The inaugural Shannon AC 5 Mile Run took place last Sunday, 1st March, at it was a huge success. All 300 entries were sold out and over 260 club athletes from all over Ireland took part along with many local casual runners and a large group of Sanctuary Runners from Ennis, Limerick and Dublin. The rain stayed away for the duration of the race, though conditions were very wet underfoot on the lovely out and back loop along the estuary.  All finishers received a fine medal and T shirt designed by club PRO Marta Terlikowska and these were sponsored by EI Electronics.  Water stations and refreshments were sponsored by ptsb Shannon branch, Tesco Shannon and Finegrain in Westpark.  Shannon Leisure Centre sponsored the top prizes which included a year's gym/pool membership, for overall winners, and some recovery packages for some category winners. Hustle Fitness provided a month's membership which went to the 100th finisher and Noel Marshall supplied some Backballers and Muscle Ballers as spot prizes.  Prize winners are being contacted individually.

The race was chip timed, provided by Timmy Crowe's Just Events team. Timmy also presented Shannon AC with a €2,500 donation arising from proceeds of the Clare Women's Mini Marathon held last year.

Race Director, Rob Stephen, would like to thank all the volunteers who helped out beforehand, during the race and with post race cleanup. Special mention to Jason and Peter who handed out all the finisher medals and to the many club athletes who took part.  Thanks also to St Senan's RFC for making their facilities available to participants. The general consensus from local runners and sponsors was that it was great to have a local running event back on the calendar in Shannon Town and Shannon AC certainly hope to make this an annual event - so watch this space!  Reminder to aspiring runners or would-be runners that Shannon AC have started a "Get Running" group which meets at the track every Tuesday and Thursday 7-8pm. This is targeted at anyone interested in starting or improving their running - first few sessions are free and then participants are expected to join the Shannon AC club to ensure that they are covered by insurance.

Female Winners

Male Winners

Full results are available here.  Race photographers Richard Peyton and Mark Sean Roocroft (Spark of Memories) were on hand to take some beautiful photographs.