There's an interesting side-story to the photograph that accompanies this article from last Sunday's fantastic inaugral 10-mile road-race in Craughwell. The photograph clearly shows GCH stalwart Martin McEvilly crossing the start-line at the very back of the field, not the usual starting position we would expect to see from such a fine runner in any race. Indeed, when Martin passed me around half-way, I thought it was less a case of me going particularly well on the day, and probably more a case of Martin racing himself back into form after a recent injury. The truth is more revealing however. From talking to Martin briefly at the finish-area, it seems that he got his race start-time mixed up and arrived very late into Craughwell on the day, so late in fact that the race had gone off without him as he jogged down towards the starting area.

From there, it was a case of playing a game of catch-up all the way as he surged his way through the field. When you consider that he started ostensibly in last place, there were 456 finishers on the day, and he actually finished in 58th position in the field (in a time of 67m02s, thereby securing a category prize), this was some running indeed. Has there every been a case before where a competitor can claim to have overtaken such a large percentage of the field over such a short racing distance?

Truly outstanding running Martin - more power to you!

PS - of course on the basis of this, we are not advocating late arrivals for any future races, nor (for the eagle-eyed among you) running in road-races without an official race-number! :-)

Many congratulations are also due to all the other GCH athletes who ran on the day and to the individual and team prize-winners from the club for again bringing home some glory!

Mar focail scoir - it has been well documented elsewhere, but worth repeating here that we owe a hearty congratulations to all involved in hosting this race in Craughwell last Sunday. It is a very welcome addition to the local racing calendar and Craughwell AC and the local community have in it a race to be very proud of. We look forward to the next installment already. Galway's own version of Ballycotton perhaps?