42nd Waterford to Tramore race

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The 42nd running of the Waterford to Tramore Road Race was held on a lovely evening with a 'Fresh' wind in the face along the full 7.5 mile of the flat course! Many great performances were recorded and Waterford AC were to the fore in the prize winners with Frank Quinlan and Jim Baldwin winning male prizes and the Ladies coming up trumps with prizes for Brea Cooke (back in top form finishing 4th individually), Sarah Lee, Bernadette Power, Catriona Gough and Liz Nolan. Great to see so many WAC singlets in the 351 finishers and so many of our great neighbours West Waterford AC competing as part of the Ger Wyley series. Well done to their Ladies in winning the team prize and much thanks are due to our hospitality crew of Elaine, Betty and Co who served up a winning combination of refreshments for the masses after!

Waterford AC and county PRO Fintan Walsh gave a little history of the race which in its 42nd year is one of the longest running road races in the country. It has included such previous WAC winners as John Treacy, Gerry Deegan and this years Sponsor Derek Tebay who won the race 3 times in his hay day and with Mrs Flannagan on hand to present the Cup in memeory of her husband Paddy, who died 43 years ago, all agreed it was an occasion to appreciate what a great event this really is and to remember such a star athlete. Mrs Flannagan remembered great years of athletics and stated what a great achievement it is for all the 351 athletes to be in a position to run such a distance and still be smiling....well kinda.

Fintan made great praise of all the people who continue to make these events so successful and we need to remember all our WAC members who helped out in the preparation of the event with registrations (our front of house people), stewarding the course (and we had many) our finish helpers with water (including many of our happy Juvenile members), number recyclers, results compilers and our refreshments server uppers! If you are one of these...thanks...if you are not but would like to be...jump on board: let us know and we will assign you a job! Hats off to Michael and Pauline on another great job with their stewarding team and take a well earned break...next road race is not till August for the Woodstown 5!




Hot off the press too: Due to our continued success in running great road races Athletics Ireland have asked WAC to host the National Half Marathon 2011 in September and we have agreed. It will be held on Saturday, Septemeber 3rd, and we as a club, as well as running another efficient event, will be looking to participate in a significant way and win many prizes. This is a major event in the athletics calender and we are looking to ensure big participation but also to have our best athletes in peak shape for this event. This event is only 4 months away so for our distance runners major training starts here! As a start Tuesday and Thursday at 5:45 at the RSC and circuits at 7pm at cillbarra are club sessions you should consider building into your routine. As well as a senior event there are many category prizes so all distance runner members are asked to consider this as a big end of summer event. For anyone planning on doing the Dublin Marathon 2011 this would be a good half to do in preparation.