Great turnout for inaugural half-marathon in Tinryland
Runners line up for the start of the inaugural Tinryland half-marathon
TINRYLAND’S proud history of athletics and road racing entered an exciting new era recently with the very first Tinryland Village Half-Marathon. The hugely successful event welcomed 300 participants from all over the country for a beautiful scenic route that included 7km laps around the parish.
The event was held in aid of Tinryland Senior Citizens Society, with next year’s charity already earmarked – the ASD unit at Tinryland NS.
“It was excellent, it went off really well, and from an organisational point of view there were no issues at all,” said race director Greg Murphy.
“This year really was a trial run to see if we could have a half-marathon in Tinryland, so we are hopeful that next year we could possibly double the capacity,” he added.
Greg pointed to the tradition in Tinryland of the Rockford Road Race, which ended in 2019, and the appetite that’s there for half-marathons.
“We ended up with more people on the cancellation list looking for a place than we had in the actual race, so there’s a huge interest,” said Greg. “To my knowledge, no other half-marathon has been held in Carlow. We’d had a small few Carlow runners, but most travelled for it, which really shows the interest is there.”
Greg also praised the huge team of volunteers who helped out, while there was a terrific atmosphere in the village for the race with people out to wave on the participants and support in any way they could. The recently-opened Tinryland Village Hub was on hand with tea, coffees and refreshments, while MC for the race was Michael Murphy.
Wexford athlete Brendan Dunne clocked a winning time of one hour and 17 minutes, which was five seconds clear of Kildare runner Gavin Kelly of Clane AC. Michael Bagnall of Fr Murphy Athletic Club in Meath was third, while the first local athlete home was Mick Kelly, Tinryland AC, who finished fourth in one hour and 23 minutes to win the Paddy Byrne Memorial Cup.
In the women’s race, victory went to Kilkenny City Harrier Aoife Nolan in one hour and 33 minutes, which was 42 seconds ahead of Wexford athlete Catherine Roche of Slaney Olympic, whose clubmate Jenny Frisby finished third.
