There was a brilliant turnout on a sunny but chilly Easter Saturday for the 4th Kilmovee 10k run and walk, excellently organised by Kilmovee Shamrocks GAA club and the local community in aid of Mayo/Roscommon Hospice. A good breeze cooled participants as the field turned towards the Roscommon border at Aghadiffen Bridge after 3k. Apart from a slight hill at 9k it was a relatively flat course. Con Marshall (M35 ) led out with John Mannion and Aidan Callaghan close behind. As the race progressed the Cork man, pushed ahead and established a 17 seconds winning gap at the tape. His finish time was two minutes outside Martin Conroy’s 2012 effort. Brendan Gill was the leading Mayo AC finisher in fourth, less than a minute behind Marshall and he was first M35. Mary Gleeson was first woman once again and was unchallenged all the way. However, she was a bit disappointed with her time – almost a minute slower than 2012. Paula Prendergast underlined her recent brilliant form at Tubbercurry with another PB, finishing second in 39:23 – nearly a minute faster.
Lucy Brennan put in an amazing run to finish in a time of 40:23 to take third place overall and win the o50 section. Ann Lennon came home in fourth place seven seconds behind Brennan, while Breege Blehein finished in sixth place over all.
Further down the field were a good number of Mayo AC members including a large number of fit for life runners who took on the challenge. It was another very successful day for the energetic Kilmovee community, with John Roddy and his team putting on a very successful event.
