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April 10th 2011
Maam Cross, Co Galway
Not long until April 10th!
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I had the pleasure of running the Connemara International Half Marathon yesterday, 1hr 58! Yeoowh!!. The weather was amazing, the course was amazing, the runners, the locals, and staff were amazing! I've rarely had such a good time exercising.
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I really must be one of the early ones in the long queue of congratulation emails you will get. To all involved in the organisation of this race THANK YOU. Can I enter yet for next year????????
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I know the organisation of the event requires a huge amount of work and preparation so thank you again. It was really appreciated by myself and my friends who all had a really great day.
Ultra Marathon Course Record
Tue, 20/04/2010David Kirkland smashes Connemara Ultra Course Record
In the buildup to the 2010 Connemara Ultra Marathon, David Kirkland from Kielder in the UK, ran a personal best of 2 hours and 23 minutes in a marathon in Italy. Speaking before the race he mentioned his disappointment with the time as he was directed the wrong way on more than one occasion during the race. David's focus through winter training was to break the Ultra Marathon Course Record. His splits tell the story... 1:19:08; 1:19:42; 1:24:39 for a 4:03:29 finish and a NEW COURSE RECORD.
His comment after the race - 'it was a wonderful day, from the camaraderie on the bus to the start, the race itself, to the very welcome and tasty refreshments at the end! It was wonderful to breath in such clean air, much better than big city marathons run in traffic fumes. The scenery was almost too distracting! Two special moments for me were running through the full and half marathon starts en route and receiving such amazing support from the other runners, interrupting their own pre-race preparations to encourage me on my way - it was a big help and I'd thank them all personally if I could!'. We hope David returns to take on the battle again next year and be the first person to break the 4 hour barrier.
While David was focused on the record Dennis Walmsley, also from the UK, was in hot pursuit. Denis raised the bar in 2004 running a blistering pace to set the Ultra Marathon Course Record at 4 hours and 10 minutes. He was in full training at the time for the World 100K Championships and hadn't really targeted Connemara. This year however, Dennis was fully trained, rested and ready to give the record another crack. Running the first 26.2 miles in an incredible 2 hours and 43 minutes the record looked to be in sight but the last 13 miles slowly took their toll. Dennis stuck to the task and held on to 2nd place just 3 minutes ahead of last year's Ultra Marathon Champion, Vasilly Neumerzhitskiy - What a race!
Photo by: Daniel Kowalczyk
