Stellar performance from North Sligo AC's McGowan in Connemara
The organisers put out a wind weather alert to competitors on the morning of the race, the North Sligo man said in over 20 years of running in all types of races this was the worst wind he encountered in competition.
The hilly, bleak but beautiful landscape offered no protection from the gusting winds which runners had to face for almost half the race the terrain and winds tested the resilience and resolve of many of the competitors.
McGowan, who is the fastest Sligo man over the marathon distance with a 2 hrs 22 min 35 secs, clocking from the Valencia marathon in Spain a few years ago,since then he has had his share of injuries and niggles which has stunted his progress at the distance.
The tall and rangy runner had got a good block of almost injury free running in this past few months and was coming into very good form for this race.
The Sligo man threw down the gauntlet right from the start and went through the halfway mark in just over 1 hr 12 mins with a lead of over 4 minutes on his nearest rival.
He kept up this relentless effort over testing hills and at times head on winds right to the finish line which he crossed in 2 hrs 30 mins 53 secs for his first outright marathon win.
Edward O'Connor from Brothers Pearse AC was 2nd in 2 hrs 45 mins and 3rd was Daniil Miasoedov in 2 hrs 48 mins.
This was a great performance from the North Sligo AC athlete on this testing course, if he can stay injury free and keep his good form he hopes to have a crack at his own record in the Frankfurt marathon in October.
In other club news, Shay Davis in his first race over the half marathon distance, recorded a good time of 1 hr 18 min 30 sec in the Carney half marathon to finish 3rd.
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Fergal McGrath set a new Pb of 1 hr 28 min, Jimmy Currid and Leo Donlon also ran new Pbs in the same race in 1 hr 30 min 53 sec and 1 hr 31 min 5 sec respectivly.
Cormac Dillon and Paul Devins improved their 10k Pbs to set new figures of 37 min 33 sec and 38 min 12 sec in Carney 10k also.
Valeria Petrova, on a trip home to Ukraine, ran in a 10k in Istanbul with 3,000 runners and she finished 4th in the women's section.
The following week, she ran in a 10k in Ukraine with 33,000 participants and she finished 11th in the women's section, two great performances from this hardworking athlete.
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