This article is from page 90 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 90 JPG
SPORTING achievement comes in every shape. From the brutal speed of the sprinters to the sheer physical wartare of front-row rugby, victory in sport is a beautiful lady with many reece
Never was this more in evidence than in Ballyvaughan on Saturday. At 7.17pm the last of the Challenge Marathon walkers made their way through the finish line at the Burren Coast Hotel.
Aching beyond pain, they finished their ordeal with pride and honour. Standing straight with chests out, their joy was just as sweet as the six mile runners who completed their race almost 10 hours earlier.
Launched at 9am by Hollywood actor Brendan Gleeson, the walk- ers were welcomed into port by the encouraging words of Fr Des, with news of Cardiff and rugby ringing in the salty air.
“All the ingredients for a great spec-
tacle were there; the atmosphere, the weather, the people — it all clicked to- gether on the day,” said Gerry Reidy of the Ballyvaughan Fanore Walking Sitley
“We had a lot of runners who were taking on the six mile course and they would have been finished in 35 or 40 minutes. But at the same time we had walkers who completed the full marathon an it would have taken then more than eight hours to finish altogether. But that was their chal- antexonee
More than 850 people actually took part in the marathon. The number would have been greater had it not been for the rail strike in Cork which kept a number of people away.
“When you think of last February, we were aiming for 300 back then and to get three times that amount was fantastic. Everyone up there was impressed, even a lot of the locals who would never have walked the route before were gobsmacked,’ con- WNEOM OEM
“We will review everything that happened, but I feel that when we do have a look at the event we will de- cide to host it again next year.
“We had Fr Des Forde acting as commentator for the day at the finish line, he was keeping the whole thing going. And of course we had Brendan Gleeson there to stat the event which We TOS NO BE:ROLm
“We had an army of volunteers out during the day and the support we got from local people and from the sponsors was fantastic.”