The County Westmeath dished up a successful and inspiring Athlone 3/4 Marathon on the 5th October 2014. With the weather playing its part, 800 runners enjoyed the dry and sunny conditions, with a cooling breeze over the course to assure a pleasant running experience was achieved.

O’Hanlan wins in Record Time

Upfront, there was a strong dual between Gary O’Hanlon of Clonliffe and Barry Minnock of Ratherham. The two had met previously in 2012, when Minnock came out trumps, however on this occasion O’Hanlon was able to pull away after 10km. The Clonliffe athlete pulled away steadily over the course to achieve a new course record in a time of 1:45:12, with Minnock almost 5 minutes behind in 1:49:54. Liam Feely in 3rd, made good progress over the latter stages of the race to close to within 3 seconds of the 2nd placed finisher.

For the victor, O’Hanlon, this was his 3rd win at the Athlone 3/4 Marathon event and on this occasion the new course record was icing on top of the cake.

Women’s Winner – Fiona Stack

Fiona Stack of Shamrock AC proved too strong for her opposition, winning in a decent time of 2:09:15, ahead of Angela McCann from Clonmel AC. McCann had made a race of it, and Stack had judged her race to perfection to claim the top rung on the podium. Teresa Agar of St Abbans ran strongly for 3rd place.

Final Preparation for Dublin Marathon

In common with most of the participants the prize winners were generally using the event as a final long run preparation event for the Dublin or New York marathon events in the coming weeks.

Final Word from race Director

Race Director Paul Mahon was pleased with the large attendance and admitted that the weather could not have been better on the day.

“The scenic location and and luxurious changing facilities at the Glasson Golf Hotel, along with complimentary massage post race were universally well received by all participants.”

Athlone 3/4 Marathon Results 2014

Men

Place     Bib     Surname     Name     Sex     Cat     Club     Q 1     Q 2     Q 3     Race Time     Chip Time
1     575     O’Hanlon     Gary     M     V 40     Clonliffe     0:35:04     0:34:27     0:35:41     1:45:12     1:45:12
2     502     Minnock     Barry     M     Sen     Rathfarnham     0:35:07     0:35:43     0:39:03     1:49:55     1:49:54
3     220     Feely     Liam     M     Sen     North Leitrim AC     0:36:34     0:36:03     0:37:20     1:49:57     1:49:57

Women

1 690     Stack     Fiona    F    Sen    Raheny Shamrock AC    0:45:37    0:41:12    0:42:26     2:09:17    2:09:15
2 442     McCann     Angela     F     V 40     Clonmel AC     0:44:01     0:43:32     0:45:20     2:12:57     2:12:53
3 799     Agar     Teresa     F     Sen     St Abbans     0:45:57     0:43:26     0:44:41     2:14:28     2:14:04