The old adage proved true that it’s impossible to plan anything with Irish weather.  After a month of the most glorious weather in memory the organizers of the Renville 5k could only have laughed when they saw how dirty the night was.  Luckily the spirit and more importantly the TURNOUT of the crowd was not dampened a bit by the teeming rain and there were grins all around – perhaps we are happier in the rain?  An unbelievable 701 people braved the weather and ran or walked the 5k course in aid of a great cause.  The rain even eased off for the start of the race and didn’t come down heavy again until after the majority had finished.

Jason Broderick has been very unlucky with injury for the past several years – but he has stuck at it when most sane people would have long since binned their runners and moved on to a more forgiving sport.  He went out steady, and pushed on from 3k.  It was great to see him put in a solid performance and come away with no ill effects.  His winning time of 16:39 was a really strong showing on such a wet night, and by all accounts not an easy route.  With any luck this bodes well for the rest of his season!

There were many many Craughwell AC competiors (young and old) in the race, and an unbelievable amount of club members marshalling in what appeared to be a very well run event.  The thing that amazed me the most as a spectator is the speed at which results were made available.   I clapped the first few dozen people home at about the 4k mark and then walked with Paul Fallon back to the start line.  By the time I got there the results for the first finishers were already posted on the wall in printouts, with a lot of the field still finishing.. fantastic efficiency altogether.

Well done to all – the results are here.