ABC Azores Burren Clane
Posted by on 26 May 2019
On Saturday morning The Burren Marathon took runners from Ballyvaughan on the coast of North Clare on roads, green roads and trails through the wild and rugged Burren. The nature of the challenge is what attracted the attention of Heather Carty and Claire Smith. The Trim AC duo did very well for themselves in this “journey into the unknown” Both runners are complete novices in this sort of terrain but they put intwo superb efforts. Heather ran 3h58 for an excellent 2nd placed woman overall and Claire ccame across the line in 4th place with 4h14.
Out on the mid Atlantic in the Azores the Ultra Blue Island took place. Ellen Vitting got to add an international dimension to her endurance running by finishing second woman in 8h57m.She was an impressive seventh overall in a field of international male and female ultra running stars. The 65km route took in 3400km of climbs from cliff and coastal paths through forests along mountain trails and the edges of a dormant volcano.
The Clane AC 4 mile road race took place on Friday night. The winner was Brian Conroy, a man familiar to all involved in the Kia Race Series through his race timing company PopupRaces. The Trim AC contingent was led home by David O’Connor who finished 5th overall in 22.39. The next runner home for Trim was John Nugent taking 2nd place in a competitive M50 grade with a 24.54 effort and Mick Counsel continued his recent run of good form with 25.05 for 4th M50.
