Tuam AC Leg of the County May 5K Series

Last Tuesday was a very memorable night for Tuam AC as a massive crowd of 327 runners took part in the Tuam leg of the 5k series. In a very selfless act of putting the club before their own burning desire to run all of the regular club members volunteered to help out in the organisation of this race and thanks to their sacrifice the event went off flawlessly with excellent feedback from all the other clubs.

The race was once again held around the very scenic Kilcloghan’s lap which has a mixture of  tough hills and lovely flat terrain and for once the strong breeze was blowing just in the right direction as it helped many of the runners to record very fast times.

Gerry Ryan of GCH was a  surprise late entry on the night and was in fact running his first race since his victory in the Tuam 8k in January. A long injury lay off had prevented him from competing since but all of his worries were short lived as he ran a blistering lap of Kilcloghan’s in 15m 41 secs.

Hundred’s of people walk or jog this route regularly but it was some sight to see Gerry run around this lap almost as fast as it can be driven. He was followed in 2nd place by the ever improving Mark Davis of Craughwell AC and GCH runners Rob Staunton and Tuam native Ian Egan took 3rd and 4th place.

Ian is back to his best form after some serious training and also keeps a huge number of runners in good racing form as he is a very gifted sports massage therapist who is able to cure all kinds of injuries with his healing hands.
Regina Casey took her 2nd straight victory in the Ladies race in a very impressive 18m 35 secs followed by Caroline Clancy of Loughrea AC in 18m 55s and a great young runner Nicola O’Ceallaigh of GCH was 3rd in 19m 13 secs .

Special thanks must go to a number of people who made this event possible including Tuam Gardai and especially Garda Hugh Gallagher who accompanied the runners on his bike. Thanks also to Tuam Order of Malta and Michael O’Rourke. Thanks to Bernie and James Hynes for the use of the facilities at the Sugar Factory and to The Gilmartin Group who provided parking facilities. Katy and Amy Higgins once again helped out and provided water for every single one of the 327 runners and cleaned up all the cups and bottles.

The full results of the race are available here.