RACE REPORT from TUAM.

After the last few days of a cold spell and even the odd scattering of snow - today started off with very heavy rain showers, which were soon blown away by the gentle breeze that picked upleaving a balmy 10 degrees,and from what I heard - hardly a hill in sight; perfect for running but PBs may be a little challenging today, the possibility of a new course record which has been held by Sean Hehir since 2012 in an amazing time of 24m10. (Sean's record is safe for another year)

Close to 350 eager participants lined up for the 14th running of this spring time 8k with representation from clubs near and far, Balbriggan and District, Dublin Front Runners,Lusk and Ennis Track, along side some of the local clubs - Galway City Harriers, Mayo, Craughwell and of course - the host club Tuam, to name but a few. This year also had 2 wheelchair participants lining up - Shauna and Cillian from Craughwell and Barrisokane respectfully. these guys went 2 mins ahead of the main field.- They said "that was to clear the road for the 350 coming behind them" :-)

The 2018 Male Winner of the Tuam 8k was

Valdas Dopolskas from Balbriggan and District.

in a time of 24m48

The Female Winner was Zola Flynn fro Calry AC

in a time of 31m58

The Male Wheelchair Winner

Cillian Dunne - Barrisokane

The Female Wheelchair Winner

Shauna Bocquet - Craughwell

WELL DONE TO ALL WHO TOOK PART TODAY

2nd and 3rd place males - Peter Arthur from Liffey Valley and Matt Bidwell from Galway City Harriers.

2nd and 3rd place female finishers - Yvonne Fehily and Mary Kealy, both from Athenry.

Afterwards runners were treated to a fine feast of home-made treats with along with and endless flow of tea and coffee.

I also got a surprise "hello" from someone I hadn't met for quite some years, an man who helped me achieve my marathon PB in Dublin back in 2009, we met on the start line, spoke of our target times and decided we would run together helping each other along - that was such a fantastic day, PBs and a very good friend,

Ian Egan - Thank you, roll on the next marathon.

Full results are available now ON RESULTS PAGE

Results are ORDERED on gross times

Tuam 8k Road Race

Runners Distribution by Class