There was a great turnout of club runners at the Hope & Dream 10 on 24th March. Despite the bitterly cold east wind  well over 1,000 runners and joggers lined up at the start line.

There was an entry of 1,500 runners, joggers and walkers for
this year’s Hope & Dream 10 Mile Race which took place last Sunday.

Despite the chilly easterly wind there was a great festive
atmosphere on the Promenade in Enniscorthy as a long line of participants in
blue Hope & Dream tee-shirts gathered for the start of the race.  It was hard to believe that the area had been
under several feet of water only two days previously.

After the playing of the National Anthem by the Ballindaggan
Pipe Band the runners set off promptly at 10.15am. On the front line were the
top runners from the two local athletics clubs, Slaney Olympic AC and Sliabh
Buidhe Rovers.

From early on the race was lead by Tom Hogan of SBR with club mate Tommy McElwaine in close
attendance. They were followed by the Slaney Olympic’s  Martin Monaghan and Jason O’Connor. By
Davidstown the SBR pair had opened up a significant gap over the rest of the
field. As the runners came in to view in the last half mile along Millpark
Road, Tom Hogan had moved into a comfortable lead and crossed the finish line
in 56.39, 51 seconds ahead of Tommy. The battle for third place was a much
closer affair with Martin pushing ahead over the last few hundred metres to
finish in 58.04, just two seconds ahead of Jason. In fifth place was Conaill
Cooper of Slaney in 59.31 with Denis Moynihan of SBR finishing sixth in
1.00.44.

The women’s race was won by Catherine Murphy of Slaney
Olympic who is returning to form after a long period of injury. She finished in
a time of 1.07.45. In second place was Annaleigh Hore of Kilmore in 1.10.44
with Anna Bushe of SBR third in 1.11.09. Catherine Jordan (1.16.32) was fourth
with Slaney’s Martina O’Sullivan (1.18.40) and Sabina Sweeney (1.19.11) taking
fifth and sixth places respectively.

In the age categories the over 40’s titles went to Jason
O’Connor and Catherine Jordan. Slaney Olympics Jim Sutton and Mag Dunphy won
the over 50’s with another Slaney Olympic man, Terry O’Keefe winning the over
70’s.Kathleen Walsh was first lady over 70.

Well done to Race organisers John O’Leary, Alan Maher and  Tom Herlihy for organising such a great event and to
the participants who raised so much money for two great causes.

Club Results