

Ruth Kelly

Shane Toman

Shóna Keane

Sheena McDonnell

Stephen Willoughby

Tony Ryan