The29th Annual John Treacy Dungarvan 10 mile race was held on Sunday February the2nd. Just over 2,500 runners from all over Ireland, including a largecontingent of Blackwater Triathlon Club athletes, gathered together to competeon this fast, mostly flat course on the roads around the historic town ofDungarvan. Conditions on the day were as good as could be hope for in earlyFebruary. It was cold waiting around for the race tostart, but once the starting gun sounded the athletes warmed up pretty quickly.The runners battled against a strong headwind for the first five and a halfmiles. They then had to negotiate thehilly part of the run, culminating with a tough climb around mile nine.Fortunately, it was mostly downhill from there and the runners were able make astrong finish cheered on by the huge crowds coming up to the finish line. Asusual, the race was very well organised and featured timers at the mile markerscalling out the times. There were runners of every level taking part on theday, from beginners to seasoned athletes.

ConorBartley was the first BTC athlete home, finishing in a personal best time of1:01:19, nearly 3 minutes faster than his 2019 time. Liam O’Connor also had aPB at the event, crossing the finish line in 1:03:37, followed closely by DaveMurphy in 1:04:31 and Adrian Collins in 1:08:44. Peter O’Brien was just 9seconds behind Adrian, in 1:08:53, beating his 2019 time by nearly a minute anda half, while Dave Bartley finished in 1:10:16, also nearly a minute and a halfquicker than the previous year. The first BTC lady home on the day was LisaCrowley, finishing in an impressive 1:11:43, despite being under the weatherthe previous week. A lot of us would love to be able to run that kind of a timeon a bad day! Martin Feeney was almost 8 minutes faster than his 2019 effort,finishing in 1:12:44. Dave Harte also cut 90 seconds off his 2019 race time,finishing in 1:13:09. Ashleigh Byrne O'Brien made an 11second improvement on her 2019 race, finishing in 1:17:20, closely followed byClem Leonard in 1:17:33 and Terry Broderick in 1:18:24. Eleanor Fennessy finished in 1:19:18 and Shane Fleming crossed the linein 1:23:23. Another personal best was achieved by Bernard Kiernan, who cut aminute per mile off his 2019 time, finishing in 1:24:14. Johnny Lynch came homein 1:26:07, followed by another pb from Kenneth Power, who cut two minutes offlast year’s effort, finishing in 1:27:23. Amanda Lenihan rounded out the BTCcontingent on the day, finishing in 1:37:29. A good day all round for ourathletes. Congratulations to all our crewand to the organisers for once again running an excellent race.