Hosted by Mallow Athletics Club, the Mallow ‘10’ tenmile road race had its 31st annual running on Sunday the 24th of March. Thispopular race attracted over 1500 competitors from all over Ireland. Lining upon the start line with them were eight of Blackwater Triathlon Club’s finest.Conditions on the day were near perfect with temperatures in the strong springsunshine around 11 degrees, although it was also quite breezy. The Mallow courseis quite challenging, with the first 2 miles being up hill. The next 2 milesare a straight track, back in towards the Killarney road roundabout. For theathletes this was quite a fast stretch (relatively speaking) though it was alsothe first indicator of a stiff breeze blowing, the full effect of which wasfelt as the runners headed out the Killarney road. The athletes turned off the Killarneyroad around the 7 Mile marker and headed for home. At this stage it was just aquestion of giving it everything you had for the final 3 miles (read as, hang onfor dear life!). The subtle undulations of the course made it an energy sappingevent, but despite that there were some fantastic performances. Some memberseven decided to do a warm up in Clonakilty duathlon beforehand....Dave Murphytake a bow! Ashleigh Bryne O’Brien had a PB, breaking 75mins for the first timewell done Ash!Thewinner of the race was our favourite running coach, Sergiu Ciobanu of ClonliffeHarriers. Sergiu ran a great time of 49:21 and looks in fine form for hisplanned Rotterdam Marathon in early April. The female winner was the favourite Aoife Cooke of Youghal A.C. Aoife,who broke the course record on the day. Sergiu’s coaching has obviously paidoff as the Blackwater athletes all performed really well on the day. GearoidMurphy was the first BTC athlete home, crossing the line in 1:06:49, closelyfollowed by Adrian Collins in 1:09:42. Dave Murphy, fresh from his duathlon exploitsearlier that morning, finished the race in 1:11:48. He described it as a ‘hardslog’, which is hardly surprising. David Harte was the next of the BTCcontingent to finish in 1:14:12, beating Ashleigh Byrne O’Brien by a mere 12seconds as she followed him home in a time of 1:14:24, a personal best forAshleigh. Christian Broad finished in 1:24:19, followed by Therese Ryan in1:32:27 and Conor McCarthy crossed the line in a time of 1:59:49. Well done toall participants, organisers and volunteers for another fantastic event.